Selective coloring?

[PRCoach]

I've used Paint Shop for years but can't seem to find an easy way to do selective coloring. My raw converter allows me to use a color picker to select the color I want, then I inverse the selection and reduce saturation to leave the selected color still showing. Modifying selective color range in Paint Shop is not as effective. Does Paint Shop have something similar? I have X3, but still mostly use X2. Thanks!

[Kathy_9]

There's a number of ways you can accomplish this. Here's a few:

1. Use the freehand selection tool to select the area where you want to retain the color and via the Selection menu, promote the selection to its own layer. Next click on the original background layer and convert it to B&W.

or

2. Duplicate the image and change the top layer to B&W and then use the eraser tool on the top B&W layer to erase over the area where you want the color to show through. If you erase too much you can right-click erase to correct.

or

3. Duplicate the image and change the top layer to B&W and then add a show all adjustment layer. Using the paint brush with black, paint over the areas where you want to show color.

[PRCoach]

Thanks for responding Kathy. Yeah, that's how I've done it before but it's very time consuming to get all the edges selected just right. As I said about my raw converter (Capture One Pro), I can do the job easily, quickly, and very elegantly with just a couple of clicks of the mouse.

[LeviFiction]

Use the magic wand tool on the color you want to keep. Invert the selection. Perform a B&W filter on the rest.

[teknisyan]

If you are using PSP X3 you can follow the steps here: http://corel.force.com/index/articles/e ... hop-Pro-X3

while on PSP X2 you can follow the tutorial that I created sometime ago: http://abielonline.blogspot.com/2009/06 ... ndout.html

[PRCoach]

All of these are good ideas for what is available in Paint Shop. Thanks for your suggestions. I've used most of them before and tend to use the magic wand set to color match mode, but it takes a lot of experimenting with tolerances and extra selections. I've also used duplicate layers and erasing away (or masking) areas to leave in color. The feature is lacking, and it's still easier to open my raw editor which fortunately works with JPGs and TIFFs.

Some say that selective coloring is passé. That might be true for a photographer dealing with many photos, but it's still a desired effect for the individual brides or high school senior. After all it is unique to them, and that's what counts.