How to edit a picture in bw and leave a part in color?

Question

how can i edit a picture to bw and leave a section in its original color? i know how to do it all in bw and then colorize but it looks fake, i know you can leave it in its true color. i have photoshop elements 6 and corel paint shop pro. i am editing a wedding picture and want to leave the bouquet as is.

Answer 1

Let's see, this must be at least 200 times I have pasted my answer in on this. You know, you can search for an answer before posting. This question is asked CONSTANTLY. But anyway, here is the procedure:

This method of selective color can be used in Photoshop and GIMP both:

http://gimp.org

First open your photo in your editing program..

Then go to Layer - Duplicate Layer

Click OK

Then go to Image - Adjustments - Hue / Saturation

Drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left to make the photo black and white.

Click OK

Then get the ERASER tool from the tool box on the left side of the screen. It is usually the next tool under the clone stamp tool. Just hover your mouse over the tool, and it will say Eraser.

When you have selected the Eraser, go up to the Brush options box at the top of the screen, and click on the downfacing arrow. Set the Hardness of the brush to 100% so you will have accurate control of selection. You may also need to raise or lower the brush size to suit.

Erase away any black and white from where you want the color to be revealed.

When done go to

Layer - Flatten Image

Then just do a Save As to wherever you want to save the photo.

The above method is my standard copy and paste answer to this never ending question. This goofy look has become so common and cliche that it borders on the laughable. Maybe many years ago it might have been seen as artistic or creative, now it is just another silly computer manipulation that has nothing to do with photography. Instead why not just learn to make a really elegant black and white photo and leave the nonsense behind.

steve

Answer 2

If you are going to use Paint Shop Pro for this, you would first make 2 duplicates of your image and close out your original.  Next, desaturate one of the images, and since you've stated you already know how to do that, you're halfway there.  Copy and paste the grayscaled image on top of your coloured image.  Then just use a soft eraser brush to carefully erase away the parts of the bouquet that you want to show as being coloured.  Merge visable the two layers when you are done and save it :)

P.S. Pay no attention to mr grumpy guts answer.  Sounds like he's a bit full of himself and shouldn't be berating someone for something they want to do with their own photos.  

Answer 3

THIS QUESTION HAS BEEN ASKED FOR 2000000 TIMES!

oh,btw

...

go to pspx2,

open ur pic,

duplicate it,

make your picture black and white,

erase the part u want to be colorized

then...

TADAH!