Take Your Photos to the Next Level Using Adobe Photoshop : Enhancing with Selective Color

Have you ever seen hand colored black and white photographs and wish that you could create some of your own images that way? Here's how using Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Step 1: Take a photograph in color. This can be a digital photograph or a photograph that is put onto a photo CD.

Step 2: Load the image you would like to convert onto your computer.

Step 3: Right click on the image and choose Open With... Adobe Photoshop CS2 from the menu.

Step 4: When Adobe Photoshop CS2 opens, familiarize yourself with the screen and the location of important tool bars.

a. Across the top of the screen you will see the following menu items : File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window and Help

b. Down the left hand side you will see various tools. If you mouse over each tool, it will tell you what the tool is. Click on anyone of these. You will notice that when you do, your cursor changes when you mouse over the picture. A tool/information bar just below the menu also changes.

c. Down the right hand side you will notice a series of small windows. The top one will be navigator, info and histogram window that will have a small version of the picture on it. With the navigator tab chosen, move the slider at the bottom of the small picture. This is how you zoom in and out. Notice how there is a red box on top of the small picture now. You can move that around to see a particular part of the picture when it is zoomed.

d. The second window down the side is the Color, Swatches, Styles toolbar. You can use this do adjust the color if needed.

e. The third window down is where you can see the history of what you have done to edit the photograph.

f. The last window down the side is the Layers, Channels, Path toolbar. You will see a tiny picture of the one that you have pulled up with an eye next to it. It will be marked "Background". If you click on the eye, you will notice that your picture turns to checkers. You will need to click the eye later to turn on and off certain layers that we will create. Make sure the eye is on next to the picture.

Step 5: Go to the menu bar. Choose layer, Duplicate layer. A dialog box will open. You have the option of changing the duplicate layer title from Background copy. Do so if you choose than click OK. I will refer to this as the Background copy.

Step 6: Look at the Layers, Channels, Paths window down the right hand side. You will see that the layers tab has two pictures now, the Background and the Background copy.

Step 7: Click the eye next to the Background Copy Layer so that it disappears.

Step 8: Click on the Background layer so that it is highlighted blue.

Step 9: Go to the menu bar. Click Image. Choose Adjustments. A second menu will pop up. Pick Desaturate from this window. The picture will become black and white.

Step 10: Click the box to the left of the Background Copy in the Layers, Channels, Path window down the right hand side so that the eye reappears. Both the Background and the Background copy should have eyes next to them now in this window. The picture will appear colorized again.

Step 11: Click on the Background copy layer in the Layers, Channels, Path window so that it is highlighted blue.

Step 12: Go to the Menu bar at the top. Choose Layer. In the fourth section down you will notice an option called Layer mask. Click Layer Mask. A second menu will pop up. Click Hide all. The picture will become black and white again. In the Layers, Channels, Path Window on the right hand side, make sure that the mask (black box) next to the Background copy is selected.

Step 13: From the Navigator window down the right hand side. Zoom in to at least 150% using the slide bar. The higher you zoom, the more control you will have when coloring the edges. Move the red box over the area that you want to colorize.

Step 14: Before you start to colorize the black and white picture, you should check to make sure the color will be revealed. First, look at the tool bar down the left hand side. At the bottom should be two boxes, a black and a white box. If both boxes are black, click on the smaller set of boxes beneath. Make sure the white box is on the top. If it isn't, then click the double arrow on the top of the box to switch the layers.

Step 15: Click the Brush tool on the left hand side of your screen. Notice the toolbar across the top of the screen has changed. There is a line that says Brush with a number, dot and arrow next to it. If you click the arrow next to the dot, a small window appears. A slider bar will be there to change the diameter of the brush. Change it to a larger diameter to get the bigger areas that you would like to color. If you do this, you will notice that if the scroll over the picture, the circle for the brush is big.

Step 16: Click the left mouse button over what you want to be colorized. Hold it down as you move the mouse back and forth to color. The color is that of the actual color photograph that you have taken. You are revealing the color from underneath the mask.

Step 17: In order to get the edges, drop down the diameter of the brush by clicking the arrow next to the dot on the "Brush" toolbar. Move the slider down to a smaller size until you receive a size that you want. You can also zoom in the Navigator window down the right hand side.

Step 18: If you need to see other areas of the photo to colorize, you can click on the small picture in the Navigator window. A hand will appear. Move the red box by holding down the left mouse button, and sliding the red box over the area you want to view. Repeat coloring techniques explained above.

Step 19: Once you are finished coloring, zoom out to view your picture whole. Make sure that you did not miss any spots that you wanted to colorize. If you did, repeat the coloring steps listed above.

Step 20: Go to File, Save As. Change the file name to what you would like to call it and put it in the folder where you would like it to be located. When the next dialog box comes up, select OK. You are now finished! Congratulations!