How do you make a gray picture with one significant color in it?

Answer 1

This will usually require a photo editing program (such as Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro. For a free one, try GIMP). Some cameras have a feature to do that, while others don't, but the fastest way is to use a computer.

Basically, open up the picture, and open the layer palette. Your picture should be the Background, or Base, Layer. Duplicate this layer, and then go to Layer>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation/Lightness OR Color>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Then, slide the saturation bar to 0, and press okay. Now, take your eraser brush and erase the areas you want color.

Another way is to open up your picture, and add a new layer. Fill the new layer with either white or black, and then set the layer blend mode to Color or Saturation. Everything should be in greyscale. Now, take your eraser and erase the area(s) you want in color.

Hope that helped!

Another way to complete this in Photoshop or the Gimp is to use a selection tool. The magic lasso works well for areas that are not polygonal or circular. Select what you want to keep in color, then click Select>Invert. At this point, everything that you want black and white should be selected. Next go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and bring the saturation slider all the way to the left.

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A step-by-step easy-to-understand illustrated example of this technique using Photoshop Elements: http://www.photoxels.com/digital-Photography-tutorials/tutorial-color-accent/

And still ANOTHER way requires two layers. This is good for photos where you want one thing to be in full color, and everything else to be b&w.

Bring up your image, open the layers palette and duplicate the layer with the image on it. Convert the file to CMYK mode, and hide the top layer. Choose the bottom layer, select all, cut, then switch to the Channels palette. Select the black channel only and paste. This creates a grayscale image.

Now, hide the bottom layer and show the top one. Use whatever selection tool you like to select the thing you want to keep, then invert the selection, feather the selection, and delete. Feathering gives a slightly soft edge, which looks good. Now, you have a colored thing with a feathered edge floating in a sea of nothingness.

Finally, show the top layer and flatten the image. If you're going to use the file online, convert to RGB.