I know it's been done to death, but how do you

[Toogy]

Convert an image to B&W but have one colour remain, like the flowers the bride is holding?

Using Photoshop CS

I know it is overdone to death, but I'd like to try it with an image I have.

Thanks, any online tutorials would be great.

Thanks again.

[Scottes]

Simple way... Process and convert the image to B&W. Click on the History Brush or press Y. In the History Palette you'll see a list of things you've done to the image. Click in the blank square to the left of the name, and that square will change the a paintbrush with an arrow - the same icon as the History brush in the tool palette. This will set the source of the history brush to this step in your history.

Now wherever you click in the image the area will be "undone" back to that point. So you want to click in the area that you wish to be in color, so you'll be restoring color to that area.

Easy.

[Toogy]

Cool!!!

Thanks!, didn't think it was that easy.

http://www.digitaliso.ca/IMG_9237_test.jpg

Not sure I will keep it this way, but it was something I wanted to know how to do.

[Scottes]

Posted:
29 Oct 2004 21:32

Posted:
29 Oct 2004 21:35

Good Lord! You did that in 3 minutes? ? ?

[Toogy]

Well, I kind of started to figure it out before you reply, but you helped clarify it.

[Scottes]

OK, that makes a little more sense now...

[Conk]

Sometimes what also is nice is to set the opacity to a desired amount so that only very little colour comes through.

[L Pagan]

can you do this with elements 2.0

[PacAce]

can you do this with elements 2.0

It doesn't look like Elements 2.0 has a history brush so you won't be able to get the effect using the history brush. However, you can still get the same effect by using layers and the eraser.

1. Create a new layer by duplicating of the background.
2. Desaturate this new layer with whatever method gives you the best result.
3. Use the eraser tool to erase portions of the now B&W layer to reveal the colors underneath.

BUT...I myself would do it a little differently. It's a little more work but much more flexible.

1. Create a new layer by duplicating the background. Do this twice so that you have two new layers in addition to the background.
2. Turn the middle layer into B&W.
3. Now go to the top layer and select all the parts which you would like to be colored.
4. Reverse the selection and clear out the rest of the layer. You should now see a B&W image with some parts colored.
5. Go to the Layers palette and adjust the opacity of the top layer to get the right blend of color.

You might have guessed by now that I'm a great advocate of working with layers. :mrgreen:

[Scottes]

You might have guessed by now that I'm a great advocate of working with layers.

Just be aware that layers like this are memory pigs. PacAce's method on a 16-bit TIFF from a 20D would result in about 150 megs of RAM being used before you even did anything. If your History levels are high this procedure could chew up a gig of RAM fairly quickly.


Personally I would select the areas I want to remain in color making the selection a bit bigger. A rough, quick Lasso selection is fine here. I'd copy the selection and immediately paste it which would result in a second layer. Then convert the background layer to B&W and work on blending/fixing/erasing to get the top (color) layer to blend correctly with the bottom (B&W) layer.

This would result in 1/3 the memory use as PacAce's method, since the top (color) layer won't take much RAM because PS "ignores" the non-existent pixels on that layer.


PS gives you many ways to do almost everything.

[PacAce]

Scott makes a very good point about the need for more memory when using layers and if your system does not have a lot of real memory to begin with (256 MB or so), then this is something that one should bear in mind. However, with the use of virtual memory and page swapping, memory shouldn't really become an issue unless more than a handful of layers are in use.

If you have 512 MB or more, then I doubt that the number of layers you're working with will ever become an issue unless you are doing an extensive amound of editing and using lots of layers.

Bottom line is, I don't think the worries about memory usage with layers should keep one from using them unless, as I said, one is doing a lot of layers. I personally have never had more than 10 or so layers at any given time and this is counting the adjustment layers which don't take up that much memory.

[Scottes]

Bottom line is, I don't think the worries about memory usage with layers should keep one from using them unless, as I said, one is doing a lot of layers.

I concur.

Be aware of memory use with layers, but use them whenever possible.

Even if you do run out of RAM PS will still run, it will just run *very* slowly.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Yeah,.. Scott Schooled me in memory use recently and it has made a HUGE difference.

I still love my layers.. but with a better understanding of the fact that a duplicate layer essentially doubles the file size.. I am much better off.

I use "purge" a lot now :)

[boxer82003]

what am i doing wrong i open photoshop cs and open the image
next i go to image/mode/grayscale and my image is now B&W

now i click on the little box beside the grayscale image and the little brush with the arrow shows up in the box i now click on the image i want to be in color and nothing happens

[Jesper]

You might have guessed by now that I'm a great advocate of working with layers.

Just be aware that layers like this are memory pigs. PacAce's method on a 16-bit TIFF from a 20D would result in about 150 megs of RAM being used before you even did anything. If your History levels are high this procedure could chew up a gig of RAM fairly quickly.

Well, PS Elements 2.0 doesn't support 16-bit images, so by working with 8 bits you already save half the memory.

[Scottes]

what am i doing wrong i open photoshop cs and open the image
next i go to image/mode/grayscale and my image is now B&W

now i click on the little box beside the grayscale image and the little brush with the arrow shows up in the box i now click on the image i want to be in color and nothing happens

This box, in the History Palette:

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/historybrush.gif

Note the little icon next to Hue/Saturation.

Now click on the History Brush in the Tools Palette. It's the same icon as above.

Now wherever you click the color will be restored.

[Goofup]

There's many ways to do it, but here's my list, and these work with any program with layers:

Method 1 (easiest):
Open picture and make duplicate layer.
Desaturate that layer (don‘t “remove color“).
Use the Eraser on the duplicate layer to go over the parts you want colored.

Method 2:
Open picture and make 2 duplicate layers.
Desaturate the top layer (don‘t “remove color“).
Use the Eraser on the top layer to go over the parts you want colored.
Advantage: since the colored and BW portions are on separate layers, each can be individually adjusted for color, contrast, etc. to get just the end result you want.

Method 3:
Note: if your program doesn't have Masks- no problem! This works the same way, and only using one layer!

Open picture.
Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.
Desaturate it to get BW.
With the foreground color set to black and the background color set to white, use the Brush to paint over the part of the image you want to be in color. (Don’t panic, the color will show through).
If you mess up, swap the foreground and background colors and paint over the part you still want BW. (In other words, painting with black lets the color show through, painting over the black with white restores the BW).

[pradeep1]

Having 1GB of fast memory helps keep those layered operations happy and snappy. With memory being so cheap, if you have a machine that can handle it, put in a 1GB of memory and see what a difference this can make to your digital workflow. Also helps to have a P4 with Hyperthreading for crunching through those filters. :D

[Nemesis311]

Open the image.
Duplicate the layer, and convert that layer to black and white.
Then I drag down my original image to create new layer.
Then I add a layer mask to the image a converted to black and white.
Then I take my brush tool and start adding the color back to the image.

After I have completed the image. I flatten it and I'm done......

Many ways you can do it as you can see from the above replies, but that is the way I have found to do it. But the only thing that I have trouble with some times is I keep bleeding over into the skin tones if I'm doing clothing or something that is close to skin....

Anybody know any other steps that could keep a person from having to be very, very cautious when replacing the color. Thanks.

[gramps]

I just followed pacace's instructions and came up with this................
http://www.pbase.com/sjh/image/36514275.jpg