colourise part of a black and white image

[Ken Veal]

PSPRo 2018.I have a coloured jpeg image that I want to change to black and white.I then want to colourise a pumpkin in it but keep the rest of the image black and white.What is the best way to do this please.Will need some detail !

[Teamouse]

Can you post the image your wanting to do this.

[JoeB]

PSPRo 2018.I have a coloured jpeg image that I want to change to black and white.I then want to colourise a pumpkin in it but keep the rest of the image black and white.What is the best way to do this please.Will need some detail !

As @Teamouse suggested, it's always helpful if you could post a sample image. However...

Technically speaking, I don't believe you actually want a black and white image, because that only has two shades or values - either black or white. I believe you want to start with a greyscale image, which won't show colors but have different intensities and gradations of grey, from pure white to pure black and various combinations/shades in between depending on your image.

So you start by going to Image>Greyscale, which will provide a greyscale image. Then Image>Increase Color Depth>RGB 8 bits/channel or 16 bits per channel (either will work).

Then, in you Material's palette set the color you want to use on the pumpkin.

Then make a selection of your pumpkin using one of the Freehand selections options - Point to Point, or Freehand if you're good tracing around the pumpkin. Select Anti-Alias and maybe smoothing at 2 and even a bit of feathering - those last two settings will depend on the pixel size of your image to get the best result so you might have to experiment a bit.

Then get the Color Changer tool. It is on the flyout for the Fill tool on your toolbar. Click with that tool inside of your selection to color inside the selection. That should color your pumpkin. If not satisfied with the color or the selection just hit Undo to back up to where you want and and make the appropriate changes to the selection and/or color before coloring your image again.

[LeviFiction]

JoeB you're getting too literal. Even in Photography Black & White film are the extremes with greyscale tones in the middle. No point in over-complicating it with the difference between a 1-bit single channel image and an 8-bit single channel image.

It's why we have the Black & White film effect. And not the Greyscale Film effect. Black & White TVs instead of Greyscale TVs. Go with the lingo man.

As for going Greyscale, there are several options available. Each yields a slightly different result but they all go grey.

1) Do what JoeB suggested, go greyscale then increase the color depth back to RGB again.

or
These other methods will work on individual layers, so duplicate the layer before doing any of them.

2) Use the hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment filter and set Saturation to 0.

or

3) Use the script "Greyscale in place" which converts the image to greyscale quickly using the Custom Filters Command.

or

4) Use the Black & White film effect under the Effects menu to make a more dramatic B&W film effect, highlighting certain colors and darkening others.

Since it's on its own layer, you can use selections or the eraser tool to erase the top layer and let the original pumpkin shine through. Or you can use the suggestions by JoeB to actually color in the pumpkin with a custom color choice.

[JoeB]

JoeB you're getting too literal. Even in Photography Black & White film are the extremes with greyscale tones in the middle. No point in over-complicating it with the difference between a 1-bit single channel image and an 8-bit single channel image.

It's why we have the Black & White film effect. And not the Greyscale Film effect. Black & White TVs instead of Greyscale TVs. Go with the lingo man.

As for going Greyscale, there are several options available. Each yields a slightly different result but they all go grey.

I realized that I was getting somewhat technical, but I did so for a reason. While our graphic editors might only have the term Greyscale as an option, most scanners have both Greyscale and Black and White as options. There is, as I described, a radically different output depending on the one a person chooses. The Kodalith Effect post in the scripting sub-group by @Teamouse - which originally contained the history of Kodalith - is a good example of where the difference between B& W and Greyscale matters.

So I can't see where it hurts - particularly in a forum dedicated to helping people to become familiar with graphics, AND where beginners in graphics might be coming to learn stuff - to explain the terminology correctly and the difference between both terms. I was just as technical in another thread where a poster was using the term "invisible" with regards to setting transparency rather than the correct term "transparent" or "transparency". As I said, I can't see where getting people started with the correct terminology - and what the different terms actually mean - has any downside in a graphic forum such as this.

The general acceptance of Black & White to mean Greyscale was simply to provide marketing/sales people a way to differentiate between the new color TV set and the older, non-color versions. In photography it allowed non-technical people to also make that differentiation i.e., it's not "color". But for a forum that is dedicated to providing information to perhaps more discerning graphic aspirants - and to those new to graphics who visit this forum - I'm a firm believer in trying to keep things like terminology as accurate as possible. More information - particularly when it really isn't actually technical but easily descriptive and can be easily understood by virtually anybody - can't be a bad thing, eh? JMHO, of course.

