Black and White

So I have a color picture and I wanted to change it to black and white but I want to keep a necklase that im wearing the same color (green). How can I turn my picture into black and white without changing the color of my necklase?? :confused:

Hi kourtneys, there are several ways:
http://forum.teamphotoshop.com/showthread.php?t=25927&highlight=black+white

You can also desaturate the image, add a layer mask and mask the necklace so it isn't touched by the desaturation.

[QUOTE=kourtneys]THank you for your help, It seems that this photoshop is harder than I though. I got the layering part down, but im still having trouble masking the necklase.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kourtney[/QUOTE]

Hi Kourtney,

I'll share this here as well as in the private message, so other users can use it in the future.

Masking the necklace out isn't that hard, with some patience anyone can do it.

These are the steps I would take:
- Open your photo in Photoshop and go to cmd + j (mac) or ctrl + j (PC) to duplicate your background layer and not destroy your original image.

- Now add an adjustment layer by going to your layer pallet and clicking the fourth icon from the left on the bottom of this pallet, choose: Channel Mixer. (You can also go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer)

- In the pop up window tick the 'Monochrome' checkbox on the bottom of the image and play around with the sliders until you have a black and white photo that you like. Basically the rule of thumb is that you don't want the percentages to add up to more than 100%, so maybe 70% red, and than dial in 15% in the other two sliders. Play around, and rules are meant to be broken.

- In your layers pallet add a quick mask. (Third icon from the left, or go to: Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal All)

- Select the Brush Tool (Press B) and zoom into the necklace. Choose a brush size that you feel comfortable working with, use a small brush size for the details. Make sure your foreground color is set to black! (Press D and than X). Now just start painting over the necklace and watch the color reveal.

Thats it! If you mess up when painting with the brush, you can always switch your foreground color to white (Switch between foreground and background color by pressing X) and paint over the messy part again.