Selective colouring - The cheat method :)
I have been asked by many how to do selective colouring on images, so here is a quick method for doing it.
The method I use is a simple two step process
Open the image and turn it greyscale – click the word Image [up the top menu] then – mode then greyscale
Click ok to the message that pops up asking to discard colour channels [Those are the red, green and blue channels that make your image colour]
Now – you have a mono image with all the colour discarded – You cannot select colour if its all been discarded – so we need to put it back.
Go back to image [up top] – mode and hit RGB – the image will stay mono, but is actually a colour image [with no colour]
Hit the history brush in the toolbar in the left and paint back where you want the colour. Adjust the size of your brush as required.
For more subtle effects, turn the brush opacity down – but remember when using low opacity – you must paint in one stroke, without releasing the mouse.
thats it – yep – really simple eh
A variation on this is for example, where you want to use this method on a forest scene – impossible to paint back in or select to colour by different methods. So after making the image greyscale, turning it back to RGB and selectiing your history brush – set the brush to a very large size with a zero hardness setting. Find a place on the image where you would like to see colour and click the brush there once. The result is a really nice graduated colour effect at the point where you wanted it to appear – awesome.
Good luck all – have fun with it, and let me know how you get on – perhaps link your images here.
Jul
vonne
Now your talking = ) LOVE shortcuts! with great results = )
shanghaiwu
thankyou for this
love information being shared
brilliant
Tom Gomez
I will give it a try …
BuddyH
Thank You!!!!!! This was done with two layers and the eraser tool. This sounds easier, and it makes a smaller file if you don’t finish and save it for later. If you flatten the layers it doesn’t work because there are no longer layers.
skunk
Thank You Julie. Very helpful :)
Trace Lowe
Thanks, I’ll give it a go.
Jen Cannella
This is the way I do it too. I tried the layering method but this way is much faster!
Forest Friends...
ummmm this method is for photoshop or other?
Julie Langford
replied
It will work in any program as long as there is a history brush Forest
Lucindawind
thanks my dear lady …
Forest Friends...
Just tried yr method. its like pulling a rabbit out of a hat… thank you Magician
ciege622
I use a program called Color Select Studio….thats all it does is take your image, put it in blk/wht then you use your mouse on the area you want the color on….
hilarydougill
I presume we are talking about Photoshop?
Julie Langford
replied
yes Hilary – although any editing program with a history brush, will do this without any difference to the technique.
Sean Farragher
thanks for that
RichardV
Thanks for this Julie. Looks easy.
wdavies285
thanks julie post it up later, works brilliantly
krafty
Absolutely brilliant Julie…it works a treat….and it’s posted…lol”
!
booboo
This is interesting Julie it’s totally different to the way I do it. Using this method, if you bring colour back to an area that you didn’t want colour can you remove it again?
clarkey
I must be doing something terribly wrong as I can’t get it to work.
I made a new document, copied a photo into it, turned into a grayscale, then back to RGB, and hit the History Brush. Started to paint and all I got was a solid white over the area I wanted to re-colour.
Any suggestions, please? I would love te be able to do this.
Julie Langford
replied
Hi Clareky – the error you are making is the first bit – making a white document and pasting the image in. the history brush puts things back to their original state, so you will just be painting back to that white background.
Open the image in photoshop instead of pasting it in – it will work then. If you must copy/paste it – then save it, close it, and reopen it – then do the rest
Caroline Gorka
I used the eraser tool on Symphony and Parasol ...and Red Fan.
Caroline Gorka
Sorry…Desaturated , and adjusted contrast …added blur to Red Fan …and then used the eraser to ‘erase’ away edited work…revealing original colour
clarkey
Thanks, Julie, I’ll do that. I pasted into a transparent background, though.
clarkey
I did it the way you said, and it worked fine. Thanks again., Julie.
Laurie McClave
Thanks Julie, I am stumbling along and that’s great advice
Michelle Hogan
Thankyou for sharing Julie…. I will have a play tomorrow with your hints and tips. I just received and loaded CS3 today. YIPPEEE!