EDIT: Upon further reflection perhaps I misread LeviFiction's intended meaning. I can see where this might have been a situation where, had I simply provided a reminder that B&W and Greyscale were different formats and suspected the original post meant Greyscale - without going into detail about the distinction - that would have been more appropriate, because the OP likely did know the difference. And anyone who didn't could always ask for more clarification. So I can see where I might want to consider being less verbose in similar future posts.

Since it's on its own layer, you can use selections or the eraser tool to erase the top layer and let the original pumpkin shine through.

I do agree that this is probably the easiest way to do what the OP wants to achieve, particularly if the OP likes the original pumpkin as is! I just went with my procedure because the original subject used the word "Colourize" in the subject title, which caused me to look at and use the Color Changer tool.

[Cassel]

Here is my technique to do that.
http://scrapbookcampus.com/tips-tricks/ ... tshop-pro/

[JoeB]

Here is my technique to do that.
http://scrapbookcampus.com/tips-tricks/ ... tshop-pro/

Good tutorial - and very much what LeviFiction suggested in the last part of his post. Your tutorial does provide more detail for helping to make the erasure work even when some things might be under/over erased.

[Ken Veal]

Well, thank you all for the detailed replies, did not expect to generate such a response! I will work my through all the suggestions and most likely will be back
Ken

[Richard]

I am no expert in PSP, but it seems to me that there is an easier way to do this. Why get rid of the color in the Pumpkin, and then put it back? Why not just leave it there, and get rid of the color in everything else?

Original photo. I added a mask around the orange fungus using the Smart selection brush, with mode set to Replace, and Tolerance set to 32. Getting the mask right may require some experimentation. Worst case, it will have to be hand drawn.

Then go to Selections, Invert, so the mask selects everything other than the object of interest. Then go to Adjust, Hue and Saturation, and set the saturation to zero.

The result:

[JoeB]

I added a short edit to my previous post, and apologies to LeviFiction if I misinterpreted the intent of his comments.

[Ken Veal]

I was about to follow through on previous posts when I saw Richard's post which seemed easy enough to work through.Thanks to Richard I used to following workflow which got the result I was after.
1 With original photo-go to smart selection brush, set mode to replace and tolerance to 32
2 Clicked on edge of pumpkin, mask drew around it
3 Go to selections click invert
4 Under the Adjust menu go to Hue +saturation--Hue saturation and lightness- set saturation to zero.
5 Click ok- image shows with only colour in pumpkin
6 Click CTRL + D to remove dotted lines.
I would be grateful for any comments on this method
Ken

[JoeB]

I was about to follow through on previous posts when I saw Richard's post which seemed easy enough to work through.Thanks to Richard I used to following workflow which got the result I was after.
1 With original photo-go to smart selection brush, set mode to replace and tolerance to 32
2 Clicked on edge of pumpkin, mask drew around it
3 Go to selections click invert
4 Under the Adjust menu go to Hue +saturation--Hue saturation and lightness- set saturation to zero.
5 Click ok- image shows with only colour in pumpkin
6 Click CTRL + D to remove dotted lines.
I would be grateful for any comments on this method
Ken

My only comment is that if it works then that's the procedure to follow - at least until and unless you come across an image where Smart Selection doesn't quite do the job. Then you can just experiment with the other selection options.

The various Selection tools/options are useful to experiment with because some of the "smart" or "automatic" types work better on some images than others. Not having seen your image but able to imagine that the orange pumpkin stood out from the rest of the image I would suspect Smart Selection and perhaps Edge Seeker or - maybe - Auto Selection would work fine. Where they don't, then at least with Point to Point and Freehand you can be more selective with your objects where the other options don't seem to do the trick. And, of course, if one Selection tool comes close but not quite as accurate as you need you can always go to Edit Selection and refine the "almost correct" selection you have in place.

[Ken Veal]

This image (with face blur added for this post) is the result I attained

[Richard]

I would be grateful for any comments on this method
Ken

It's an easy method in your example or mine, because the object stands out against the background in a way that PSP can find the edges. If, for example, you wanted color for the child and the pumpkin you would have to draw the mask by hand (Selection type Freehand, and Add mode so that you can build up the mask as you scroll around the photo). I don't think that would be any less, or more, work than the two layer and erase method that was also suggested.

[JoeB]

I notice from your image that the greyscale portion is very faded. If that's not the effect that you were looking for you might want to do a Curves adjustment or even try Fade Correction to bring out the contrast in the greyscale image.