color/bw picture

how do I take a picture and make everthing bw except for my boat in the pic?

Do you have Photo Shop ? If not PM me with your E-mail and I'll do it for you.

which photo shop?

I have photo studio 5.5,Digital photo professional, arc soft photo impression 4 and 5,canon photo record 2,ulead photo explorer 7..

Adobe Photo Shop.

I've only done it with PS too but it's not really a high end feature so you should be able to do it with one of thos programs. In PS I would create a new layer and use the color selector command and create a mask, feather as needed. Invert the selection and desaturate.

I do it a little different than Rich. I think his way is faster.

Is this what you had in mind Kenny ?

yes that is exactly what I had in mind (a little more black and white but leaving the boat in color yes), can you tell me the exact steps??

Thanks!!

2005)

(Message edited by ghostrider_2 on October 23, 2005)

That is awesome...I would also like to have the instruction on that process.

Only if your using Adobe PhotoShop.

You can do it the way Rich said or use the brush tool....Then pick brush size.......Look in MODE and choose color then go to work with the brush.

I don't have a MODE to choose color, I converted the picture to bw then chose paintbrush, but no MODE?

The boat is so cleanly done around the lines...

what is the color selector command?

Kenny, Like I said I can only help you with PS but not the other programs. Sorry.

OH SHEETT!! How much is that program?

You can get Adobe Photoshop Elements for under 100.00. I think Costco has it for about 80.00.

I think I need to get it cause these programs are just to frustrating to get to work and you guys make it look easy!

(Message edited by ghostrider_2 on October 23, 2005)

first question how long did it take to do that pic? and how did you make it look so seemless? I played with Photo studio 5.5 and I could not get it to look smooth like you guys did. I hope with all these programs I really don't need to buy PS..If I do need to buy then which one?

also what is a mask?

When you work in Photoshop you can use a layer to mask (or cover) your main background image. You don't need to create a layer to select an area and deaturate but I've found doing it with a layer givers better results especially if you feather the selection. In your shot above if I was doing it with a layer the deaturated water would overlay or mask the actual original water in the background image.

Sorry that should be "desaturate" (can't believe I mis-spelled it twice!)

I should add that while "Desaturate" will give you B&W images, it gives you no control over HOW the image is converted to B&W. I do all of my B&W conversions using Channel Mixer, in the Monochrome mode. This lets you choose how much of the Red, Green, and Blue channels blend into your final image.

I also created an example of using Channel Mixer to desaturate the image in a controlled way, then using History Brush to apply that desaturation only to the areas you choose.

While the differences between the three images are subtle, you will notice the skin tones change dramatically. In more colorful and saturated original images, the background and blue sky will change drastically.






Mike Isler
www.islerphoto.com

got Photoshop Elements 4.0 today and what you guys said I am not completely lost...

That last one is sweet...

Mike, how do you get the color in your photos to "pop" so much...Do you bump up the saturation in post processing?

Daniel

BTW, sweet images in your gallery.

Daniel-

Well, the color comes from a lot of different things. First, I'm shooting in AdobeRGB then converting to sRGB when I want to post images on the web. I'm also using a calibrated monitor. On almost all of my images, I manually set the white and black points in Photoshop, and I also usually like to add contrast in the form of an S-curve in curves. I never use the "Brightness/Contrast" tool. If I want to add saturation, which I do to a small degree on images that need it, I'll convert into L*a*b color, and add it to the A and B channels from there. Sometimes I'll also bump the contrast on the Luminosity channel.

As far as getting color right, the first step is making sure that the image is neutral... white balanced properly. From there, set the levels. Make sure your white and black points are where they should be. This cleans up a lot of images already.

OK now in english Mike. Lol!

WOW.....

After re-reading the manual for my Canon SLR I understand a little of what you just said, but actually doing it is different..

I don't have a cal monitor justa normal one. I haven't done black and white points in Photo either.

But a se by step process would be much better for us noob's

here's my first try which took hours. It is a picture of me, which is why my excuse of the camera setting being wrong to begin with, but it was good practice.

heres a pic I took..

Mike,
Thanks for the pointers! I have a few photos to process this week, I'm going to play around with what you posted. Also, thanks for not being tight fisted with your techniques. I've been shooting weddings and families for a local studio for a few years now, and advice is hard to come by in this profession. Nobody wants go give away their trade secrets. I could take a photoshop course I suppose, but as I have a day job, it's hard to make the time I need to do so. So thanks again, and keep up the good work.

Daniel

What's up Daniel. You need to come shoot with me sometime. Here's some recent stuff:

http://shelbydaniel.smugmug.com/gallery/800299

shelby daniel

Awesome stuff Shelby. Looks like you guys are tearing it up. Is that at Bean's Ferry? I definately need to make it out shoot with you soon. We don't have anybody that can ride worth a crap in our crew.

Daniel

Thanks. Beans, EP, and Pickwick. Email me if you want to shoot sometime. We'll put somebody in the tube with a floodlight or a slave and shoot some dusk chaseboat stuff.

shelby_daniel@hotmail.com