Every Photographer Should be Using Selective Colour in Photoshop – Here’s How

The selective color effect in Photoshop is a great way to make interesting wall art.
Or, perhaps a unique image to show off your skills on Behance, Flickr or even Facebook.
This is a very easy method to do something creative. Follow these steps and get started today!

What Is the Selective Color Effect?

The selective color effect is a really cool way to pick out a color from an image and make it the focal point of the whole scene.
We do this by turning the entire photo black and white but keeping the color of the object.
It is a very easy method of adding interest to your image. It forces the viewer to look at the color first, making it more prominent and powerful.
Let’s see how it’s done.

How to Make a Selective Color Effect?

First, you need to open your image in Photoshop. This will work for any version of Photoshop, 4 and above.
NB: Look for images with one strong and prominent color, as this will make it easier to separate. Here, our image consists of one item, one color.
As you learn, you can try more complicated images once you get the hang of the method.

Copy the image by click-dragging it to Create A New Layer at the bottom of the Layer Panel.
This will allow you to non-destructively edit your image.
NB: If things turn out bad, and you need to start again, delete the copy layer you have been working on, and work on the original. Make sure you copy it again before you start.

First, we need to select the image. For me, I find it easier to use the Color Range for this, as we are focusing on the color, and not shape or form.
There are many ways you can select objects or parts of your image. See here for all the possible selection options.

After selecting the Color Range, it will give you an eyedropper/pipet tool. Click on the color you want to select.
In this case, it is the orange-yellow on the camper van.

Immediately it will pick out all pixels that inhabit that color. There will be parts missing, as the tones in the color will change.
Let’s fix that.

I Select the Magic Wand tool from the left-hand tool panel. While keeping shift pressed, I click on the unselected areas of the van.
Holding Shift allows you to add to the selection. If you make a mistake, holding Alt will take areas away with a click.
Shift+Click = Add
Alt+Click = Subtract

Next, after you are satisfied, we need to inverse the selection. This is because we want to turn the rest of the image black and white, not the van.
If we didn’t inverse our selection, we would only turn the selected pixels black and white. Go to Select>Inverse.

You will see the inversion was successful as the marching ants will be seen around the edges of the photograph.

Next, we need to change the images to black and white. To do this, go to Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer.

Click on it, and then on Black and White.

Turning the Image Black and White

There you go. The image is now black and white, except for the selected van color.
A box will pop up giving you options to adjust the color information.
NB: A black and white image still has color information, and you can use the greens blues reds etc to change the tones and look of the other areas of the photograph.

Here, I moved the sliders to create a more desirable and stronger image.
Feel free to experiment and move them around.

Here is our final image. It would look great as a present for someone looking for some unique wall art.

The before and after. Notice how the color of the van didn’t change.

Some Examples

These are a few images that I whipped together in about ten minutes.
It may take you longer, but I have had a lot of practice in the areas mentioned above.
Find some easy shots to practise on. We recommend Unsplash for free stock images.



Looking for some more great Photoshop tips? Check out our article on how to use frequency separation for stunning portraits or how to Photoshop portrait photos.

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