help with gimp

[danherz]

how do you keep somethings one color and change the rest of the image? im trying to change the background to b/w and keep the subject in color but i keep screwing it up! thank you

 

[darin3200]

how do you keep somethings one color and change the rest of the image? im trying to change the background to b/w and keep the subject in color but i keep screwing it up! thank you

Google for some guides for 'selective coloring'

Basically make a copy of the layer. Make the bottom one B&W and the top one color. Then erase anything in the top layer you don't want to be color

 

[Tiberius]

I'd do it slightly differently:

Create a Duplicate Layer on top and convert the top layer to B/W through your method of choice (Desaturation or otherwise). Put a layer mask on the top level and then use whatever brush you want to "draw" in the area you want colored.

 

[danherz]

thanks guys ill give it a go, this is probably a dumb question but what does a "layer mask" do

 

[danherz]

im siked that works mint!!!

 

[darin3200]

Looks nice. You can also go into the Layer -> levels menu on the B&W and increase the contrast. Try making the blacks blacker.

 

[Tiberius]

thanks guys ill give it a go, this is probably a dumb question but what does a "layer mask" do

A layer mask is used to only make selected parts of a layer visible. When you first create a layer mask, it's solid white, blocking the entire layer. When you do anything to the layer, the darker parts of the layer become visible. It's kind of like putting a piece of paper over the layer so you can't see it and then cutting holes in the paper.

 

[morydd]

I sometimes find it helpful when doing the mask to put a semi-transparent solid color layer between the color and B&W layer to make it very easy to see what's masked and what's not.

 

[zombiekilla]

a nice site to check out is good-tutorials.com
you can learn quite a bit from there!