Picture editing program?

Question

Do you need a picture editing program for making those pictures with the black and white and keeping just certain areas in color? If yes, what program? If no, how do you do it?

Answer 1

Try the GIMP: it's professional and it's free: http://www.gimp.org

Answer 2

The defacto standard is Photoshop. The current version is Photoshop CS2 and there is Photoshop Elements which has many of the same features for much cheaper.

Mac's Aperture program is very popular also.

PaintShop Pro is a distant third, I would say.

GIMP is free on the internet, and is a powerful editing tool. A bit less friendly and lacking in features than the others mentioned above, but the price is right.

Photoshop and the others do have quite a learning curve involved. It does take some time to learn how to use it effectively. But it is learnable.

There are at least a couple of methods to make a picture in black in white with selective color. One would be to cut out the part that you want to keep in color and paste it back in as a second layer on top of the original image. You can then change the underlying layer to black and white without affecting the cut-out layers.

Another would be to simply create a complete duplicate layer so that you have two layers of the same image. You would then convert the top layer to black and white and use a layer mask to only allow certain parts of the bottom layer (in color) to show through. Here's an example of this:

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/cp/olympus/technology/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001700324

Then after you are done editing you would merge the layers together before saving.

Search on the net for "selective color" and you will find loads of information.

Answer 3

Adobe Photoshop or Jasc PaintShop Pro, or Gimp. Each one of those has a tool that allows you to paste your image on a transperant background; crop out what you don't want, and delete it making the transperant background take over making that part clear.

Answer 4

A good program to use is Either;

Adobe Photoshop
Paintshop Pro

Answer 5

I recommend The Gimp.

Answer 6

I use Corel Graphics Suite, for graphic layouts and photo editing. I also have Adobe. But I use Corel a lot more.

Answer 7

you do need a program, i suggest gimp-that's what i use...and it's free. if you can't find a download or need some tips on how to do this just send me a message through my profile.

:) christen

Answer 8

i would say yes. Photoshop works, but if you don't own it, another program that works is the GIMP ( its free)

Answer 9

Try picassa it is free at www.download.com