Mono, with a Touch of Colour - New Tutorial

[Darren Rowse]

I've just published a photoshop tutorial (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/mono-with-a-dash-of-colour-photoshop-cs2-tutorial/) over on the main blog from our very own henryscat.

Feel free to discuss it here or over there.

[Bail]

Hmmm, learned something new. Never knew what the history brush was used for.

I usally duplicate the layer, desaturate, apply layermask and fill it want I want to be in color with a regular brush then flatten the image.

[googlit]

similarly, if you want to add color that wasn't there before, create a new layer above your pic (which can be in either color or b&w) and change its blending mode to color. Then pick a paintbrush and a color, and start painting. The paintbrush's blending mode should be normal.

so you can do something along these lines... it's a flickrfly. :)

http://static.flickr.com/135/327749454_a2a5855302_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/googlit/327749454)

[henryscat]

Nooooo.. not a cut outs tutorial. I think it's a neat trick and good to know but for me cut-outs very very rarely add to a photo, they seem to just be unnecessary and overdone in most cases. Sure there are good ones but for me it takes from an image.
I agree - they are overused in most cases but it's only fair that people have the option to be able to do it themselves if they so wish.
And the bottom line is that clients LOVE them! And they are the ones that matter when you are selling their photos to them.

[Nicole]

Just in case anyone has read this and wondered how to do this in Elements if you don't have CS2, I was having a look at this last night. Thankfully, it's just as easy.
1. Create a new Hue/Saturation Layer above your picture
2. Decrease the saturation to create a b&w image
3. Use the normal eraser on the Hue/Saturation layer and that will erase the parts of that layer bringing back the original layer where you've erased.

I also played around with adding other layers in the middle to change colours around as well.

I'm probably the only person working with Elements that it took a few minutes to figure out how to replicate this, but thought I'd try to save others the trouble if they were in the same situation :p

[ryan97ou]

here is my try:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryan97ou/90790342/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/31/90790342_5739ab17fb.jpg" width="500" height="379" alt="IMG_0701 copy" /></a>

[Merlyn]

Just in case anyone has read this and wondered how to do this in Elements if you don't have CS2, I was having a look at this last night. Thankfully, it's just as easy.
1. Create a new Hue/Saturation Layer above your picture
2. Decrease the saturation to create a b&w image
3. Use the normal eraser on the Hue/Saturation layer and that will erase the parts of that layer bringing back the original layer where you've erased.

I also played around with adding other layers in the middle to change colours around as well.

I'm probably the only person working with Elements that it took a few minutes to figure out how to replicate this, but thought I'd try to save others the trouble if they were in the same situation :p


Nicole, I use CS2 and I do itthe same as you do in PSE. Quick and easy.
Sometimes I will open up the photo again, if it is a high detailed picture, and set it off to the side to give me something to go by in .

[Merlyn]

Nicole, I use CS2 and I do itthe same as you do in PSE. Quick and easy.
Sometimes I will open up the photo again, if it is a high detailed picture, and set it off to the side to give me something to go by in .

Forgot to add, make sure your foreground and background colors are set to black and white. Black foreground to erase or switch color to white foreground to correct any errors you make.

[Darren Rowse]

Thanks to everyone who has been busily digging the post. It's been linked to on lifehacker and is rising the ranks of digg here (http://digg.com/design/Add_a_touch_of_color_to_your_black_and_white_photo graphs) which is bringing some nice traffic into the site and new members to these forums.

Looks like it could be a busy day traffic wise and that we might have some welcoming of new people to do. Well done team.

[ryan97ou]

i have been a user of the flickr discussions and one aspect of those forums that i love is how they have an RSS feed that i can subscribe to. do the new forums have anything similar, so i can get all the posts/replies sent right to my rss reader automatically instead of having to check the forum all the time. thanks

[Darren Rowse]

Hoping to add forum RSS feeds at some point in the next week or so ryan97ou. Consider it on the 'to do' list.

[BusShooter]

Thanks for posting this Darren! I've always wondered how that's done (and now I can do it myself!).

ETA: Here's my hand at it. :)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/328727153_ca0368f4f7.jpg

[Trav-man]

I was wondering if there is a major difference between just adjusting the hue and saturation of an photo vs. using the channel mixer (I use both adjustment layers on my photos)

Just tried the spot color... pretty cool stuff.

[googlit]

@Trav-man:

Go to the channels palette. Click on the red, green, and blue channels, looking at the difference each makes on the pic. There's your answer right there. With just about any pic, the channels all look very different. One section that may have no contrast in red may have a lot in blue or green.

When you desaturate, you're sucking the color out, but you have little control over the contrast. You almost always get better results when you use the channel mixer or do some selective work with the channels.

hope this helps. :)

[BusShooter]

^So to do a nice mono picture with a bit of color, one should try channel mixing instead of desaturation to get the best out of the picture?

[henryscat]

there are loads of ways to do EVERYTHING in photoshop. Experiment and find your fav!
This tutorial is aimed at beginners - starting to wish I had stated that at the start after some of the abuse I seem to be getting.

