Today, after the family photo shoot was done, my sister asked us to stick around and take some photos of Alex alone. Alex turned 2 in April, and is a bit of a handful! She was such a doll, but we had a hard time keeping her in one place long enough for poses.
She loved copying me- when she sat down for pictures in the grass, I laid down on my stomach in front of her. Not 10 seconds later, she was giggling, and laying on her stomach, as well! She is such a joyful little girl.
My sister asked for some black & white photos with selective color, so I took a lot of photos in color. When I got home, I started editing.
First, I add a 2nd layer to each photo by copying the photo, and pasting it over top of the photo. 2 identical layers, basically. Then, I take the top copy, and make it black and white. Next, I up the contrast & darken the brighteness, because in black & white, the contrast fades.
From there, I fade the top copy, so color shows through enough for me to see where color should be. Once I've determined that, I use a tool in Paintshop Pro to cut away the top layer only in specific areas. Once it's cut away, the full color photo under shows through.
I also soften the image, which helps blend out any graininess, and give it a smoother look. Lastly, I add borders to the images, though they can be removed. In this case, Alex was wearing pink as her dominate color, so I let the pink shine through, and added a black, white, and pink border to the images.
I love how they all turned out!
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Comments: 38
wow, you did a great job with the pics. Very pretty.
Thank you very much, Cynthia!
You did a superb job!
Thanks Shirley!
Those are really nice
Thanks Kara :)
Great edits!
Thank you, Lisa :)
You've done some amazing things with those photos.
Thanks, Leah!
You're very welcome. She's absolutely ADORABLE!
I love selective color when it's done well... and I LOVE these!!!! Great job!
Thanks :) I loooove selective color. I usually pick colors that aren't so bright, but that's what I had to work with- or green grass, or demin! ;)
Wow...the pictures look great...Great job...I wish I could do something like that.....
Thank you! I'm self taught- I learn best by just fiddling around until I figure things out. I'll occasionally read a tutorial, but I usually find easier or more intuitive ways to do it after I figure out how it's done.
She's getting big!
She is, indeed! I can't believe how much she's grown!
She looks so cute. I really need to learn to do this because they look awesome.
It's pretty easy to do in paintshop- the hardest (or most time consuming), is cutting out the section you want cut out.
ADORABLE!! Oh my goodness she is so cute!
My sister, Tina, can do that black and white with just one color popping out thing - I have no idea how to do it, though. It's an awesome effect.
Thank you, Tina! She is a doll :)
They turned out really cute, you did a great job Heather!
Thank you, Priscilla :)
Those are beautiful! I love the selective coloring :~)
Thanks Heather- I love how selective coloring turns out, most of the time.
Too bad you don't have Photoshop. You can do it in a lot fewer steps and you can also tone down the brightness of the hot pink part too. Anyway, maybe when you hit the lottery, you can get a copy of the program! LOL
I can do it in a lot fewer steps here, too, but I choose to do it the way I do to make the photo look the way it does. The selective color is 2 steps. I can also tone it back in Paintshop, without spending the hundreds of dollars Photoshop costs (which, I also do have, but can't stand, it's not as intuitive as paintshop pro).
Well, the main time consuming step is the masking/cutting away part. In photoshop you can do selective color without having to duplicate the layers --- you just pick which hues you want to desaturate. Just wasn't sure if Paintshop had that capability or not. I guess I wasn't understanding why that step is necessary, but to each their own. I have to have Photoshop as a professional designer, and have been working in that program since 1991, so obviously I don't know the capabilities of any of the other photo editing programs.
Those are wonderful...I love the blush on her cheeks!
nice shot.
Heather, the pictures turned out absolutely beautiful. Oh, I wish you lived close by. I would pay you to take photos of my kids and edit them. You do wonderful work.
Thank you, Monica! I want to do a lot of this using relatives over the next year or so, then maybe try my hand at doing senior portraits for people.
Heather these are really great, I bet your sister is going to love them. I cannot believe how big Alex is getting, I still remember those princess photos you posted of her a long time ago.
She's getting so big, so fast!
Those are great!
they look wonderful!!!!
You did a great job on this Heather. I would stick with your way of doing it, they came out great! I haven't mastered layering or cutting out sections like this yet. And I think they came out wonderful.
You did an awesome job