How to Paint Black & White Photos
Black and white photos have an artistic quality because they stand out in a world of mostly color photography. Digital photo editing gives you the opportunity to create distinctive effects with digital photos. One of these is highlighting a specific item in a photograph by showing it in color while the rest of the picture is black and white. You can do this a couple of ways and don't have to start with a black-and-white photo to achieve this effect.
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Instructions
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Choose a photo and open it in your image-editing software.
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If the photo is a color photo, make a copy of the background layer (the photo itself), so you now have two identical layers. Name the new layer "Copy." Make the copy layer black and white or "grayscale." This option is probably in the "Image" menu or the "Color" menu. If the photo is a black-and-white photo already, skip this step.
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Use the "Lasso Tool" or the "Smart Selection Tool" to select an object you want to highlight. If you are using the two-layer method, make sure the black-and-white layer is selected and select "Clear" from the "Edit" menu. You will see the color layer show through just with the object selected. If you started with a black-and-white photo, make a second layer. With the selection still active, select the new layer. Paint over the selection with the "Paintbrush Tool" set to the color of your choice. Then reduce the opacity of the colored layer, so you can see the detail of the black-and-white layer while still seeing the color show up.
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Save the image using the "Save as" option in the "File" menu, so the original image is not altered.
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References
- Photo Credit Black and White Colour image by Miles Pattison-Appleton from Fotolia.com
