Mono, with a Dash of Colour – Photoshop CS2 Tutorial
The following Photoshop Tutorial Was submitted by Digital Photography School Forum member Ian Potter (henryscat). Ian’s photos can be viewed in his Flickr account.
Objective: To produce a black and white image that contains a hint or a splash of colour.
In this tutorial we are going to have a look at reproducing a very popular technique that is widely used by professional photographers to “wow” their clients. I see this frequently in wedding photography and it always seems make an impact.
Please Note: For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to assume that you understand the basics of Photoshop (opening files etc).
The Technique:
First of all you are going to need a picture that is suitable for the task. This should be a colour image that will make an impact in mono, and has an area of colour you wish to bring back to the photograph (please see examples above). Alternatively you can download the provided photograph.
1) Open the file and select IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>DESATURATE to remove all colour from the image. Please note that the file is still RGB. We must not turn the colour mode to Mono or the next bit won’t work.
2) Select the History Brush from the tool palette (2a). Then make your brush size around 10 – 11 px using the palette located just under the file menu bar (2b). Hardness should be 100%.
3) Using the History Brush we can now “paint” back in time to when our image was in it’s full colour glory. Remember and lift off now and then so you can undo any mistakes without having to start again.
4) Continue the process until the area is complete. Take extra special care by zooming in when necessary. I found the area near the ladies hand needed this treatment.
And that’s it!
The secret is just to take your time during the painting process and be careful around the edges. Use any size of brush (and indeed, more than one size) for each job that you are comfortable with.
n.b. all images and text are the sole copyright of Ian Potter and may not be reproduced for commercial or personal purposes. There is a thread in our forums dedicated to this post here. Try the technique and post your results there.
102 Responses to “Mono, with a Dash of Colour – Photoshop CS2 Tutorial” - Add Yours
December 20th, 2006 at 11:02 am
I would highly suggest converting the image to B&W by using the channel mixer adjustment layer method (as detailed here on this very site and then using solid black paintbrush to draw on the adjustment layer to reveal the desired color. The channel mixer method gives a much more richly-contrasted and balanced B&W image than just desaturation.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:09 am
I was wondering, is it possible to do this after one fiddles with the channel mixer?
December 20th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
I would also suggest duplicating the image onto another layer. Using any method to change that layer to B&W, then add a layer mask to the B&W layer. Use the eraser tool on the layer mask to erase the B&W image where you want color. If you mess up, switch your default color to black. This will put the B&W image back and let you do it over. This method is very easy and helps out a lot of you mess up.
December 20th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Definitely what Kevin O’Mara suggest is a better method.
Using the Channel Mixer adjustment layer you can paint back what you want in color.
The settings for naturalistic b&w are approximately:
R: 30
G: 60
B: 10
Monochrome: X
December 20th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
similarly, if you want to add color that wasn’t there before, create a new layer above your pic (which can be in either color or b&w) and change its blending mode to color. Then pick a paintbrush and a color, and start painting. The paintbrush’s blending mode should be normal.
so you can do something along these lines… it’s a flickrfly.
December 20th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
bah… link didn’t go thru:
http://flickr.com/photos/googlit/327749454/
December 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
http://dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=25
^ the most beautiful way of selective desaturation
The other option I like more is the following:
1. Select > color range
Flavor it with
2. Select > feather & Select > Modify > Expand/Contract
3. Select > Inverse
4. Image > Adjustments > Channel mixer
Or even better, the above but with masks and adjustment layers.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
On a side note, that’s Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry, Scotland right?
Weird coincidence
December 20th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I think this gimmick works best when the color is used to highlight something of significance in the image. Whatever you color is instantly the focus of the image. In the examples, this works okay (but honestly, not stellar) with the drinks, but I’m not so sure about the tie. With a wedding, you’d probably want to focus on symbolically significant items — candles, rings, flowers.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:39 am
Yup it’s the Atholl alright! What’s the co-incidence just out of interest?
to Mathew: The pictures are for the tutorial – I’m not trying to make art here.
To everyone with ‘better’ methods: That’s the problem with Photoshop – there are hundreds of different ways of doing everything! And it’s down to individual preference which one is “best”. And here is one of the many…
December 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Seems like more of a gimmick to me. Keep it real.
Most people are “wowed” by lots of gimmicks. Page curls, for example.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Here’s a link to a mov file from Russel Brown of Adobe showing how to do the effect using CS3
December 21st, 2006 at 2:47 pm
the missing link:
http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/CS3Color_To_BWSM.mov
December 21st, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Is there any reason why this is not working for me? I did everything step by step, but when I select the history brush and try to paint, everything paints white.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
December 21st, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Personally I love the tip. I have been playing with it for the past couple of hours and have had so much fun. I never thought it would be so easy. My family is going to be really impressed. Thanks for the tip.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Thanks for the tutorial. Was great to try it out on one of the photos from a recent shoot I did.
