3. Step 1: Select The Part Of The Image
You Want To Have Remain In Color
With our image open in Photoshop, the first thing we need to do is decide which part
of the image we want to have remain in full color. In my case, I want the three horses
and their jockeys in the foreground to remain in color. The rest of the image will
become black and white. Once you’ve decided which part of your image will remain in
color, use whichever selection tool you prefer (Lasso tool, Pen Tool, etc.) to select it:
4. We now have the area(s) of the
image that will remain in color
selected. Problem is, we actually
Step 2: Invert The Selection
want the exact opposite. We want
all the areas we’ll
be removing the color from
selected, not the areas where
we’re keeping the color.
Fortunately, all we need to do
is invert the selection, which will
select everything that’s not
currently selected and deselect
everything that is currently
selected. To do that, you can
either go up to the Select
menu at the top of the screen
and choose Inverse, or you can
use the keyboard Press “Shift+Ctrl+I” (PC)
shortcut Shift+Ctrl+I (Win) “Shift+Command+J” (Mac) to invert the selection.
/ Shift+Command+I(Mac). Now
all of the areas that will become
black and white are selected, and
the areas that will remain in color
are not:
5. We’re going to be adding our Step 3: You can also press the letter I on your
Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer in a moment, but before Sample a going to sample a color from the
keyboard to quickly select it. We’re
we do, if you want to colorize image, and then we’ll be using that
the image rather than turning
it black and white, grab
color color to colorize the image a bit later
on. With the Eyedropper tool
your Eyedropper tool selected, click on a color in the image
from the Tools that you want to sample. I’m going to
Palette (below): sample a brown color from the face
of one of the horses (left):
Once you’ve sampled your
color, you’ll see that color
now appearing as the
Foreground color in the
Tools palette (right):
6. Step 4: Add A Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer
Now that we’ve sampled our color, we can add our
Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. To do that, click
on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of
the Layers palette (right):
Then choose Hue/Saturation from the list of
Adjustment Layers that appears (below)
7. Step 4: Continued
One of the great things about
adjustment layers is that each
one comes with its own layer
mask, which allows us to limit
the effect of the adjustment
layer to specific areas in the
image. Since we had the area
that we want to remove the
color from selected when we
added the Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer, Photoshop
will use that selection when
creating the layer mask, as we
can see if we look at the layer The area that was selected before I added the adjustment
mask thumbnail in the Layers layer, which in my case was everything except the three
palette (right): horses and jockeys in the foreground of the image, appears
as white in the layer mask, which means it will be affected
by the adjustment. The horses and their jockeys, which
were not selected, appear as black and will not be affected.
8. Step 5: Drag The Saturation Slider To
The Left To Remove The Color
With the
Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer
added, removing the
color at this point is
easy. Simply click on
theSaturation slider
in the
Hue/Saturation
dialog box and drag
it all the way to the
left. As you drag to
Your image should now look
the left, you’ll see
like this, with everything black
the color
and white except for the areas
disappearing in the
we initially selected where we
image, and dragging
wanted the color to remain
all the way to the left
(above):
removes the color
completely (right):
