Due to the high level of positive feedback about my last Before and After, I am giving you another one! Yay! This time I’m going to go over a pretty basic Photoshop trick. There are tons of programs that do this, and tons of photographers that use it. I try to steer away from it too much, because it’s a tad too trendy for me. However,  it’s something you guys should know how to do.

So…ever wonder how to have a black and white picture, with one object in color? Like a BW face with blue eyes? Or a BW person with pink shoes? Or a BW tree with orange leaves? Get the picture?? Well I will show you how I do it using Photoshop. I can pretty much guarantee that there are easier, better, and faster ways of doing this. I still have to look stuff up sometimes, so it’d def a case of the blind leading the blind. I’ll throw in some Totally Rad Actions to make it legit :)

Here’s the ‘Before and After’ of the picture I’ll be using.

My TRA Recipe is:

Pro Retouch 60% and Eyebump 50%

Warm It Up Kris: 100%

Oh Snap: 75%

Select O Pop on eyes and lips: 60%

Boutwell Magic Glasses: 50%

Bitchin’ B&W: 100%

Rusty Cage: 100% with the Warm Up layer turned off and the Rusty Light layer at 50%

Select O Pop: 60% on hair and eyes again, 100% on flower

Boutwell Magic Glasses: 50%

After you have your picture the way you want it, group all the layers together except for the background layer, which would be your original picture. To group the layers together, select what layers you want grouped, go to the Layers Tab at the top of page, and click “Group Layers”. Easy, right? Even easier, would be to select the layers and hit Control G. Gotta love shortcuts!

After this, you should only have two layers in your layer palette.  Layer 0 and Group 1. Layer 0 is the original and Group 1 is all the layers and actions you just made, grouped into one folder. While Group 1 is selected, you’re going to have to create a layer mask for it. That’s the little button at the bottom of your layers palette that looks like a box with a circle in it. It’s the 5th in from the right, third in from the left. After you click that box, a white box next to your Group 1 folder appears. Yay! You did it! You made a layer mask!

Now go and get your paintbrush, make your opacity 100%, and make sure the black is showing in your colors palette. (When working with layer masks, just think of it this way, black paintbrush takes AWAY from the layer, and white ADD to it) Then, you just paint over what you want to NOT be black and white. For this picture, I just wanted the flower in her hair to be in color. So I painted over the entire flower, making sure to be extra careful to detail around her hair. You’ll probably want to zoom in and adjust your paint brush size to one that can get in each petal corner smoothly.

And then you should have done it! That’s all there is to it. So basically, get your picture the way you want it, group it, create a layer mask and paint over what you want to show in color with the Black paint brush.

BTW,  this picture is of Courtney, gorgeous! Wanna see more of her and her little sis? Click here!