Sponge
Ever walked into the Sears photo studio and wondered how they make the entire picture gray except for that flower? or that girl? Well, today is your lucky day, because I am going to show you how! People under-estimate the power of the sponge tool, they don't realize what fancy work it can do. This tutorial will help you learn to use the sponge AND the magic wand. IT's A TWO FOR ONE DEAL!Hint: This technique works especially well with portraits and flowers. Sometimes still photographs.
1.Go on to the web and find an image of a flower. (try not to select a wallpaper, pick something small)Make sure there is the flower and background. Right Click & Save As
I am going to work with this image:
Note: Image has been resized.
3.Look on your toolbar, find & select the Magic Wand.
4.When you select the magic wand. The top of your screen will look something like this:
The highlighted area is important. The squares help you select. Hover over each one to see what each one stands for. The tolerance helps you select the colors. The more tolerance, the more shades are selected at once. The less tolerance, the less shades.
Hint: Depending on your picture, try find the best tolerance. I start at the 20s-30s and work my way down. Also, select the second square (Add to selection), it will help you move quicker.
5.Take your wand and start clicking on the flower, not the stem or the background, just the colorful flower. You will see moving dotted lines going.Keep clicking in different areas, until it looks something like this:
IMPORTANT:You shouldn't have any moving lines INSIDE the area you want to remain color, it should be a single moving line around the area you want color.
6. Right click on your selected area, and select 'Select Inverse'. This will select the outside of your selection.
7. Find & Select your sponge tool.
On the top, make sure it is set to 'Desaturate'. This will make the image look grayscale. Take your sponge, click & hold, move over the image. Everything except the flower should be turning gray. Make sure your brush is a circle. When it has turned to your desired gray, Ctrl+D to deselect, and YOU ARE DONE! Now you can do it to any image you want.
Here is my finished piece.
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