black & white pictures, with colour...

[ella]

Hi, I am new here and new to photography really.

I have a question... I have noticed when I see some pictures that are black and white, that some parts of the pictures remain in full colour. How is this done? Is it a setting on a camera or is it something you can do when editing a picture.

Thanks in advance.

 

[terri32 3]

Hi Ella, it can be done in several ways. Traditionally it's called hand tinting or hand coloring, where you have a B&W image that's been printed on matte or semi matte fiber based paper and you apply photo oils to whatever area you wish. I'm sure you've seen the calendars of cute little kids wearing funny hats that boast this technique. That's the dark side. But it can be effective in any B&W image. Digital images can be printed and hand tinted as well, or you can select portions of your images in Photoshop or similar software and add color that way. This is gaining in popularity but for me it's too much time on the PC. Hope this helps.

 

[ella]

So THAT's how you do it! Thanks a lot Terri.
I have a digital camera, and tend not to print images out. I am kinda familiar with Photoshop, but still learning. Do you know how you add colour on there?
Thanks again

 

[terri32 3]

Nope, I confess coloring digitally leaves me kinda cold, so I doubt it's anything I'll explore. I think the colors you get from the photo oils and oil pencils are more pleasing to the eye - sometimes you can get a mite "fluorescent" with PS, and I doubt that's what has caught your eye.

Just for fun, next time you find yourself in an art supply store, pick up a set of the photo oil pencils by Marshall's, or an inexpensive set of chalk pencils (also called pastels), just to see if you like doing it. Use any semi-matte inkjet paper and print out an image and play. Visit handcolor.com for inkjet paper suggestions and basic instructions. You can really get addicted to this technique, but if you like shooting B&W it might be something you end up loving to do. Have fun & good luck!

 

[FatVana]

Ella,

If you are using photoshop? I would take a color picture and then select the area you want Black and white and use saturation on that area. This will leave you with the unselected areas in color.

If you want to add color to a black and white image you can select areas and then fill them with color. Or you can use the airbrush tool. This tool gives a nices soft color.

Always make sure and make new layers before you add color that way you leave your original unmarked and you can change the opacity of the color layer to get your details back. Photoshop is a great tool you will go have a really fun time once to get the hang of it. But it's like everything, the more you play the more you will learn.

Paige

 

[GerryDavid]

The way I would do this in photoshop is to:

1. Open the image *full colour*
2. Select everything *ctrl a* and copy it.
3. go into the Mode menu and select greyscale
4. go back into mode and select RGB again
5. go into the edit menu and select paste layer which will paste the color version into a layer.
6. Then on the color layer, select what you want and erase everything else, so the color is showing and the greyscale is showing everywhere else.

The way I would do this is to:

1. Press Q which toggles the 2 buttons below the 2 color thing on the photoshop toolbar.
2. Select the pen *P button* and highlight the area you want to keep in red.
3. press Q again which goes back into the regular mode.
4. press delete on the keyboard