Take Your Photos to the Next Level Using Adobe Photoshop : Enhancing with Selective Color

Have you ever seen hand colored black and white photographs and wish that you could create some of your own images that way? Here's how using Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Step 1: Take a photograph in color. This can be a digital photograph or a photograph that is put onto a photo CD.

Step 2: Load the image you would like to convert onto your computer.

Step 3: Right click on the image and choose Open With... Adobe Photoshop CS2 from the menu.

Step 4: When Adobe Photoshop CS2 opens, familiarize yourself with the screen and the location of important tool bars.

a. Across the top of the screen you will see the following menu items : File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window and Help

b. Down the left hand side you will see various tools. If you mouse over each tool, it will tell you what the tool is. Click on anyone of these. You will notice that when you do, your cursor changes when you mouse over the picture. A tool/information bar just below the menu also changes.

c. Down the right hand side you will notice a series of small windows. The top one will be navigator, info and histogram window that will have a small version of the picture on it. With the navigator tab chosen, move the slider at the bottom of the small picture. This is how you zoom in and out. Notice how there is a red box on top of the small picture now. You can move that around to see a particular part of the picture when it is zoomed.

d. The second window down the side is the Color, Swatches, Styles toolbar. You can use this do adjust the color if needed.

e. The third window down is where you can see the history of what you have done to edit the photograph.

f. The last window down the side is the Layers, Channels, Path toolbar. You will see a tiny picture of the one that you have pulled up with an eye next to it. It will be marked "Background". If you click on the eye, you will notice that your picture turns to checkers. You will need to click the eye later to turn on and off certain layers that we will create. Make sure the eye is on next to the picture.