Colour & BW combined Picture

[Ruffy]

Hi guys, been a while,

I am in the process of deciding which software to purchese for some P&P. I am currently running PSE 9 on a trial and think its pretty easy to navigate around however I am trying to create a colour subject with a B&W background but cant seem to manage it, can anyone point me in the direction of some tips or guides, these are the sort of images I like to shoot and process as I feel it really can make a bad picture good which is what I need when still in the very early stages of photography

Many thanks.

Paul

[mythlady]

Hi Paul -- does PSE9 have layers and layer masks now? If so, it's very easy. Open the color shot, duplicate it, and then desaturate the duplicate layer, which should be on top, or do whatever kind of B&W conversion you want to do. This should turn the whole picture B&W. Then, create a layer mask on the top layer (don't know how to work this in PSE, but in PS there's a little button at the bottom of the layers panel), get the brush tool, make sure your color is set on black, and brush away on the B&W layer anything you want to have appear in color -- you're essentially letting the bottom layer show through. Depending on what you want to show up, you might want a softer or harder-edged brush.

If you make a mistake and brush away too much, you can change the color to white and brush over it again; the white will bring the B&W back.

Hope that helps. I'm happy to answer questions, if I haven't been clear at some point --