Two questions for ya

[dobeluvr]

I am new to elements and I was wondering how to first make a pictures background black and white and keep the color on a selected item.

and I hope I can explain this right. How would you take a picture and have the font look like it was made from the picture? Kinda like a puzzle.

Thank you

Erica Green

[Tom K]

One simple answer to the first question... With your original image displayed do a 'Ctrl J' and dup the backround, now with the new layer
selected 'desaturate' the new layer making it sort of B&W. Then
select the erasure tool an with a brush of your choice and with black being the foreground color paint over the areas that you want restored to color.......Tom

[ljameso1]

For your second question, type in black and position typing as want. Add a simple pillow bevel and change the blend mode to screen. This also works to type in white and change blend mode to multiply.

[Sepiana]

Hi Erica,

For your second question, you may also want to look at this tut (http://graphicreporter.com/tutorials/elements_photosintext.html) we used in one of the "Be Creative" challenges.

[jjvera00]

Hi Erica

For you first question try this:

1) Open your picture.
2) Click the Add Adjustment Layer icon (Half Black/Half White circle ) and add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.
3) Slide the Saturation slider all the way to -100. Click OK
4) You should have 2 Layers now. Your Background layer on the bottom and your Adjustment layer on top. Next to the Adjustment layer is a white Layer Mask.
5) With the brush tool, paint w/ Black on the Layer Mask and Paint what you want color. If you make a mistake, select White and paint with white what you want Black/White.