PJ Ryan
ooh thanx !! i’m just learning and this has helped me lots :)
PJ Ryan
how do i change the colour of that bit i’m selecting?
please and thank you
Lorraine Deroon
I think I may have to update to get this history brush. Elements 2 doesn’t appear to have it. I’ll try layering instead. Thanks for sharing your information in such a user friendly way!
tmlstrsc
Well… that sure beats the hard way.. Thank You soooo much for sharing..
Julie Langford
replied
No problem tmistrsc – I like easy, and when I find it, I like to spread the word.
Normf
Julie this is a great tip and I know I’ll be using it. I’m a bit of a fan of the history brush and often use it when applying selective sharpening. What I do is sharpen the the whole image but concentrate on only getting the feature right (this will introduce noise in areas like the sky). Then click the left box on the layers palete where I sharpened. undo the sharpening by click back to the action before the sharpening on the history palete, then using a soft history brush (varying the opacity) paint back just the areas I want to sharpen thus avoiding adding noise the the flat color areas.
Love your work, it’s beautiful
Tamara Bobst
Thank you for the tips,Your woeks are so beautiful.
Maria Moro
very helpful ,, thank you
MickThow
Thanks i will give it ago and see what happens
MickThow
Wow it is so easy that way. i only have a laptop to play on so most things are dificult with no mouse. But here is the image.
Thanks for your help
George Swann
Thank you Julie, I don’t use hardly any PP, but I will try this, my brain loves nice and simple.
LudaNayvelt
great info, thank you Lulie
Keith Richardson
Wow julie – I am at work now, but can’t wait to get home and try this out…
Thank you. Keith
debsphotos
I’ve been wanting to know how to do this for ages !!!! Unreal!! Thanks heaps Julie!!!..I’m off to try it!!! *-)
Rebecca Bryson
This is informative but may only apply to Photoshop. In Serif I open my image duplicate a copy from the background image, I can either select greyscale or I can to to adjust and channel mixer and click monochrome, after I make the adjustments I want for appearance, I use the erase tool at varying opacity and tool size to reveal the color I want when happy I merge the layers boom I am done
Carisma
Rats!!! I am leaving tomorrow on tour and no time to try straight away this great advice!!!
Will tackle as soon as I get Back!!!! You are my life saver, I been trying “selective coloring” for so long and never achieved anything!!
Bless you Julie!
Larry Llewellyn
Thank you so much, I’m really looking forward to this effect…
bubblehex08
I use the same method as Rebecca Bryson when I work in CorelPhotopaint.
Before readin^g a tutorial some time ago, I had found my own way to do it by just trying out the following: I desaturated color by color, just leaving the one I wanted , for example the red. I even may saturate it a bit more.
This is a better method, when you get complicate structures like a fishernet or small leaves with background in B/W.
Here is an example:

Aquamojo
Very interesting technique. Thanks for giving me something new to play with.
Mo
mekea
thanks!!
Glenna Walker
My background is black…my object is white…how do I color the white object yellow?
Julie Langford
replied
That one is a bit more difficult Glenna. It is a case of turning your whole image yellow, then using the history brush to paint back what you want to keep in mono.
Alison Pearce
I’ve seen beautiful selective colouring works and always wondered how to do it! I shall have to give it a try. Thanks for the great tips!
itsallgoodamanda
oh thanks I am going to try that .but im afraid plain english seems to take a while to sink in …lets see how I go hah! .......thanks again for taking time to write it,
Ingz
Thank you so much, I am terrible at photoshop and tried this and actually managed to do it!! thank you once again xxxx
trekka
Just tried the method and works great. Thanks for the info on how to do it. Also thanks to the points give by bubblehex08. Cheers to all and happy painting :-))
Georgie Hart
Ooh this sounds very interesting, thank you for taking the time to write it Julie! Did you know that this tute and your “Red Monday” are currently featured in the daily feed?
Neophytos
Thank you JULIE for this, and all your other tutorials ,they are simple and very instructional ,thank you again !!

maxy
Interesting and sounds like fun – can’t wait to try it! Thank you for the wonderful tips! xoxo!
David Clarke
Thanks, Julie, that’s really helpful!
Epazia Espino
Thank you do much, something fun to try
steppeland 23 days ago
Great tutorial, Julie! ;)
cindylutes 20 days ago
hi i am new here, but i am going to try this, thanks for sharing.