Selective Colouring problem.

[slickhare]

so i've been trying to selective color recently. and i've run into some problems. what i do, it to select the portion i want to leave colored, inverse selection, then grayscale. yet it always grayscales the whole picture. so then i tried selecting the color portion and cutting it from the picture. grayscaling the remains, and then pasting it back in. but it gets grayscaled then too. what am i doing wrong?

 

[bethany138]

You need to use layers... or desaturate, not grayscale. Grayscale is a mode - which means it applies to the entire file. Desaturate takes the color out of the selected portion. (this is for photoshop btw)

b

 

[Digital Matt]

Bethany exposed your problem. It looks like you use gimp. I've never used it, so I can only speculate on how to do this. Whatever method you choose for making your photo black and white, it must be an effect on the photo, and not a mode, and it must be on a seperate layer. In photoshop you have adjustment layers, like the channel mixer, and that's what I'd use, but in Gimp, I have no idea. Your safest bet is to duplicate the background layer and "desaturate" it. If you can add a mask to the layer do so, other wise, use the eraser tool and carefully erase the parts that you want in color.

 

[mannella]

I assume you want a black and white picture but with some colour in selected areas. If this is the case (this instuction is for photoshop but I imagine other programs are simular) I just desaturate the photo and then using the History brush just brush over the areas that you want to be in colour.--Lenny