[googlit]

@henryscat: people are just born to gripe. :)

@BusShooter:
If you want more control over the b&w conversion, definitely try channel mixing or something similar. Remember that what you're after is a shot that looks good to you. If you like the way it looks when you just desaturate, then rock on! I personally prefer the control, but I'm picky. :)

[Darren Rowse]

henryscat - don't let the snarkyness get you down.

Your tutorial got the the #1 position on Digg.com which is one of the hottest websites on the planet. Unfortunately there is a small element of Digg users who are renowned as being cynical and vocal.

However there are another 99% of Digg users who will have found your tutorial really helpful. I've had quite a few emails asking me to thank you for the tutorial. Focus on those comments and not the vocal minority who are just out to stirr the pot.

[Rory]

Great tuitorial thankyou Henryscat,

Personally i found this much easier and les hastle than messing with the rbg channels, im a super newb in ps tho, added bonus for me was great also to learn what the history brush was for thankyou

Googlit, absolutly fantastic job with the butterfly,
Ryan97ou is that a bearded Dragon? Ive never seen one soo orange!

my attempt...
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4068/pb040029x32222iq0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[BusShooter]

I hope I wasn't considered one that's trying to "stir the pot". I only asked above because I'm relatively new to PS and I never knew what those functions are... I usually use PS just to crop stuff/copy and paste/resize photos.

So if I'm offending anyone in anyway, I apologize.

[gajettes]

Here are my first attempts at this project - what fun! I use have used Photoshop for a long time but have learned more in the few days since joining digital photography school than I have in the last several years - thanks! I am a graphic designer by trade but Photoshop has never been a huge part of my work - thanks for opening up this new and fun world to me! It's great to have projects that are well explained and useful (and fun).

For both of the pics I added an adjustment layer channel to change the photo to b&w - I like the control (per one of the other suggestions that linked to another tutorial on this site! - which is also great btw). For the second photo I just applied added a layer mask to the background so only the subject is b&w...oh the possiblities...

Thanks again for a great tutorial!
http://www.gajettes.com/DPS/zcss.jpg
http://www.gajettes.com/DPS/zbc.jpg

[ployoung]

I love to play around with my photo. Monotone is something I do a lot. It's the other way to make your pictures look more interesting. The colour will catch your eyes from other b&w part. It's kind of psychological.

I usually duplicate the picture into the new layer. It's easy to me.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiangmaithailand/269005243/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/116/269005243_c8a6e90031.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="monotone2" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiangmaithailand/269005238/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/269005238_68f263f75f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="monotone1" /></a>

[beckywithasmile]

similarly, if you want to add color that wasn't there before, create a new layer above your pic (which can be in either color or b&w) and change its blending mode to color. Then pick a paintbrush and a color, and start painting. The paintbrush's blending mode should be normal.

so you can do something along these lines... it's a flickrfly. :)

http://static.flickr.com/135/327749454_a2a5855302_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/googlit/327749454)

Neat technique. I like the idea. I'll have to find something to try it on.

[RandomConnections]

I thought both the tutorial and the comments provided some great insight on the technique. I had used the desaturation technique described in the tutorial for this shot...

<a title="pumkin-post-BW" href="http://flickr.com/photos/93102487@N00/56392316" ><img src="http://static.flickr.com/33/56392316_30743d4bb5_m.jpg" border="0"/></a>

I actually desaturated the orange in the pumpkin a bit because it seemed a a little too stark.

I did this second shot after reading the tutorial, using the channel mixer layer technique. My nieces were both wearing red shoots, and I wanted to highlight that common point...

<a title="Ruby Slippers" href="http://flickr.com/photos/93102487@N00/329368859" ><img src="http://static.flickr.com/133/329368859_63cee70cb0_m.jpg" border="0"/></a>

[waassaabee]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/339035030_ebf760ce75.jpg

[henryscat]

Glad that it has been of some use to people!
Results are looking good too!

[PnwGuy]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnwguy/340101944/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/130/340101944_686c5de127.jpg" width="500" height="339" alt="Deb-Tina 044-bwc" /></a>


Nicole, great tip on using PSE for this effect. I sat down thinking it would take me 15-20 minutes to work through it but it took just a couple. It was so very simple. Thanks!!

[chorltonmeateater]

Sorry for posting this image twice, but I had already posted it the "Blue" thread before seeing this thread for which it was far more appropriate. I cheated and just used Picasa to do the effect as the object was round, meaning I could just desaturate around a central point.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardholden/340605257/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/340605257_aff6b91144.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Blue orb" /></a>

[jinxworld]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinxworld/330310363/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/330310363_69781108bb.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="wasp_bw_clr" /></a>
probably posted this photo in color somewhere before....

[Faded_Mantis]

I use Photoshop 6 and GIMP 2.2, and I thought "There has to be a way to do this in the GIMP...and there is.

1) Open the image in GIMP

2) Duplicate the origional layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer ... or right click layer in layers palatte > duplicate layer)

3) Desaturate the Copy (Layer > Colours > Desaturate)

4) Click the clone stamp and set it to "Image source" and "Registered"

5) Click on the background layer in the layers pallate (use the eye to hide the desaturated copy if you want) and alt+click on part of the image that you want to bring the colour back in.

