Photoshop tutorial, how to turn a photo’s background into black and white and make the subject stand out
May 12th, 2008 by Neo
Please subscribe to my feed.
Sometimes, you may want to purposely turn a colorful photo’s background into black and white tonnes, but leave the subject in the foreground in full color to produce some contrast. Of course, this will make the subject stand out more! This trick is especially good when we apply it on a picture of a pretty girl.
Let’s take one of the pictures I took during the recent PC Fair for example.
The above picture is the original, in striking colors. She’s a very beautiful girl, right? 
The background people are very disturbing, so we want to make them less obvious.
First, we need turn this picture into black and white. In Photoshop, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer.
In the Channel Mixer dialog box, click on the checkbox Monochrome to turn the picture into black and white instantly.
Okay, we have turned the picture into monochrome mode. Let’s reveal our subject - the pretty girl.
Make sure the Channel Mixer layer is selected in the Layers list. Select the Brush Tool and make sure the foreground color is Black.
Now, using the brush tool, carefully brush over the area in the monochrome picture where you want to reveal its original colors. If you colored wrongly, you can always undo (Control-Z), or change to white color and brush over the wrongly colored areas.
At more delicate areas, you may need to change to smaller brush sizes, and at bigger areas change to a bigger brush size to color more quickly.
That’s the result. Colored subject while the background is in black and white. Beautiful?
Site feed
There are a few ways to do the same thing. Hehe. I used another method, but its more tedious. T_T
But then CS3 doesn’t have this option. I just checked. Or is it me?
Jason,
Which option is not there? Channel mixer?
Not sure about other Photoshop versions. But mine is Photoshop CS version 8.0.
Channel mixer doesn’t have the monochrome option or looks anything like yours. Mine is CS2.
Thanks for this tip. I just tried it and it works (of coz it works hehehe).
ooh thats handy
Jason,
Then we have to try other methods to achieve the same black and white background effect.
Che-Cheh,
Glad it works. Show us your creations?
Wuching,
Glad you like it.
thanks. this will b useful
Good Idea wor! Now i will go apply all my leng lui photos
hahahahaa….
i have tried it before in cs2 and i personally like the effect
i believe cs3 can do the similar method but one or two steps are different if not mistaken. can’t really remember which one 
Brushing over the subject (or background) is very time-consuming. Better buy a fast lens to turn the background out of focus…
BTW, is there such a thing called PhotoShop CS ver 8? I thought after PhotoShop ver 7, it became PhotoShop CS, then CS2, then CS3…
bengbeng,
Apply the effect to your pictures and let us see.
Anston,
Can’t wait to see your work!
satkuru,
OK, there are many ways to achieve the same effect perhaps. This is only one of them.
Khengsiong,
Of course you can use a fast lens, but the effect will be so much different. Not too sure about the Photoshop version though… I simply viewed the Help > About window, and saw it says Adobe Photoshop CS, and at the top it says Version 8.0.
Nice job. Btw, where do u usually get those lenglui pic leh?
Hi,
Wow.. that is cool. Your site is great.
whoa beautiful~
great effect..
if put an ugly girl there, can it enhances her uglyness?
hcfoo,
The lenglui picture I used above was from my photo hunting in the recent PC Fair.
Lee,
Thanks, do come back for more. I think I will do Photoshop or photo touch up tutorials from time to time since the response is good.
cbenc12,
You send me your picture, let me enhance your beauty… wakakaka.
For CS3, you can duplicate the layer, convert the new layer to BnW,
then use the rubber to erase the new layer to reveal the under coloured layer. Flatten and you’re done
man always likes beautiful girl lah
I cant concentrate your tutorial to the sample of the picture..she is sort of staring at me..so shy..muahhaha..btw..ur tutorial is good.I thought most of the digital camera cum with the monochrome features what… if i not mistaken la..
Yeah I know this trick too.. But lazy to do those customization lol.. Normally I upload my photos without do any amendment on it
Flasher,
That’s one of the ways to do the effect too. Thanks.
Keeyit,
Me too… sometimes it’s very time consuming to even touch up the photos, not to mention do special effects.
Already lenglui, no need to turn the background into monochrome liao. Thanks for the helpful tips!
Great tip, works wonders. Thanks!
Thanks for the tip. Going to try it out.
ooOOoOOoo cool!
i wana go home n try now! =D
hi..nice trick..thanks for the tip..props to you!