In this video tutorial Kelly Anne Martin shares some tips on selective coloring within Lightroom 2.

Selective coloring is an easy way to make a portion of your image stand out. While it is not the best solution for every photo, selectively coloring a portion of a photo can sometimes lead to amazing results.

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to use Adobe Lightroom 2 to selectively color a photo.


Selective Coloring with Lightroom 2 from Kelly Anne on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick recap/summary:

1) Choose the photo you would like to selectively color

2) Select the “Adjustment Brush” tool. (shortcut K) from the toolbar

3) Using a Saturation of -100, brush over the entire photo. You can edit the size, feather, and flow of your brush to make this process a little easier.

4) Zoom in, and choose the eraser tool. The adjustment brush works like a mask in Photoshop … you can erase parts of it to get rid of the effect.

5) Erase the portion of the photo you would like to keep colored. You will see the color come back.

6) For detailed work, you can toggle the mask visibility by pressing O on your keyboard.

Selective coloring can be used to make a portion of a photo really pop. Typically, bright colors will be chosen to stand out … reds, blues, greens … but you can selectively color a married couple in a crowd shot at their wedding, a stained glass window in a church, or anything you imagine.

191/365 - An apple for the pretty?
Image by Kelly Anne Martin

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

See more of Kelly Anne Martin’s work at her site Tack Sharp and on Flickr.

Read more from our Post Production Tips Category