first try with selective colour

neea · Mar 6, 2007

I find the easiest way is the background eraser. That's how I've done it.
I like things to be as simple as possible.. getting into layers masks and such seems too confusing for my noggin to retain

Especially when you could simply erase from your top desaturated layer.

Alex_B · Mar 7, 2007

The_Traveler said:
a religious issue?

No, definitely not!

Layers I just think more time consuming, so I do not use them for simple tasks. For more complex things I might consider them ... I did use layers on some graphics-designe work, but not on photographs yet.

LaFoto · Mar 7, 2007

How DID you do this then???? Other than with layers?
I was taught (by Artemis) to create a duplicate layer, go to "Image > Mode > Lab Colour", then convert the new layer into a b&w and make the necessary adjustments to make it look good as b&w, and then to apply the eraser on all I wanted in colour, so erasing the (e.g. ) grey (formerly red) sofa from the converted new layer would make the original red sofa from the original photo shine through. That is how I used to create what few selective colouring photos I then produced.

Alex_B · Mar 7, 2007

LaFoto said:
How DID you do this then???? Other than with layers?
I was taught (by Artemis) to create a duplicate layer, go to "Image > Mode > Lab Colour", then convert the new layer into a b&w and make the necessary adjustments to make it look good as b&w, and then to apply the eraser on all I wanted in colour, so erasing the (e.g. ) grey (formerly red) sofa from the converted new layer would make the original red sofa from the original photo shine through. That is how I used to create what few selective colouring photos I then produced.

For this one I used the magic wand to select the sofa ... tolerance or what it is called set to a rather low level so I do not select too much. This requires more than one click on different regions of the sofa. when I am happy with the selection, I invert the selection and turn the rest in to B&W, then invert again and increase contrast and or saturation for the coloured object.

LaFoto · Mar 7, 2007

Oh... I have never successfully used that magic wand.
Maybe magic and I don't go well together.
Erasing and I seem to work, though

.

EOS_JD · Mar 7, 2007

the thing I find with using the method I posted is it's so much easier once you understand what you are doing. layers makes life so much easier.

Alex_B · Mar 7, 2007

EOS_JD said:
the thing I find with using the method I posted is it's so much easier once you understand what you are doing. layers makes life so much easier.

Well, but you have to create the mask, and that takes just as long as selecting the sofa. The rest then is done in 5 seconds.

IMHO the advantage of layers is,
that if you want to do further adjustments to that selected region, you can easily go back and do so,
or if you did all your adjustments and want to change the shape of the selected region, then again the mask helps alot.
And last but not least, if you want to apply it to more than one object.

EOS_JD · Mar 7, 2007

Creating a mask as you say is just as quick but it's always editable. Perhaps if you do more of these you'll see that you've maybe missed a bit or you'd rather not have incuded a certain section. With the mask, open up the image, click the mask, paint in/out the apporopriate section and it's done.

With your way you may require to start a new image.

th masks are a very flexible and fast way of working.

I do some wedding photography and for this type of work, layer masks and adjustment layers are a must. i can create my template and use it over and over again for different images.

Very quick and easy. horses for courses as they say Alex.

Ghetto Panda · Mar 7, 2007

This is the tutorial i learned from.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/or/selective-coloring.html

Alex_B · Mar 7, 2007

See, Corbin, there you have all your instructions

lostprophet · Mar 7, 2007

ohhh I've learnt something!!!

Alex_B · Mar 9, 2007

lostprophet said:
ohhh I've learnt something!!!

Yes,... about my living room :lmao:

dewey · Mar 9, 2007

Nice work!

I would disagree about using layers - not using layers in Photoshop means you are missing out on a lot of power of the program. By not using adjustment layers you are also editing the original image which I don't like. Using layers also makes it easy to tweak something that you did 14 steps ago as you mentioned.

In the end though keeping it simple is best when possible.

JimmyJaceyMom · Mar 10, 2007

Woe! I'm confused. haha LOL I know NOTHING that you guys know - you are all so awesome! Way better things with your pictures than i will know but the only thing I DO know how to do is selective coloring. haha I never show it around here though cause it seems like no one likes it! Funny though cause when you all were asking how to do it I thought you were kidding. Cause how did I knwo something you didnt when I'm always the one like :hail:

DeepSpring · Mar 10, 2007

I was afraid of layers for a while too. Once you start using masks and layers things become muuuuuuch easier. Whenever I have a photo I want to do anything aside from basic color adjustments I always make a duplicate layer so I have the original under if I need somethign from it.

Its also fun to hide the top edited layer and see how good you are at editing

lol