Quick Tip #2 - Using Colour in a B&W Image

Alley Life
Originally uploaded by runnerone

Okay, I know I was going to post up the "Fake HDR" tip next but it's taking a while to finesse and thanks to another Flickr user, 'hold on', I've decided to post this up instead!

I took this photo this morning and as soon as I looked at the alleyway, I knew there was a great B&W image in it. By showing only the green of the vine I can highlight the great display of "life" in an otherwise grey and gloomy inner city alleyway. And after 'hold on' asked how I did it, I thought it was a perfect excuse for another tip!

Right, so here we go...I'm using Photoshop CS2 for this one.


Step 1. I made a copy of my base image (never work on the original!)

Step 2. Using the Colour Range tool (menu Select | Colour Range), I started clicking on the greens of the vine (holding down the Shift key) until I had the whole thing selected.

Step 3. Then I made a duplicate layer from the selection (Ctrl+J) and using the Eraser Tool (key 'E') I erased all the extra green in the new layer that I didn't want to come up in the image later.

Step 4. To bring the colour up more vividly, I played with the Colour Balance settings (Ctrl+B) until I was happy with it. Don't forget you can change the colour ranges for the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights here.

Step 5. Back in the original base layer, I desaturated the image (Shift+Ctrl+U) and then using the Brightness/Contrast sliders (menu Image | Adjustments | Brightness/Contrast), I raised the contrast a bit and dropped the brightness to try and get rid of some of the white in the top of the image.

Step 6. Once I was happy with the image, I flattened the layers (menu Layers | Flatten Image) and applied a small amount of Diffuse Glow (menu Filter | Distort | Diffuse Glow) and an even smaller amount of Gaussian Blur (menu Filter | Blur | Gaussian Blur) at about Radius 0.5 pixels to take the edge off the sharpness a bit.

Step 7. Save the image!


And that's it. Just remember to use the History window to step back if you ever make a mistake, and if it's really bad, there's always your original tucked safely away ;)

Happy snapping!