How To Perform Selective Coloring In Photoshop 2021

There are many ways to do selective colors in all photo editing programs. Today, I’m going to show you one way to do it in Photoshop 2021.

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Selective coloring is a popular post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the techniques on how to apply color on selected part(s) of the image using layers and masks in Photoshop 2021.

Step 1 Setting up the file

Open an image file of your choice in Photoshop by going to File > Open (Ctrl+O). In this tutorial were going to use Black_Crowned_Night_Heron_SC.psd. It was originally a .jpg from my SD Card. I placed my logo by copying it from the logo file and pasting it into my working image. Resized and moved logo to desired area.

Step 2 Duplicate the background layer

Create a copy of the background layer by Right clicking on it then choose Duplicate.

Click the duplicated layer, click OK. Once you click OK, you can see the new layer.

Change the name to BNW by double clicking on the new layer. This will become the black and white part of the image.

Step 3 Black and White

Turn the BNW layer into a black and white effect. Click the new BNW layer if you do not have it selected. Choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Slide the Saturation all the way to the left and click OK.

Step 4 Masking

Next step is to create a mask. Masks are used to hide part(s) of the image or the whole image. Masking is a very useful tool in image editing as it allows you to edit part of the image without having to worry that you will lose information.

To create a mask, go to Layers > Create Clipping Mask. Your layer palette should now have the following:

Use the Eraser tool, brush over the area you want to bring the color back.

NOTE: To increase or decrease the size of your brush, hold the windows key and select bracket keys [ ]. One will make it be smaller and one will make it be larger. You can click Z to scroll with your mouse to zoom in on the area you are working on. To zoom back out, click and hold the Alt key while scrolling.

Step 5 Merging and Saving

Merging the layers is an optional step. I like to keep my layers intact. Once you merge them, save them and close your file, you can never have them in layers again unless you start over.

To merge the layers, shift click on any layer you want to merge. Right click anywhere on the layers > Merge Layers. Now go to File > Save As Choose JPG then give it your desired file name. Save. If you wish to further edit the image in the future, do not merge the layers and save it as a .psd file.

FINISHED PRODUCT

Before

After