Photoshop - Black & White Background?

DazedAndConfuzed

Hey all,

I'm looking to get some software (and some help!) so I can get my digital photos and make most of the photo black & white / sepia but keep my little girl in colour so she stands out. I've seen loads of places that offer to do it for a stupid cost but I'm guessing it's easy enough to do at home?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

DrScotsman

One free software equivalent of Photoshop is The GIMP. I don't have much advice about what you want to do but I can tell you that The GIMP will be able to do it, and there is probably a guide if you start Googling.

Actually I might as well give you a head start: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/gimp/ss/partialcolor.htm

Searching for "<software name> partial black and white" seems to be how you find these tutorials.

studiorex

You could also try Picasa. This is also free and has a fair few whistles and bells.

steve_bilton

Another vote for GIMP for me. I'd never used any photoshopping type of program before, used GIMP to do just what you want - for a family Christmas card a few years back, and got so many compliments I was amazed.

Google will provide a good tutorial for you that takes you step-by-step through the whole process.

Enjoy!

S

DrScotsman

studiorex wrote: »

You could also try Picasa. This is also free and has a fair few whistles and bells.

Just looked at it (already got it installed - I can vouch for it for photo organisation). It has a "focal B&W" feature which makes the image greyscale except in a radius of a certain point, which of course may be what the OP needs but probably isn't extensive enough.

Darksun

In something like the GIMP or Photoshop, the best way would be to use the free select tool to draw an outline of the person that you want to keep in colour, then separate that onto a new layer. Then apply a colour filter but just to the original layer. Should work.

I'll give it a go and let you know exactly how to do in in GIMP

Darksun

OK, slightly easier than that in GIMP:

1: Use the free select (lasso) tool to draw around the bit you want to keep in colour
2. On the menu bar, go to Select>Invert Selection (keyboard shortcut Ctrl-I)
3. Select Colours>Desaturate
4. Try all three options, with preview selected. Choose the one you like best

choccyface2006

Hi

If you would like to email me the photo I can do it for you! It can be done in Photoshop though I can't remember how! But I use an iPhone app called colorsplash and it takes minutes to get the effect.......here are a few I have done on my own photos....








I will pm you my email address

Sarah x