Have you ever wondered how to make a color photo have a b&w background, with the subject still in color? Like my photo in this layout…

Here is a tutorial on how to do this using Photoshop. It may work in PS Elements too, however I have never used PS Elements so I wouldn’t know. I am using Photoshop CS2 for this tutorial. It may work in other versions of Photoshop and other programs.

Feel free to print out TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background for your own personal use. Please do NOT redistribute TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background in any way without permission. If you wish to share TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background with others send them to Candace Duffy Jones Designs instead.
You may use this link: http://candaceduffyjones.com/2009/07/tutorial-photo-bw-background/


This work by Candace Duffy Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

1. Let’s start by opening a color photo in Photoshop. I will be using this photo:

and making it look like this:

2. If your image layer is a locked background, right-click on layer and select “Layer from Background”. A “New Layer” dialogue box will open. Click “OK”.

3. Now drag Layer 0 to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. This will create a duplicate layer named “Layer 0 copy”.  Click on the Layer Visibility icon to hide the duplicate layer. Select Layer 0. Go to Images -> Adjustments -> Desaturated or use Shift+Ctrl+U. This will make the bottom layer b&w. You may want to adjust the contrast levels to get a better result.

4. Click on the Layer Visibility icon to view the duplicate layer. Select the  Magnetic Lasso Tool and trace an outline of the area you want in color. Don’t worry about being perfect, you will fix that later.

5. Now you need to turn your selection into a mask. Click the Add Vector Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. This will make the select as the only part of the photo visible on the duplicate layer, and everything else should be b&w because you are viewing the bottom layer.

6. Go to Select -> Deselect or press Ctrl+D to deselect selection. Select the  Brush Tool and use a small brush around 19px, or whatever works best for you. Make sure that  the layer mask is selected and that white is your foreground color. Use the paint brush to paint the areas you want colored that were not in the selection.

7. To make areas b&w make black the foreground color (press x) and paint where you want it b&w. Keep going between add and removing areas of the mask until you have the look you want. Remember, white adds to the color layer and black subtracts from the color layer (making it b&w since you have the bottom layer visible). If you need to, hide the bottom layer to see more clearly the edge of a subject in darker areas.

8. Now that your image is complete you can merge the two layers. Go to Layer -> Merge Visible to make the image one layer. Now you can add it to a layout.

You can also try some other looks:

Duplicate layer at 50%.

Duplicate layer mode as Overlay.

Duplicate layer mode as Overlay and used filter Gaussian Blur.

Please feel free to contact me if you have a questions or comments. You can use my Contact Me form or post a comment on this post as a means of contact me.

Feel free to print out TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background for your own personal use. Please do NOT redistribute TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background in any way without permission. If you wish to share TUTORIAL: Photo – B&W Background with others send them to Candace Duffy Jones Designs instead.
You may use this link: http://candaceduffyjones.com/2009/07/tutorial-photo-bw-background/


This work by Candace Duffy Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.