Colour in a Black and White Photo.

[stevegill]

I've seen black and white photos that have a colour object. For example, everything in the photo is black and white except for a red apple.

What's the easiest way to do this in XDP6? I'm guessing it involves masks.

Thanks.

Regards,

Steve

[steve.ledger]

Recolouring a B/W photo is something different to removing all colours but red.

Some digital cameras have this affect built-in, but it's fairly easy to do in photo editing software and particularly RAW developers like Lighroom.

If you have a B/W photo and you want parts to be red, you can clone the photo, slice the objects to be red from the top copy and change the contones but you won't get a very realistic result this way.
Basically, you'd start with a full colour image and remove all but red.

[highfrontier]

If you're starting with a B&W photo and want to colour it, this way is probably the simplest..
It will also give you results very similar to how photos were originally coloured - with painted on ink or dye.

[highfrontier]

Alternative method - this is for keeping colour in one part of a colour photo.

[steve.ledger]

Here's a comparison between the lengthier process of cloning and slicing objects from a color photo and setting the base photo to b/w when done or using Lightroom to desaturate all but red.

You have more control and more fun with Designer Pro 6, but if you're in a hurry you'll do better with a dedicated photo editor.

[stevegill]

Sledger, I would be changing a colour photo to black and white, so I will try removing all of the colour from everything except the object I want to highlight. I have checked the Nikon Capture NX2 software I have and it appears it can do this but I'd also like to be able to do this in Xara as well so I'll have a bit of a play.

HighFrontier, thank you very much. I'll try those techniques out.

Thanks.

Steve

[steve.ledger]

.....but I'd also like to be able to do this in Xara as well so I'll have a bit of a play..

You'll need to use either HF's or my clone'n'slice method then as Designer Pro6 (or earlier) has no selective colour desaturation tools.

[Soquili]

Hi Steve,

Yes you can use a mask in XDP6 to do what I think you want.

Enable Mask Mode and draw a shape around the object you want to remain in color.

Once you have the shape around the object, invert the mask.

Switch to the Photo Tool and use the Set Photo Saturation slider to desaturate the unmasked part of the photo.

See the attached wmv video.

[steve.ledger]

Yes that's similar to the method I already used above Bill (clone'n'slice objects), your mask method is probably a better way. But it's not selective colour desaturation at all. The apple still has magentas, yellows and greens.
Many newer digital cameras actually have this feature built-in, many Canons have this and a feature known as color-swap.

Here's Lightroom's HSL selective colour saturation controls.


Something like this would be what the OP needs.

[amoore]

Here's a comparison between the lengthier process of cloning and slicing objects from a color photo and setting the base photo to b/w when done or using Lightroom to desaturate all but red.

I'm particularly impressed with the alien ear in the desaturate version.