Color/BW Technique

[mdt2]

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All,

 

I am searching for a technique/process to convert my color photos to BW and still be able to brush the original color back into selected areas. I am using CS4.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[MV8]

Hi Mike,

 

Using a Black & White adjustment layer in Photoshop works great, have you tried that?

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[mdt2]

No I haven't. Is there somewhere that spells out the steps for this technique?

 

Thanks!

[andybarton]

You need to buy a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: Martin Evening.

 

It really is the bee's knees for learning PS techniques.

 

Very basically, create a new adjustment layer using the half black/half white circle in the layers palette. Obviously, choose the "black and white" option.

 

[ATTACH]129924[/ATTACH]

 

Make the adjustment to the sliders to your b&w taste

 

Then, choose a soft paint brush from the tools palette, making sure that the colour in the foreground on the tools palette is black,

 

[ATTACH]129925[/ATTACH]

 

and paint over the adjustment layer with the black paint. This will reveal the colour image below.

 

Here is an original shot (I chose a colourful one )

 

[ATTACH]129927[/ATTACH]

 

And here it is with a black and white adjustment layer added, then black painted over the adjustment layer. You can see on the layers palette the black line where I have painted, and the effect on the image

 

[ATTACH]129928[/ATTACH]

[mdt2]

Excellent I'll give it a try, thanks! Also thanks for the tip on the book. There are SO many out there I never know which one to buy.

[roguewave]

Nicely demonstrated Andy. Mike, just a small note. Evening's book is very good. I also recommend Scott Kelby's 7 point system as he describes several ways to accomplish the same ends. One thing to contemplate & consider is how to save the work you do in the B&W conversion layer. Since storage is now so cheap, I'd recommend not flattening the file, but leave the adjustment layers intact so you can always go back & make changes. Yes, our aesthetic changes and as you get more adept you may find yourself revisiting your work to make changes. You have been well counsel by Andy and are well on the way down the right path. Good luck & remember to post some of your results here to help others learn the same skills.

[andybarton]

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The painting over of adjustment layers with black technique, works with all of them in the same way.

 

If you have done too much, paint the effect back with "white paint". You can paint back 50% of the effect (or remove 50% of the effect) buy adjusting the flow of the paint by 50% (or any other percentage)

 

You can spend years playing with this stuff...

[mdt2]

Thank you one and all for all your help and advice!

[cmdrfire]

I've done this with a few images now:

 

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This is probably quite a crude way of doing it but it works. I use Photoshop CS4.

First create a new layer which you make black and white as you like. Make a second layer - the colour layer - which is below the B&W layer. Remove visibility on the B&W layer, select the colour you want to see through, put B&W visibility back on, and use a small eraser with 100% hardness (I use a circular size 13) to erase out the colour, turning off visibility of the B&W layer every now and then to check I'm getting what I want through. It's quite effective, does not take too long, and the results are quite good (I think).

[underground]

Does anyone know if this is posable with aperture?

Or of any plug-ins that might do this?

[Guest joewehry]

Yes it is possible in Aperture, but depends on the shot and is not as precise as photoshop.

 

In the example above, you would have to desaturate all color channels except the red in the sign, leaving the red alone. since there will be some red in the flesh tones (and elsewhere), you may have to reduce the target color so that only that red stays while other reds wash out. Play with the color levels in the adjustment pane.

 

But Aperture offers a round-trip Photoshop export and reimport option.