I put this collage together for a few 365ers who had questions about selective coloring and how to do it. I am by no means an expert, but this is what I've been able to do just by experimenting on my own. All of the above were processed in Ribbet, a free on-line photo processing website (Ribbet.com). If you are an ace member, you should also be able to do something similar in Picmonkey. Most processing sites and programs have this capability, so poke around and see what you can discover!
The upper left-hand square is the original shot. The only post-processing I did in Ribbet on this shot was to sharpen it a bit and to add a little more hue and saturation. I find that most of my shots lose something in the transfer from camera to computer to Ribbet, so I'll "restore" them to what I saw in the camera before saving it to 365.
The other three boxes all show different forms of selective coloring. And here's how I did them in Ribbet:
Example 1 (upper right): Step 1- shoot your picture in color, then upload it to Ribbet. Step 2- sharpen, crop, adjust to color preference and apply your changes. Step 3- Pull down the "Effects" menu by clicking on the button. Choose "Focal Black and White" from the Effects menu. Ribbet will apply a circle of color to your photo while converting the rest of it to black and white. You can enlarge or shrink it to your desire, and move it about the picture until you have your chosen area highlighted. In this picture I shrunk the color area and moved it over the little green bottle. You can also adjust how hard or soft the edge is of your colored area. And you can also fade in some of the original picture which will make your black and white areas appear monochromatic instead. Step 4- Hit apply to save your selective color processing. Step 5- Add a frame if you wish, apply and then save your photo. You're ready to post to 365 now.
Example 2 (lower left): Steps 1 and 2 are the same as above. Step 3- Pull down the effects menu and choose Black and White from the settings. Ribbet will convert your color picture to black and white. Click on the paint brush in the Black and White effect box. This will allow you to "erase" the black and white portions of your choice and put them back into color. The paint brush will appear as a circle as you paint the picture. You can shrink or enlarge this as needed. You can also adjust this to have a hard or soft edge and you can also adjust the intensity of the area you paint by using the slide bars under each category. In this photo I did not adjust anything. I kept the glass with a hard edge and in its original color. You can erase or fine tune your effect by toggling back and forth between the "original" and "effect" buttons if you need to. Using the effect button will keep your picture black and white. Using the original button will restore the color. Steps 4 and 5 are also the same as above.
Example 3 (lower right): Shows how the Black and White effect can be reversed. This is helpful when you want large areas to remain in the original color. In this picture while in the black and white mode, I put the plate and background in color. Then I checked the "reverse effect" box and Ribbet automatically switched the color and black and white portions of the picture.
As you can see there are a number of ways you can approach this as far as how to use it in a picture. The most important thing is to use the effect to enhance your subject. That will determine which way is best to apply the effect. I hope I've described these steps well. I really admire people who have to write instructional manuals! Happy Processing!
Ah thank you and this explains my failed experiment today. I got on ribbet for the first time and tried the paintbrush and nothing happened. Now I'm thinking it is because I started with a B&W upload
@simster Thank you Simmy! @kerristephens Thank you Kerri! @pflaume Thank you Lisa- I'm glad it's something you'll use over and over! @pandorasecho Thanks Dixie! Yes, that would be the reason! I actually did my first selective coloring using a make-up application on a tiger lily. I was noting in my commentary that I just couldn't get it dark enough and a very kind and knowledgeable 365 friend told me how to do it correctly- wow! It was like the key to Fort Knox had been handed over to me! lol @sarasdadandmom Thank you Terry! @summerfield Thank you Vikki! I remember thinking how hard this effect sounded but when someone explained it to me, I was able to figure it out. So this was my chance to pay it forward. @digitalrn Thank you Rick! @paulavdmerwe Thank you Paula! @vposey Thank you Vickie! It isn't really the best of shots, but the colored glass was perfect for the demonstration. @eniaral Thank you Laraine! You can really ask anybody on this site what they did on any given shot and you will get a helpful answer! @rileyrox8 Make sure you tag me so I can see your results Riley! I'm glad it was a help to you! @daisy Thanks Kathryn! I'm glad they were something you could use. @sgoodin1 Thank you Sara! It's not really the best picture overall but it was the perfect picture to use for this demonstration. Glad you like it!
@olivetreeann Thanks, Ann .. I'll try but I never can make it work. It always screws up and comes out completely wrong... I have only had a few color edits and sent them off to my sweetheart because I couldn't figure out how to do it. One was with the red ribbon tied around my feet, another was the one with the tree in the fog that was blue and I tried to fix it and it came out green. I sent to him and he fixed. So... That's how I've done changing the color or doing only ONE selective color shot. I suck at editing. You are excellent at this. The photos are all wonderful. Well done, Ann!
@sangwann Thank you Dione! @prttblues Thanks Bev! You can do it!! I know you can! I am cheering for you- "Go Bev! Go Bev!" @fullcircle I use Ribbet on line so I'm not sure how it's running in my computer. There must be something out there that is comparable and works with Apple. Maybe you could put the question up on the general discussion board. There is always someone with an answer here. @henrir Thank you Henri! I try not to over use it, but I really do like that effect for the right kind of picture.
@nicolecampbell Thank you Nicole- it's not really that great of a picture but it was a good one for showing the different ways selective coloring could be approached. I never thought I'd get such a great response over it!
@wenbow Glad it was a help to you! I really like selective coloring- when not overused- it's a very effective. I'm looking forward to seeing that little splash of red in the middle of the month on Feb. 28.
@bruni I read your question on Bev's sneaker shot and rather than type out all the info all over again, I'm tagging you here so you can read a couple different ways SE can be accomplished using Ribbet. What Bev did was to merge a black and white shot with a color shot. Personally I think her way takes a lot of extra work but it made more sense to her, so if it works for her, she should keep doing it! Hope this helps!
Bev, Riley and Dixie- I put this together especially for you! Give it a try!!
@kerristephens Thank you Kerri!
@pflaume Thank you Lisa- I'm glad it's something you'll use over and over!
@pandorasecho Thanks Dixie! Yes, that would be the reason! I actually did my first selective coloring using a make-up application on a tiger lily. I was noting in my commentary that I just couldn't get it dark enough and a very kind and knowledgeable 365 friend told me how to do it correctly- wow! It was like the key to Fort Knox had been handed over to me! lol
@sarasdadandmom Thank you Terry!
@summerfield Thank you Vikki! I remember thinking how hard this effect sounded but when someone explained it to me, I was able to figure it out. So this was my chance to pay it forward.
@digitalrn Thank you Rick!
@paulavdmerwe Thank you Paula!
@vposey Thank you Vickie! It isn't really the best of shots, but the colored glass was perfect for the demonstration.
@eniaral Thank you Laraine! You can really ask anybody on this site what they did on any given shot and you will get a helpful answer!
@rileyrox8 Make sure you tag me so I can see your results Riley! I'm glad it was a help to you!
@daisy Thanks Kathryn! I'm glad they were something you could use.
@sgoodin1 Thank you Sara! It's not really the best picture overall but it was the perfect picture to use for this demonstration. Glad you like it!
Thank you Sally!
Thank you Carole!
@prttblues Thanks Bev! You can do it!! I know you can! I am cheering for you- "Go Bev! Go Bev!"
@fullcircle I use Ribbet on line so I'm not sure how it's running in my computer. There must be something out there that is comparable and works with Apple. Maybe you could put the question up on the general discussion board. There is always someone with an answer here.
@henrir Thank you Henri! I try not to over use it, but I really do like that effect for the right kind of picture.
@fullcircle You can certainly do this with Photoshop ($$$) and Gimp (free). There are a couple of builds of the latter available here: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
and a basic tutorial: http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/