Hi all,
SELECTIVE COLOURING is something I'd really like to try my hand at, but I'm not entirely sure how to do it - not properly anyway.
I have LIGHTROOM #3 & PHOTOSHOP CS5 EXTENDED & have been playing around in Saturation & Luminance in Lightroom but that is limited & doesn't let me isolate an area/object of the image (especially if there is more than one item in the image of the colour i am trying to highlight).
I am able to play around in Photoshop, but i've really got no idea about doing something so specific as this - can you please pass on your wisdom?!?!? Would be ever so greatly appreciated ;-)
I use elements which is by PS.... I create a 2nd layer, adjust the colours to what i want ( not bw, that comes soon, so the birghtness, saturation, highlights shadows etc ) and then i create a 3rd layer, which i turn B&W, then erase over the suject that I want to be coloured. I will them make a 4th layer, and add a filter to bring the coloured areas back inline with the photo or to make it pop out the pic. Here is one of my son on our trampolin that i did not long ago and he is almost jumping out of the page
That is the best part about photoshop programs and the likes. Though picnik does very similar, i fing that you lose colour saturation the coloured target.... so yes it does the job, but not if you have intense colouring in your subject.
hope it helps... AND ANYTHING you want to learn, Youtube is wonderfull for tutorials, just type in lightroom or you software and version and what you want to so ie; elements 9 how to make black and white....
I use gimp to do my selevtive colorization. This is how I learned http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/ I don't know how similar or different it is to PS, I've only ever used gimp because it's free!
There's two other ways of doing this in Lightroom, too.
First (and least useful) method is if you just want all but a single colour visible you can drop down the saturation on each individual colour slider (bar the one you want) to zero. Not often that this'll work though, unless you've specifically shot say, a green object against mostly non-green background and you only want that green object coloured/grey.
Second way is to use the paintbrush tool (right hand one under the histogram) to paint over everything you want to be grey, and drop the saturation right down. Just the saturation on the brush, not the overall image. Might need a couple layers of it though, can't recall if by default it'll go all the way to zero. The paintbrush tool can be very accurate if you can be bothered zooming in with a small enough brush and putting the time in.
@kick_the_cow that's pretty much the method I use, however I'm a bit of a noob and was wondering why do it in 4 layers? Can't you just do all those steps in the one layer (that's what I do)? Sorry if it's a dumb question, I feel I'm okay with photoshop, but I get a bit confused when it comes to layers and think I may be missing something vital!
This is very simple to do in Picnik if you want fast and simple. Just upload your photo, click on create, go to effects, then choose the top one - black & white. It converts the entire photo to b & w, then you color over the object you want to stand out.
I just fix the colour picture how I want it, then new layer then convert to black and white, flatten the image then use the history brush to bring back the colours I want. Or you could convert to black and white, create a layer mask then paint back the area's you want. Easy peasy! Just make sure you crop after to you do the select colouring :)
@wadey@asrai I just tried out lee's web link. That was awesome! I have been trying out that technique to no avail........thank you so much! I just did one today on an old picture. Yey!
@wadey Ooo, watched the tutorial from Lee. Didn't know it could be that easy, lol.
I use CS5 but I do it totally different. I use the quick selection tool to feather round the subject I want in colour. I make a few tweaks to it to to make sure it's round the subject properly. Then click refine edge which smooths out the edges and helps to stop the colour being so sharp against the black and white. I'll invert the selection and turn the background b&w. deselect and that's it. May take a while to get used to it depending on the subject but once you do it will only take a couple of minutes to do.
Lately I tend to do it in picnik as you have the option when you convert to B&W and it's just a matter of going over the area you want to keep colour. Takes no time to do. This is one I did recently.
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That is the best part about photoshop programs and the likes. Though picnik does very similar, i fing that you lose colour saturation the coloured target.... so yes it does the job, but not if you have intense colouring in your subject.
hope it helps... AND ANYTHING you want to learn, Youtube is wonderfull for tutorials, just type in lightroom or you software and version and what you want to so ie; elements 9 how to make black and white....
First (and least useful) method is if you just want all but a single colour visible you can drop down the saturation on each individual colour slider (bar the one you want) to zero. Not often that this'll work though, unless you've specifically shot say, a green object against mostly non-green background and you only want that green object coloured/grey.
Second way is to use the paintbrush tool (right hand one under the histogram) to paint over everything you want to be grey, and drop the saturation right down. Just the saturation on the brush, not the overall image. Might need a couple layers of it though, can't recall if by default it'll go all the way to zero. The paintbrush tool can be very accurate if you can be bothered zooming in with a small enough brush and putting the time in.
Thank you all soooo much - I just had a look at the tutorial & it looks great (& actually understandable for me - yay for that!!)
no to see what i can produce with this knowledge - stay tuned!
I use CS5 but I do it totally different. I use the quick selection tool to feather round the subject I want in colour. I make a few tweaks to it to to make sure it's round the subject properly. Then click refine edge which smooths out the edges and helps to stop the colour being so sharp against the black and white. I'll invert the selection and turn the background b&w. deselect and that's it. May take a while to get used to it depending on the subject but once you do it will only take a couple of minutes to do.
thanks to all who helped me out for this question... these are the two I've done so far...
(I've since brightened the Coloured Iris' of the Selected Coloured version...)
although he was still tiny, so I cropped it to be able to zoom in...
Hope you all like... & thanks again for your help!!!!