Selective Desaturation

Shooting in black and white can bring a classic appearance to your photographs. Fine grain and deep shadows make a contemporary scene appear nostalgic and timeless. Of course, there are times when you may want to bridge the decades by creating a combined black and white photograph with elements of color. This effect is relatively easy to achieve with many commercially available photo editing applications.

The photograph illustrated in this article was taken during a pee-wee football game where my little friend was "in the zone" and playing like a champ. I wanted to preserve the passion he illustrated that day by creating a print where he stood out from the crowd. The final print was printed on as a poster with a black matte and is proudly displayed on his bedroom wall. Here is how you can create a similar print using the photograph of your choice:

Open the photograph you would like to edit with a photo editing application that supports layers and saturation. If you do not already have such an application, there is no need to run out and spend a large sum of money on a commercial package. The GNU Image Manipulation Program (Gimp) is an open source application that is available for free. There is absolutely no cost associated with this application and it is fully functional with no strings attached.

With your photo editing application open and your photograph loaded, create a copy of the background layer. You will want to avoid editing your background layer in case you need to revert back to the original. Use your first copy to adjust your highlights, shadows, and make color adjustments using levels and curves. This is a good time to crop out any unwanted elements and make any other necessary adjustments.

Once you have your colors and highlights balanced, create another layer. Apply the desaturation by using the embedded filters, or convert image to black and white. This process with remove all the color from the entire photograph, but not to worry, we are going to bring some of the color back. Use the pen tool or lasso to make a selection around your subject. On the same layer as your selection, create a mask around your subject. With the mask selected, use the paintbrush with the black foreground selected (black reveals, white hides) and paint your subject until the color is revealed. This may take a few tries to get right. Alternate between the paintbrush and the eraser to add and remove color.

Once you have your subject brought back to full color, select the layer below the mask layer. Move the opacity saturation slider from side to side to adjust the amount of color you want to display. Leaving the saturation set to allow full color may be too much for a mixed saturation image. By using the opacity slider, you can create a slightly blush image that will blend the color and desaturated image more subtly.

After you have your photograph balanced to your liking, collapse the layers and save the image in the format of your choice. The prints are often best displayed using either black or white matting with simple frames. These images are excellent conversation pieces and make excellent gifts.