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jforget1
25th of June 2005 (Sat), 20:23
Would love feedback on this shot of my two nieces who are actually putting a caterpillar back on a tree after collecting them for a while.
Critiques welcome.
krmaven
25th of June 2005 (Sat), 20:41
That's beautiful! I want to learn how to do that... my kids are going away to camp, so I have all summer to learn!
jforget1
25th of June 2005 (Sat), 21:46
That's beautiful! I want to learn how to do that... my kids are going away to camp, so I have all summer to learn!
Just do desaturate then use the history brush and brush the parts you want back in.
krmaven
26th of June 2005 (Sun), 06:16
Thanks! Can't wait to try it out. My 4 year old niece and 6 month old nephew are coming over today -- I plan to snap away!
jforget1
26th of June 2005 (Sun), 08:29
krmaven Good luck and have fun today.
MCB
26th of June 2005 (Sun), 08:46
That's beautiful! I want to learn how to do that... my kids are going away to camp, so I have all summer to learn!

Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer over your final B&W. Add a layer mask to that Hue/Saturation layer. Then only the parts of the Hue/Saturation that you select by painting on your mask will show through. So you have all of the original B&W showing through except for the areas where you painted on the mask. In those areas, your Hue/Saturation layer has effect. This way you edit the image non-destructively. You can very easily go back and adjust the sliders for the hue and saturation later on. So you can make that shirt yellow or green in a matter of two or three seconds. You can just as easily try different saturations. I like the color a bit more desaturated, but it all depend on the image. With this kind of non-destructive adjustment, it's easy to change your mind later.

And it's easy to compare and contrast different versions if you have multiple adjustment laters. Once you get that layer/mask the way you like, just copy it. On the copy, change the Hue/Saturaton values. Now click the little eye icon on the layer palette to turn one of them off. You can easily switch back and forth now by turning on/off those layers. You get a lot more flexibility than with using the history brush to paint directly on your picture.

There are several ways to go about getting this same effect, so opinions will vary on what's the best way. But you've got all summer to play with it.

Have a fun summer learning. :)