Love to hear any comments/feedback you have.. http://flickr.com/photos/perity/328893377/
December 21st, 2006 at 6:55 pm
The story made it to the front cover of digg
http://digg.com/design/Add_a_touch_of_color_to_your_black_and_white_photographs
December 21st, 2006 at 7:41 pm
For who doesn’t know how the history brush exactly works (it was my first time today):
You have to select the history state in the history palette which you want to use to “paint back” to. After desaturisation, select the little box before the “desaturate” history state.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:23 am
This seems to be a very complicated way to do this when Adobe Photoshop’s “Layers” were practically made for this.
First, create three copies of the photograph in three layers (this is in RGB mode)
The first layer (bottom) is your backup – in case you want to undo everything.
The second layer (middle) is your color layer.
The third layer (top) is your black and white layer. Please feel free to label them.
You can desaturate the top layer, but I find I get better results from copying and pasting the image into a new layer, which I convert to greyscale, then copying that layer back into the original document. This has to do with the fact that desaturation merely removes color, while greyscale conversion really does make colors look like they would if they were taken with B&W film. It’s an aesthetic difference but I suggest you try it.
You can then use a number of different methods to get your desired effect.
You can use the eraser to erase the top layer of the object you want in color, letting the color underneath it show through.
You can use “select color range” on the middle layer to select ALL the pinks, reds, yellows, or whatever (this usually works best with warm colors) then move back up to the top layer and hit delete to get all of those pinks or reds to show through (obviously this method would likely require some retouching.
The advantage of putting the color on a separate layer is that you can mess with the hue and saturation of the color layer without disturbing the B&W on top of it.
I’d give you a slideshow of pictures illustrating this technique, but I don’t have photoshop on my work computer and my home computer is currently running Linux for the next 26 days as part of an article: 30 days on Linux.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:38 am
I usually do this a different way to make it more flexible. Sometimes the colors in the photo are a too intense (like in the example in this tutorial), so I create a layer to play with the opacity and dial down the intensity of the color.
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:16 am
Thanks for the tutorial and the comments – I appreciate all the tips – I always wished I knew a quick way to do this.
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:36 am
A coincidence because I’m not Scottish, English or in any other way Brittish but I have been there just a few weeks ago.
The other methods were no critic or anything. Just to show there are at least a 1000 ways to do something in PS, as you said
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:58 am
Hehe at least 1000! lol
It’s a lovely place the Atholl. The bride (from Detroit) and groom entered the grounds in a convoy of Harley Davidsons.
The first Harley was an old police bike and had the siren wailing.
The happy couple were at the front in a Ford Mustang. Beautiful car!
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I can almost smell the atmosphere. You must’ve been able to shoot some great pictures!
December 23rd, 2006 at 4:46 am
Thanks for the tip. My first attempt can be found here:
http://onthefly.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/cool-photo/
December 28th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Quote: “Brian Boyko Says: …… my home computer is currently running Linux for the next 26 days as part of an article: 30 days on Linux.
Brian, i suspect you can do this technique easily using ‘The Gimp’ in Linux
December 28th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Can we have this as an assignment on flickr? I would love to see what others did and see what others think of my photos.
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I don’t use PS but use Digital Image Pro 10 by MS. I had found somthing like this previously as I had been wanting to do something this way for awhile and tried it. then I got to thinking. Why not simply select the object that i wish to remain in color and then invert and click on change to B/W which is an option in DIP 10 and also is an option with some PS plugins that also work in DIP 10. Seemed to work and the reverse also works if I want to change something to b/w and leave it on a color image. Unfortunately, DIP 10 does not have a history brush, fade tool or healing brush but I can only hope another version will.
January 4th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Very cool tips everyone!!! I always wondered how this was done and it ends up being so simple.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
THANKS
ITS REALY COOL.
January 8th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I’ve been looking for this for a while, Thanks !! It’s great
January 10th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Can I do this using Paint Shop Pro 9? If so, can you write a separate tutorial for it or are the settings similar?
January 20th, 2007 at 5:54 am
will das auch! kostlose!!
January 27th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
omgg that you SOOOOOOOOOOO much. i have been looking for this forever and no one seems to know how to do this. those that do know refuse to tell me. THANK YOU!
January 30th, 2007 at 6:12 am
I have seen so many pictures in B&W with a touch of color, and I was intrigued by them. I have watched shows on DIY which tell you how to do this using ink dyes. Although it is a good method, one screw up and you have to start a whole new picture. Photoshop CS2 makes it so simple. Thank you so much for the tutorial. I have found a new hobby now that I absolutely love!!!
February 8th, 2007 at 5:58 am
I used your method in a picture and it worked wonderfully. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I would have sent a copy of it, but did not find an e-mail.
