How do I do this in Photoshop?

[Joyrider1]

I am using Photoshop CS5 to put the background in black and white with my daughter in colour - I'm doing this with Desaturate and then using the History brush to draw the colour back in but am having a real problem with the green background showing through the hair. Anyone got any tips on how to do this without the green showing through?

[Rhys Wheatley]

I would leave it in colour or B&W. Selective colour is the surest way to kill an image imo...

[Pvapour]

marque your daughter, copy & paste her, this will leave her as a layer, select the layer below (background) drain all the saturation in adjustments, voila!

you'll have to then flatten image to save as jpeg.

[Joyrider1]

Pvapour said:

marque your daughter, copy & paste her, this will leave her as a layer, select the layer below (background) drain all the saturation in adjustments, voila!

you'll have to then flatten image to save as jpeg.

You mean with the lasso tool? If I do that then surely the green bits in her hair will still be there.

[Simpo Two]

Quite; the issue is with the hair not being opaque. Zoom in and reduce the opacity/size of the history brush until you get an effect that looks right when viewed at normal size.

[Gemm]

It may be easier to just desaturate the green with hue/saturation tool.

[Pvapour]

Joyrider1 said:

Pvapour said:

marque your daughter, copy & paste her, this will leave her as a layer, select the layer below (background) drain all the saturation in adjustments, voila!

you'll have to then flatten image to save as jpeg.

You mean with the lasso tool? If I do that then surely the green bits in her hair will still be there.

I use the full fat PS & there are various marque tools but if you have only the lasso then use the 'minus' option to take away some of what you've selected (I'm on apple & its the alt key which reverses the effects of all marque tools, not sure on a PC) lasso to remove sections of the marque from selection or if you have a magic wand tool then its even easier as it will only select the desired colour, tolerance can be changed.

Edited by Pvapour on Saturday 2nd June 15:26

[Colin RedGriff]

If you do the basic selection then go into select/refine edge

Then use edge detection adjust your brush size, select smart radius and paint round the hair; then some magic happens and you get a much better selection of the hair

[Pixel Pusher]

Pvapour said:

Joyrider1 said:

Pvapour said:

marque your daughter, copy & paste her, this will leave her as a layer, select the layer below (background) drain all the saturation in adjustments, voila!

you'll have to then flatten image to save as jpeg.

You mean with the lasso tool? If I do that then surely the green bits in her hair will still be there.

I use the full fat PS & there are various marque tools but if you have only the lasso then use the 'minus' option to take away some of what you've selected (I'm on apple & its the alt key which reverses the effects of all marque tools, not sure on a PC) lasso to remove sections of the marque from selection or if you have a magic wand tool then its even easier as it will only select the desired colour, tolerance can be changed.

Edited by Pvapour on Saturday 2nd June 15:26

Sorry, this is way too late. These theories are sound but the suggested tools and methods can be refined.

Rather than mask the child out before hand, duplicate the layer and apply a dedicated desaturation leyer. Then on the layer mask, eliminate the black and white data. Using the brushes on the layer mask allows for use of the full brush range with opacity control. This is only on a screen grab but the high res original will get you a result with no green hair fringing.

Just my 2p worth of course.

[GetCarter]

Looks better in colour though.

[K12beano]

GetCarter said:

Looks better in colour though.

Initial thought was that one image had been 'shopped on another! (I saw the thread from the bottom up for the first time)

[Pixel Pusher]

GetCarter said:

Looks better in colour though.

It does.

[RobDickinson]

You could also have done a selection based on colour too.

[Blukoo]

The way I did it, was Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Then where it says "Master" Select Greens and desaturate, then select Yellows and desaturate.
Job done in 10 seconds.

[Pvapour]

Blukoo said:

The way I did it, was Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Then where it says "Master" Select Greens and desaturate, then select Yellows and desaturate.
Job done in 10 seconds.

that's fine in this situation, but what if she was the Hulk

top tips PP