Photoshop Tutorial: Selective & Replacement Colors

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to convert your photograph to a black and white image and then selectively keeping certain parts of it colorized, in addition, we'll do a bit of optional color modifications.

First of all, find a photo, from the internet (or one of your own).

Open it in Photoshop and make sure you have your Adjustments and Layers tabs visible and handy.





Now duplicate your main layer by dragging it onto to the paper icon.





Then make the bottom layer invisible by click on the 'eye' icon.

Then click on the Adjustment Layer button.




Choose 'Hue/Saturation'.





You'll notice you have a new weird looking layer and your Adjustments panel has changed.




Now comes the fun stuff.

- Drag back the Saturation level to turn your photo into a black & white image.

- Choose black for your foreground color.

- Choose the Brush tool.

- Make sure you have the built-in Mask window selected.

- Make sure you have a hard edge brush, remember; you can

change the size with the bracket keys [ ] at any time.

- Start painting in the areas you want to have the colors come through.





Paint it whatever parts you want, once you're done, that's it!




As a little bonus...

Simply select your 'copy' layer.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.




Click on the Colorize switch.

Play around with the two top levels until you get the color you want.

Click OK, and you've successfully isolated and altered color to the
black and white image.









More samples:














Another method...
This time, we'll manipulate this photo to change the tint of a certain area of the image.
You can use the image below (right click on it to save it to your Desktop), or use one of your own photos or find one from the internet.

Open the image that you will use for the change of color.




Take a soft brush and adjust the diameter according to the size of your image.

The larger the image resolution the bigger the brush you need to make.



Press the "Q" key to enter in quick mask mode. Mark all the hair area, if you have problems and you go in some wrong areas, just use the eraser to correct. Adjust Brush size with the [ ] keys.






Once you're done - Press again "Q" to leave the quick mask mode.

Now we have a selection around the hair, but we need is the selection in the hair, so go up to the menu to invert the selection: Select > Inverse.




Now it is necessary to dye the area of the selection. To do this, make a New Fill Layer: Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. The basic properties of the new fill layer will appear - change the mode to Soft Light. Click Ok.





Then use the color picker to select the hair color. Try a few different kinds to see which one you like best.






Cha-Bang! You're Done!

Here's some finished samples: