Selective Colouring
 

What say we have a thread dedicated to this little technique, everyone does it differently, so lets hear how you do it.

Personally i load two files into a photoshop stack, one colour one B&W, the B&W on top, i then erase the area i want uncovered on the B&W layer, then adjust the colour parameters of the colour layer so they match the feel of the B&W layer they penetrate onto. I know you shouldn't use the eraser as its somewhat permanent but its the only way i have figured out how to do it, if you have a better way please come and share it.

I thought i would end this post with a quick example i have done tonight.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2569/3942177537_1102e757fe.jpg[/img]

Nice effect Lifecapture - Editing in this fashion is also possible with other software and I quite like the decisive nature of the eraser tool. Artists frown on the use of erasers as every pencil mark counts as they build an image on paper; I personally think that editing photos is completely different (the reverse) and I use the eraser like a pencil remodeling/building the new image with decisive strokes - Though I always keep a copy of original photographs

Regards
Andy

My way is to create a new layer and use this to create the black and white image. Then, paint through the mask for this layer to reveal the colour below. If you want to tweek the colours, add another layer to adjust the colours between the bottom and the B&W layer.