Linda
March 13th, 2007 at 5:56 am
This is a great tip. I have put a link into this tutorial from our photo club website.
http://life.itu.int/photo/tutorials.html
March 21st, 2007 at 9:34 am
interesting tutorial and a good exercise in PS concepts but to be honest it is a bit OTT since for a few dollars you can use blackmagic http://www.black-and-white-to-color.com
This is a stills version of the software that they use to professionally color black and white movies so it is very capable
But maybe its ease of use takes the fun and challenge out of trying to do it all in PS !!
April 12th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Wow man,
You taught me a great thing, I loved it… and gonna be craze with it
Thank you,
thank u very much 4 taught me what i really want
April 20th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Thank you very much, helped out heaps!!
April 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Thanks Very Much! Helped me out heaps!!!
April 30th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
hey omg this helped me out SO much its like so cool i love it thanx for helping me out and i think you guys should make more links for people who want to learn new stuff and they dont know it exists well i think you should do it but i mean its your desision!!! byebye love yall
May 5th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
This sounds great, but i can’t find the harden tool on my brush options, it isnt there!
May 15th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Hey this was cool…I have been doing it the hard way by using layers and erasing what I didnt want then adding another layer on top to show black and white with the color shown thru…to think it was just a darn history paintbrush I needed to know about.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:32 am
This is a good technique, and it does work for some photos, but not all.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
i have the newest version of photoshop sooo, i’m really lost. the buttons say different things now. if anybody could help me figure this out with the newer version, beccalovestrees@aol.com
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:38 am
I’m really confused because I have been tryng to figure this out for so long but I cant figure this out.
I have Adobe photoshop Album starter edition 3.0 and I guess it’s really different.
If any of you guys can help me figure this out then email me at Bringin_latina_heat@yahoo.com
Thanks so much!
August 4th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
This is a great tip. I will put a link of this tutorial to my blog that is http://photoshop-tutions.blogspot.com.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:22 am
some Canon digital cameras allow you to do this on the camera.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 am
This tutorial was great. We were discussing this yesterday and we use photoshop ALOT here at work. We’re employed at our local newspaper so we were trying to figure out how to do this for our pictures. Thanks!
September 16th, 2007 at 1:21 am
I don’t know if anybody else mentioned this,
but you could just make another layer that has the things that you want to stay coloured, and then you just switch back to the main layer you want black and white and desaturate it then, much easier.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Thank you for for posting this Tutorial. Worked great!
October 12th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Is this possible using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0? If so, what are the steps? Please advise.
Thank You
October 30th, 2007 at 4:15 am
WOW..WHAT AN IDEA I TRIED IT AND IT WAS A GREAT GIFT FOR MY GUEST
THANKS
GOOD LUCK
November 1st, 2007 at 4:02 am
these pix are cool
November 23rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
that was nice… i was wondering about how this is done for quite sometime…. thanks a lot!!
February 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I tried it out and it worked fine for me (despite being my first try on photoshop. Can you recommend how i can blur out objects/people in the background of a picture. I think your recommendation was brilliant although undoing little mistakes were a problem for me. How can i sort that out?
February 20th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Wow, that is so awsome. I’ve seen this many times, but have never seen the steps for it. Anyone getting into photography would have to have this in their portfolio!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Hey, this was real fun doing. i tried it the first time, understood the basics from this guide and they tried a couple of times thereby perfecting my skills. Something i think will be useful (if you dont already know) is to zoom into the image thereby having a better view of the desaturated part you want the color to come alive. Many thanks.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Thats really nice n simple…
I though it would be something really complicated..
Thanks a Lot…
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:13 am
hey!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was very nice. interesting.. and i thing it was very complicated. let see now one heheh
April 26th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I followed the directions step by step, but every time i tried to color something in, it ended up a peach color. I tried clicking on the colors and selecting a different color, but when i would fill in the color again, it was the same peach color. How do you change the color? Please help, I really want to do this.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Nevermind, I figured it out!!
May 1st, 2008 at 1:48 am
that looks cool
May 1st, 2008 at 1:48 am
it LOOKS VERY nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WERE JUST STARTING A PROJECT LIKE THIS IN MY PHOTO CLASS!!!!!!!!
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:54 am
Excellent tutorial. When i starting searching for it I had something in mind that would be very hard. However, your tutorial proved me wrong. Not only that the results are great. Thanks for the fantastic tutorial.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Although I do not use this technique heavily in my wedding photography, it comes useful if you use double layer mask to do some slight desaturation. Nevertheless, a lot of my wedding couples always ask for this service. For some examples, check out my blog at Furious Photographers Blog.com
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
what version of photoshop is this for..thanks
August 14th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Great photoshop tutorial! There is a lot to layers and they will take some time to master. But they are not that difficult once you understand how they work.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
This is absolutely one of my favorite effects. I use this a lot in my own photographs. Personally, I like to use it with a bride holding flowers, or at an outdoor wedding with the petals on the ground in color.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
can someone please help me, id like to buy photo software, but am not sure what is best. eg photoshop elements 6?
