Turn an Image Black and White Except for One Color (Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0)

You've probably seen black and white photos where the color of a particular object remains for dramatic effect. There are a number of ways of accomplishing this selective coloring effect depending on the image editing software you are using. In this tutorial, we will use Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.




Steps

Make a copy of the image you want to work with, so you don't muck up the original. On the option bar choose "Image" then "Duplicate Image". In this example, we will keep the leaf green while turning the rest of the picture B&W.

Use a selection tool or combination of selection tools to select the area you want to accent with color. Trying to create a perfect selection all at once is almost never successful. Using the "add to" and "remove from" selection options will make it much easer to build a accurate selection a bit at a time. Adding a one or two pixel "feather" option to the selection will make the color area blend with the non-color naturally.


Do Select - Inverse to select everything except the colored area.


In the Layers window, click on the Create adjustment layer icon and select Hue/Saturation...


Move the Saturation slide all the way to the left to remove all colors.

The image will turn B&W, leaving only one accent color (unless you have purposefully selected an object with a number of colors).

Tips

• When selecting your color (or object), you may want to start with a Tolerance level of 30 and then switch to 10 as you get closer to selecting everything.
• You may also need to use the other selection tools to make it easier to select small areas of pixels.
• Use Shift + selection tool to add new areas to your selection and Alt + selection tool to remove areas selected by mistake.
• Ctrl-Z will undo your last selection.