Converting on thing to color in a sepia photo..

I so often admire pictures where one item or such is in color while the rest of the picture is black and white or sepia. How do I do that? Im sure its simple but I am a photoshop rookie and dont know much.Can anyone help me?

most often this is done by duplicating the layer and then desaturating one of them. Then on the layer that is still in color build a layermask to mask the things you DONT want in color.

If its not too much to ask...could you walk me through it? the layer mask thing....

Sure I can.

Duplicate your layer, and then desaturated the layer lowest in the layers pallet.

Now select the duplicate layer (the one that in still in color) in the layers pallet. At the bottom of the layers pallet click on the "Create Layer Mask" icon. This will make a new thumbnail on the layer to the right of the original thumbnail. That is the mask.

Now the way masks work is anything on the mask that is Black will be "masked" anything that is white will remain and anything that is a shade of gray will be partially transparent.

To see this in action select the paintbrush tool (any brush) and set your foreground color to black. Click on the "mask" thumbnail and start painting, you'll see the areas you paint will disappear.

I am going on about 6 hours sleep in the last 3 nights so if this is less that coherent let me know and I'll try again. :D

Thank you so much! You do not realize how greatly appreciated that is! I have tried for 2 days and gotten behind on tons of psychology homework trying to figure that out! Thanks again!

God Bless!