Color Splash (Photoshop)

This tutorial will show you how to make a black and white photo with a "splash" of color in it. This technique can be used for modeling competition entries and other types of edits. Here are some examples of the color splash effect:

For this tutorial, I will be using this photo of one of my models, Dana. If you would like to use this photo for experimentation, you can find it here.

First, Open your photo in Photoshop.

Next, Duplicate the layer by right clicking on the layer in the palette and choose "Duplicate Layer". You could also duplicate the layer by going to the "Image" menu and choosing "Duplicate".

Now you are going to make your new layer black and white. To do this, go up to the "Image" menu then choose "Adjustments" and then choose "Desaturate" or you could use the keyboard shortcut by pressing Shift+Control+U.

Now here is where you can choose your method. One method is to take an eraser and erase over the areas that you want colored. The other method, which I am going to use is called a "layer mask".

To add a layer mask, make sure your black and white layer is selected and click the icon at the bottom of the layers palette that looks like a grey rectangle with a white circle in the center (shown below). After that is done, you will see another blank layer attached to your black and white layer. Layer masks are used for many purposes and are good for blending images together. When you paint with black on a layer mask, it will hide the part of the image that it is attached to (like an eraser but is easier to correct if you mess up). When you paint with white on a layer mask, it will show areas that were hidden when the black was used.

Now, to get the color splash effect, click on the paintbrush tool. Choose the desired size brush, depending on the size of your photo and adjust the hardness of the brush. The higher the hardness is, the sharper the edge of the brush will be. For this particular effect, I am going to choose a plain round brush with the size set at 50 and the hardness set at 0.

With your layer mask selected, paint with black (#000000) over the areas that you want colored. As explained previously, the black simply hides those areas. Zoom in or out when needed (Shortcut is Control +  or Control -).  For this photo, I want her dress, lips and eyes to be in color so I painted over those areas.

If you erase too much, like I did below, go back over the area that was mistakenly colored with white (#ffffff). If you were to use an eraser instead of a layer mask, it is more difficult to correct these mistakes.

After all is said and done, your finished product should look like this.

And there you have it. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask :)