Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

This technique can be used for various reasons: as a selection technique, or for stylistic effects, such isolating the subject of an image, or reducing the color range of an image to just a few key colors.

Exercise files

Download the Photoshop file used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Color Splash Effect.psd
132.9 MB

Quick reference

Topic

By using the 'Color Range Selection Method' in Phototshop, you can isolate single colors in an image, making them stand out for a color splash style effect

When to use

This technique can be used for various reasons: as a selection technique, or for stylistic effects, such isolating the subject of an image, or reducing the color range of an image to just a few key colors.

Instructions

Load image and select Color Range

  • From the Select drop-down menu select 'Color Range'

For quick color selection

  • Choose from the drop-down Color menu for basic colors

For better results and control use the sampling method

  • In this mode, use the Eye-Dropper tool to select the color that you want
  • Use fuzziness slider to increase range of selection hues
  • To add more colors, hold down Shift key and click on areas that you want included

To take out section that are not wanted in selection

  • Adjust the fuzziness slider
  • Switch on 'Localized Color Clusters' to keep the range localized to where you selected
  • Use in conjunction with the range slider       

After basic selection is made

  • Switch on 'invert' in the dialogue box
  • Press OK
  • Now everything except color selection is made
  • Add adjustment layer and choose 'Black and White'
  • From adjustment layer, you can tweak the selection by using a Brush tool (white to remove, black to include)

Tip

To bring up an instant black/white color for the brush: press the 'D' key

 

Login to download
  • 00:04 This tutorial is going to cover a topic that I get asked about quite a bit.
  • 00:07 Especially with mobile applications like Color Splash, that allow you to isolate a
  • 00:12 specific color in your image.
  • 00:13 In this image, we're going to attempt to single out the red phone box,
  • 00:17 leaving everything else black and white.
  • 00:22 Now there are a few ways we can go about singling out the
  • 00:27 red in the phone box,
  • 00:28 but for the sake of this tutorial, I'm going to use one of my favorite selection
  • 00:31 methods: ‘color range’,
  • 00:32 which can be found under the Select menu at the top.
  • 00:35 This feature works by allowing you to select specific colors in your image,
  • 00:40 either by choosing a basic color from the drop down, or by sampling your colors
  • 00:44 of choice.
  • 00:44 In most cases, however, choosing a color from the drop down might not be your
  • 00:48 best bet,
  • 00:49 as it’s super specific. If I select reds,
  • 00:53 looking at the preview, you're going to that the phone box isn't
  • 00:56 completely white, which means that not all the reds have
  • 00:57 been selected. Also, changing the
  • 01:01 selection preview at the bottom to ‘Black Matte’
  • 01:03 shows us that our selection is somewhat faded, which means that not all the reds
  • 01:07 have been selected.
  • 01:08 Let's try out the sampling method. This allows us to sample multiple shades
  • 01:12 of the base color that we want to select. Clicking on the phone box will sample
  • 01:16 a range of reds,
  • 01:17 defined by our fuzziness slider. A higher value will include more similar
  • 01:22 tones.
  • 01:22 While a lower value will restrict the sampling to the specific red that you
  • 01:26 selected.
  • 01:27 Now if there are any reds that have not been selected,
  • 01:30 holding in your Shift key and clicking on the additional tones
  • 01:33 will include them in the sample. As you select a larger range of tones,
  • 01:38 you might start to see areas outside the phone box being selected.
  • 01:41 There are two things you can do to help alleviate this. First, like we covered a
  • 01:46 moment ago, the fuzziness slider can help
  • 01:48 increase or decrease the amount of similar tone that are being included
  • 01:52 in the selection. You also have the ‘localized color clusters’ option
  • 01:57 and the ring slider. This can help focus your selection around the area that
  • 02:01 you've been sampling.
  • 02:02 A lower range value will tighten up the selection around your subject.
  • 02:06 Even after you've adjusted these sliders, you may want to go back and Shift
  • 02:10 click on the areas that have been removed.
  • 02:12 Your result's not going to be 100% perfect, but we're going to deal with that
  • 02:15 in a moment.
  • 02:16 Once you're happy with the sampling, because we want to change
  • 02:19 everything except the phone box, go ahead and turn on the invert option and press OK.
  • 02:23 This will give us a selection of everything else in our
  • 02:26 photo.
  • 02:27 From here, if you want to turn everything else black-and-white,
  • 02:30 your best bet is going to be to add an adjustment layer to keep our edit
  • 02:34 non-destructive.
  • 02:35 This also gives us the ability to tweak the effect if needed.
  • 02:38 For example, the sign in the background got included in our selection
  • 02:42 because the adjustment layer includes a layer mask, we can grab a white brush
  • 02:47 and paint over top of the sign to remove its red tones.
  • 02:50 The opposite works as well, if there are areas on the phone box which were not
  • 02:54 included,
  • 02:55 a black brush will bring back the reds that got lost in the process.
  • 02:59 And there you have it: a very simple way of singling out a color in Photoshop.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course