6) Click on the desaturated copy layer in the layers pallate (click the eye to bring if back if you hid it before) and paint the area that you want the colour to come back in.

7) Sit back and Enjoy

Note: When doing this the locating that the clone stamp takes the clone from is exactally under your brush

[T-Will]

Thanks for the tips on this technique...I'd seen the technique used before, but wasn't sure how to actually do it. It's easier than I thought! Here are a couple of my "better" photos using this technique (using the grayscale layer technique). Any comments or suggestions? :)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/t-will/349547997/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/349547997_9167ea168c.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jesse and Sarah's Dining Room" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/t-will/346455257/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/346455257_5179d2086f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Megan and Paul" /></a>

[Fractal]

Here are my first attempts at this project - what fun! I use have used Photoshop for a long time but have learned more in the few days since joining digital photography school than I have in the last several years - thanks! I am a graphic designer by trade but Photoshop has never been a huge part of my work - thanks for opening up this new and fun world to me! It's great to have projects that are well explained and useful (and fun).

For both of the pics I added an adjustment layer channel to change the photo to b&w - I like the control (per one of the other suggestions that linked to another tutorial on this site! - which is also great btw). For the second photo I just applied added a layer mask to the background so only the subject is b&w...oh the possiblities...

Thanks again for a great tutorial!
http://www.gajettes.com/DPS/zcss.jpg
http://www.gajettes.com/DPS/zbc.jpg

Beautiful! How did you create the layer mask for the 2nd image? I tried that but got into all sorts of problems with the hair of my subject. Trying to select hair was hard enough so I tried to manually paint around it with a layer mask but inevatably there were some issues.

Also lips were hard for me too. Finding their ending point and not making it look like the subject was putting on lipstick while riding a roller coaster.

[dixie~jen]

Just in case anyone has read this and wondered how to do this in Elements if you don't have CS2, I was having a look at this last night. Thankfully, it's just as easy.
1. Create a new Hue/Saturation Layer above your picture
2. Decrease the saturation to create a b&w image
3. Use the normal eraser on the Hue/Saturation layer and that will erase the parts of that layer bringing back the original layer where you've erased.

I also played around with adding other layers in the middle to change colours around as well.

I'm probably the only person working with Elements that it took a few minutes to figure out how to replicate this, but thought I'd try to save others the trouble if they were in the same situation :p

Thanks Nicole...I too am an Elements user (though I don't know how to do much yet!!). :eek: I look forward to trying this very soon!

Jen

[Gunsotsu]

Took a different approach than the tutorial, but the results are the same.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gunsotsu/361945982/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/361945982_0c6c32a1b3.jpg" width="458" height="500" alt="Mono, with a touch of color" /></a>

[Morca007]

Personally, I find colour isolation distasteful.
But to each their own I suppose.

[gajettes]

Fractal - at first I had some trouble too because I kept trying to get the details viewing the b&w layer - of course you have to be on that layer but turn off the view so you can see the color version and it's much easier to see what you're doing - then you can just toggle back and forth to make sure you're on track. I used the magic wand the select most of it and then added separate parts as needed - saved it as a selection and viola! Hope this helps...

Beautiful! How did you create the layer mask for the 2nd image? I tried that but got into all sorts of problems with the hair of my subject. Trying to select hair was hard enough so I tried to manually paint around it with a layer mask but inevatably there were some issues.

Also lips were hard for me too. Finding their ending point and not making it look like the subject was putting on lipstick while riding a roller coaster.

[Vicki]

When I first got into digital photography, I began doing digital scrapbooking because each of my children had babies that year.

This is one of my first attempts - almost three years ago - and it is still the one that people "ooh" over.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31952780@N00/369281814/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/369281814_814bd6636f_o.jpg" width="280" height="350" alt="KaitlynB&amp;WBlueEyes" /></a>

I haven't used this technique much anywhere else, but did like the effect.

Vicki

[a14711b]

Thanks for the tutorial. I did this once before but forgot how it was done. Now that I have been re-instructed, I have the benefit of new information.
Here is my sample:
http://www.duncanson.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=54961&g2_navId=x54d20d04

Thank you.

[Twstlok]

I don't have CS3 yet so I did it using PS7. A shot of our daughter (left) and her friend at a softball tournament.

[Choet]

I use Photoshop 6 and GIMP 2.2, and I thought "There has to be a way to do this in the GIMP...and there is.

This was just what I was looking for.:D

[Choet]

Thanks for the tips on this technique...I'd seen the technique used before, but wasn't sure how to actually do it. It's easier than I thought! Here are a couple of my "better" photos using this technique (using the grayscale layer technique). Any comments or suggestions? :)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/t-will/349547997/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/349547997_9167ea168c.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jesse and Sarah's Dining Room" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/t-will/346455257/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/346455257_5179d2086f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Megan and Paul" /></a>

they are beautiful colour doesn't look like it is out of place. Great photos - good usage of light.