Basic Effects: Selective B&W

Image published with permissions by the author, Dave Thompson of www.davestravelcorner.com

Click here for Dave's Site and Source Image

Click here for sample PSD (uncompressed)

Ok, we'll start with filtering out specific colors within an image... Something easy that involves layer masking and the use of the vertus, magnetic lasso, magic wand, quick selection, or marquee tools. So we have out image and it looks nice and all, but let is say that we want the old rusty car to be the only color within the image and everything else we want to be Black & White (B&W). (As you know, there are multiple ways to do anything in photoshop so we'll do this two ways: Magnetic lasso tool and then vertus plug-in).

Step 1

Copy the background layer like so:

Step 2

First, we need to desaturate this whole image so we can do this by pressing control+shift+u or command+shift+u on a mac. This is also located in image > adjustments > desaturate. It should look like this:

Step 3

So what now? Well, we can try and use the magnetic lasso tool on the background copy 2 layer (keep in mind, there are multiple ways to do this particular process as well) so we're going to copy the background layer again like we did in step 1 and we want to turn off the B&W layer:

(Notice the eye is missing from our B&W layer, that means it is invisible)

Step 4

Grab the magnetic lasso tool from the tools panel. Note: you might have to right click or click and hold to get the other options from the lasso tool in order to get the magnetic lasso tool.

So what the magnetic lasso tool does is that it will "clip" to pixels of the same general color but that means we need to surround our image completely -- we must "complete the circuit" ( we need to end where we start). So click somewhere on the car's edge and create an outline of the car on the background copy 2 (the color copy) layer!! Don't worry about the hay just follow the projected path of the car and you if you mess up click to create a new point and get back on track. When done, you can grab the lasso tool (regular lasso tool) and press alt or option on mac, to take things away from the selection or shift to add a selection. Here's what I got:

See the dotted lines? That's what is selected, but now we want it to be on our B&W layer right? So click on the eye to make it visible again and simply click on the layer to make is activated once again and our selection still not disappear (if it does disappear, simply press control/command+Z to bring the selection back).

Step 5

So now that out B&W layer has the selection now!

We need to create a layer mask by pressing the icon with the blue box around it and you'll end up with something like this:

That's not what we want! With the layer mask selected (it already is) press control/command + I to invert the colors and then the car becomes the color and the background the B&W like so:

That's much better... But there is a problem! We still have that straw that is colored at the base of the bumper and we need to get rid of it! (Click on the image above to see a high-res copy)

Step 6

Lucky for us, we can still paint over our layer mask, so hit "B" on the keyboard (it grabs the brush tool) and make sure the color is set to white (toggle between black and white using "X") and start painting away at the straw around the grill and the hubs of the car. Be sure to use a fuzzy bush (hardness of 0%) around 15-30px

Be sure to get the color through the back window!! You don't need to get every single piece of straw nor do you need to work at individual pixels either, so things parts of the car can be B&W so make sure they're not too bad. Remember, control/command+Z is your best friend!!

So this is what I got: (click)

Using Vertus in place of Magnetic lasso tool

Follow the same steps before and after step 5 but follow this FOR step 5

You need to use a combination of keep local brush, keep global brush, and delete exact brush in order for this to work... This isn't the best image to use vertus for but it is doable nonetheless.

The pencil that is highlighted is called the delete exact brush, we'll need this...

The other two that are highlighted are the keep local (top) and keep global (bottom) brushes that we will need to use for the car itself... It'll look like this at the end

As you can see, this is pretty chaotic and really tedious and such... It takes about the same time so you're probably better off doing the lasso tool. File > Save and Apply and it will revert to photoshop. Erase anything that doesn't belong and continue with the steps provided. (be sure to control/command click on the vertus cut out to select it!!)

There you have it! Some nice and easy fundamental skills for layer masking and some nice effects that you can do a lot with!!