B/W pictures

I am wanting to change color pics to black and white with only certain areas colorized on the photo. I have Aperture and Iphoto. Can it be done in Aperture? I have googled for a while now, but cannot find an answer. If anyone knows of any software that can do this easily, I would love to hear about it!

If you're looking for free software to do this, GIMP may be able to as it's photoshop esque. If you want easy, ask some one else to do it for you.

Either way either consists of using layers to create a B&W layer over the original color, creating a layer mask for the B&W layer, then "painting" over the layer mask over the color portions with the cursor as a brush to reveal the color beneath. It can be a pain and you have to watch that you don't get color bleeds or it can look funny in spots.

Here was my very first attempt:



This was done a little differently than the above technique with just a desaturation and history brush.

I use photoshop.

Thanks for the prompt response! That's a very impressive first attempt!

gigi1976 said:

Thanks for the prompt response! That's a very impressive first attempt!

Click to expand...

It's like if you ever tried to create anything in paint, pixel by pixel. You have to zoom in, sometimes past 100%, and get the lines just right. A tablet is a very helpful tool in doing this from what I've heard. You can find a cheap one for under $100.

i have always used photoshop cs2. i just select the area that i would like to keep color with the magic wand. then right click-select inverse-then desaturate. hope that is some help.

-jeremi

blakbook said:

i have always used photoshop cs2. i just select the area that i would like to keep color with the magic wand. then right click-select inverse-then desaturate. hope that is some help.

-jeremi

Click to expand...

The problem with this is that unless it's a clear difference, the magic wand can be real crap for selection. There's times where no matter how much poking and prodding you do, the wand will select things outside of your bounds because of subtle color difference. It's not that photo shop is bad, it's just that sometimes you have to revert to a manual function vs. an automatic to get what you absolutely want.

this is so very true. i have found that you have to turn down the tolerance way down to get just what you want.

-jeremi

edit: this is just one of many that i have done. i found it in my photobucket from a long time ago.

Village Idiot said:

The problem with this is that unless it's a clear difference, the magic wand can be real crap for selection.

Click to expand...

I agree. That is why I normally use the pen tool to separate my selections. It takes a lot of practice and patience, but you can become very adept and accurate with it in time.

Aperture has a convert-to-B&W function built in. On the right-hand side, on the adjustments tab, click on the top right corner- it's an icon that looks like a +. You can either use the monochrome mixer, which converts to B&W and allows adjustments, or you can use the color monochrome, which converts to a one-color scheme. You can play with the color and how much it is applied in there.

-CM