Change background to black and white

[SassyGlass]

I can't find my last issue of Elements Techniques where I believe changing to a black and white background was discussed. I want to take a picture of a ring on my hand and I want the ring to remain colored but I want my hand and the background in black and white. I know I have seen it done but have no clue how to do it.

Thanks.

[stevenm]

open your picture in the editor. make a copy using cotrol-j

Create a hue saturation layer and drag the stauration slider all the way to the left.

Click on the white mask, chose the eraser tool and erase where you want the color to appear. remember, you're eraser only what's on the mask, your orginal is not touched.

This is just one way to do it


I can't find my last issue of Elements Techniques where I believe changing to a black and white background was discussed. I want to take a picture of a ring on my hand and I want the ring to remain colored but I want my hand and the background in black and white. I know I have seen it done but have no clue how to do it.

Thanks.

[SassyGlass]

Thank you StevenM...I'll give that a try.

[Jeff Perry]

StevenM's instructions are not quite right. You can not use the Eraser tool on the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer's Mask. Instead use the Brush Tool (B), with foreground color swatch set to Black (hit D to set bdefault Black/White). If you make a mistake and need to correct, change to painting White (hit X) on the mask layer.

The alternative method that DOES use the Eraser tool is to duplicate the image layer with CTRL J and then from the menus go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White... and after you do the conversion to the top duplicated layer, select the Eraser Brush tool and erase the B&W portion of the image to reveal the underlying color layer below. If you mess up you can UNDO.

Jeff

[stevenm]

I must have a weird pc as it let me erase the mask hence recovering the color. But your way is better as you can also remove it incase your hand slips and your brush goes out of the area you wish colored