How can you make these kinds of pictures in Photoshop?

Question

Like they're black and white photographs, but they have a coloured object somewhere in the photograph as well...for example, like this:

http://photobucket.com/mediadetail/?media=http%3A%2F%2Fi203.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa3%2FAsagi_McGuire%2FRed%2520Colour%2520In%2520Black%2520n%2520White%2520Photos%2FBalcknWhitenRedPhotographyWallpa-15.jpg&searchTerm=black%20and%20white%20photos%20with%20colour&pageOffset=15

http://photobucket.com/mediadetail/?media=http%3A%2F%2Fi203.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa3%2FAsagi_McGuire%2FRed%2520Colour%2520In%2520Black%2520n%2520White%2520Photos%2FBalcknWhitenRedPhotographyWallpa-17.jpg&searchTerm=black%20and%20white%20photos%20with%20colour&pageOffset=17


How do you make just part of the picture coloured?

Do you cut out (for example, like in Picture 1) just the ladybug from the original coloured photo and then add it to the now black and white photo with a new layer?

Or....do you just select the area that you want to colour in the black and white photo and then simply add colour to it?...If that is how you do it, isnt that really hard to find a really suiting colour and tone so that it doesnt look fake?

Are there any methods of doing this?

I would really appreciate any help you could give me. Thank you soo much in advance. :D

Whoops sorry i meant to say: Are there any other* methods of doing this? lol :D

Thank you soooo much for your answer, Jim M, and for sending me the link to your website, its really great, you explained everything so well and the site itself is very easy to use and beautiful. I cannot say thank you enough! :D

Answer 1

First of all, duplicate the layer. You generally can't do too much editing on a background layer. Duplicating the background gives you something that's a lot more editable. There should be a drop down menu at the top of your screen called "Layers". Go to that and choose "Duplicate layer". The selection tools are the key for Photoshop. The program has many tools you can use to select portions of pictures. The easiest one the use is the magic wand selection tool. It looks like a wand and you just click on the section you want to alter. However, you need to have a contrast for the tool to work properly or else it will select too much or not enough. You can change the setting of the wand with the tolerance guage that will appear at the top of the screen. I'm not sure what version you're using but you should be able to access the tool options somehow. You may have to double click the tool or something. Toggle between more and less tolerance to get the desired results. Another way to select portions is with the lasso tool. I'd recommend the magnetic lasso because it tends to follow the edges of an object. Again, you may have to reset the tool settings to get the desired results. After you've got the selection made, use the paintbrush tool to color it. Make sure the setting is on paint and it will retain the shadows and general look of the source material. You should be able to paint the object any way you wish. When you get the object looking the way you want it, you may want to flatten the artwork.(also under the layers menu) This will make the file smaller and won't take up as much space on your computer. Photoshop files can get real big, real fast. Also, consult the "Help" menu on your program. It will tell you more about the selection tools and features of the version of Photoshop you have.

Answer 2

Here's the basic method:

Duplicate the background layer

Desaturate the new layer

Add a layer mask, and click it.

Select the brush tool

Make sure your foreground color is set to black.

Paint the area you want the color to show through from the bottom layer.

If you make a mistake, change the foreground color to white and paint it out.

Answer 3

Hue/saturation, chose a color channel then adjust hue and intensity. also the girl's hair is on a different layer, most likely everything except the hair is transparent, and the hair layer is then overlayed onto the skin level with all of the adjustments

Answer 4

Oh my god, look at the 5000 times this question has already been asked!!!!!! Run a search on "Photo one thing color black and white" and see what you get.

Answer 5

I've just posted a new page on my website with a step-by-step for this process.

Hope it helps!

http://www.jimsdigitaldiary.com/colorizing.html