November 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I want to do this but i still can’t figure it out. When i try to use the history brush it tells me the canvas size does not match the history state. And how do i make 3 layers. I am new to all this. Please help.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 am
Great PS tip from a PS Guru! Keep up the good work!
March 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Hey, I remember doing this way back in early 2005. I used to call it “triton”ing.. something like duotone with an extra color.
That tutorial was here
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9780
Enjoy the “original” tritone experience.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:04 am
Thanks for the tip!
May 10th, 2009 at 9:54 am
nice and easy tutorial.
I will soon try it to some of my picture.
thanks for sharing.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:06 am
It is a good tutorial on how to use the history brush and the layers, but the effect is a kitsch, either you make the picture entirely b & w , or color
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 am
Great tips!! Helped a lot, got me a exactly what I wanted.
MANY, MANY THANKS!!
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 am
coolio i was just wondering how to do this effect while using a DSLR because i used to have the color accent feature in my point and shoot but now i don’t and i’m not too savy with Photoshop. Thanks for the info!
July 8th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Cannot believe this “task” can be handled in a simple 3 step process. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I’m using a knock off photoshop editing tool and have been avoiding photoshop for 2 years now. I have no fear now.
August 14th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Does anybody know if there’s a way to achieve this effect suitable for 2-color (black + 1 PMS) offset printing? These methods work fine for images to be viewed on screen, or even printed out in a regular color printer, but for commercial printing purposes, this method would require a regular 4-color print job (since the underlying layer is the original full-color photo). Even if the original layer were converted to a monotone image and the other image were grayscale, would the colors separate correctly on a press?
September 26th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Thanks!
really helped me out! =D
November 26th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I just posted a quick video tutorial of this on my website…
http://thetechguyblog.com/
Thanks
December 6th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Nice post. Haven’t thought of alot of these points before. Will come back and bookmark your site for future reference.
December 21st, 2009 at 6:30 am
Super cool tips. Photoshop is so powerful, but sometimes so complex….
January 30th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
marvellous!! I was looking this tip for a while.
February 25th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Hi-I am trying to find a software (I don’t know if you are allowed to recommend one or even if this exists) that does the following to photos:
1-can desaturate and add the original color or color of my choosing
2-warp a photo and make people look insanely strange
3-make a photo look like a painting, comic, etc..
4-edit blemishes, red eye, etc…
Does this exist? I cannot find it out there. I hope you can help. Thanks so much!
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Thank you! Very easy instructions. Worked great.
March 14th, 2010 at 12:12 am
thank you so much!
worked like a chram
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:00 pm
In LW, again, it is just as easy but the logic of application is opposite. You can not desaturate the picture and apply the paint brush because all the color has been desaturated. Instead, the mission can be accomplished by simply applying the adjustment brush in “Develop” mode, with the “saturation” reduced to -100, on the area you would like to be b&w.
April 5th, 2010 at 6:50 am
thank you so much for that
worked a treat
May 24th, 2010 at 6:54 am
Wow-Amazing Blog- Wow -Thanks for all the great information and i love the pictures, thanks for sharing this blog.
June 14th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Hey thanks for the tutorial! it really helped!
June 18th, 2010 at 6:41 am
Is there a technical term of this technique? I just wonder
September 14th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Very simple and nice tutorial, I can use this to test on my new pictures.
November 18th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Wow, so many thanks for this tutorial. I’ve been looking for this technique but no luck ’til now. I’m loving it, can’t to do it myself, again, thanks a lot.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:11 am
Thank you so much, this is the best I have seen it described!
December 10th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
I really did not expect that to create this kind of effect is so easy.
Thank you for the tutorial, it is very clear & easy to follow !
I even can teach my kid to do this right away.
Keep the good works.
January 10th, 2011 at 3:44 am
thank you! You made it so simple, no other tutorials were this good. THANKS AGAIN!
February 1st, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I am trying to do the above exercise but my History Brush and Art History Brush keep painting ORANGE all over everything. I don’t get it. I’ve even reset all my tools… did the command/alt/shift thing at start up…. I’d really love to be able to do this. Can someone figure out why I’m getting orange all over my black and white RGB image?
I’m on a fairly new MacBook with CS2 installed. (It’s the only copy I can afford)
March 17th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Hi, any idea what the equivalent (if there is ) in Paint Shop Pro X3? I currently use two layers (one colour, one mono) and erase the mono layer on the item I want in colour. Works but very time consuming.
January 25th, 2012 at 8:16 am
i have so many beautiful pictures i have taken and still dont know how to use… HELP
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