black and white photo with touch of color question

[ebethcivic]

Hi,
I am hoping that someone can help me. I am wondering how you take a color photo turn it black and white but keep a part of the photo its original colors. Such as making the picture black and white but keeping a flower colored. I am working with cs3 if that makes any difference.
Thank you.

 

[MindBender]

Take the photo and duplicate it on a new layer. Desaturate that layer using hue/sat or your favorite grayscaling method. Add a layer mask to it and paint out the areas that you want in color on the mask so that the color layer below shows through.

Welcome to PSG.

 

[doubrovski]

Photoshop has much more subtle tools for B&W conversion - "Black and White" (in PS CS3) and "Channel Mixer" (in all versions).

E.g., with the Channel Mixer you check "Monochrome" box and then play with sliders to fine-tune color channels' influence on composite image (screenshot)
BTW If you may apply this correction in a separate adjustment layer and then paint on adjustment layer mask with black color to hide B&W effect (i.e. to reveal colored image)

 

[Suntat77]

Hi! I have photoshop elements 4.0. How would I go about this in that program? Thanks!!

 

[doubrovski]

Hi! I have photoshop elements 4.0. How would I go about this in that program? Thanks!!

Hi,
- Pull down "Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation" > "OK" > set saturation to "-100"
- Paint with white color to hide desaturation effect (i.e. to reveal the color image)

 

[ronmatt]

And yet another way ( you gotta love Photoshop, so much redundancy ) Make a copy on a new layer, desaturate the copy, break out the good old 'eraser' tool and have at it ( oh yeah, on the desaturated layer ) Merge layers when absolutely ecstatic with your results.