need to do a trick in GIMP

[tsk1979]

I have some photographs(color) which I want to morph such that the skins of people and background is in Black and white and the clothes are in color. I saw such pics on websites and they look great. But I have no idea where to start, how to do it. Whats the best way. I am a newbie gimp user

[MrBook2]

No problem. Check out this gimp tutorial here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/

gimp.org has a bunch of good tutorials. In a nutshell, you create two layers, one with the color image, one with the black and white. Then create a layer mask to allow only part of one to show through. The tutorial has it all.

Have fun and happy gimping!

--Aaron

[tsk1979]

No problem. Check out this gimp tutorial here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/

gimp.org has a bunch of good tutorials. In a nutshell, you create two layers, one with the color image, one with the black and white. Then create a layer mask to allow only part of one to show through. The tutorial has it all.

Have fun and happy gimping!

--Aaron

My problem is opposite. This tutorial deals with stuff when most of the image is B&W and you want to put color in some part. I want to do the exact opposite, most of image color with some B&W. I figure that If I can make the lower layer B&W and put the original color over it. But how do I make a layer greyscale? Do I desaturate it?

[MrBook2]

So, yes, if you want mostly color with some black and white, just reverse the order of the layers. (Incidently, the GIMP usually won't let you put anything "under" the original background layer, so just duplicate that layer if you want to move it.)

As for how to get black and white, that can get a little bit tricky. There are several ways to get black and white, you can find several of them shown here:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Color2BW/

I prefer using the channel mixer. I think that the channel mixer is included with newer versions (2 and above) of the GIMP, but I can't prove that (I installed my so long ago, I can't remember.) If you have it is is under: Filters -> Colors -> Channel Mixer. When you use it, simply check "monochrome" and you might also want "preserve luminosity" but feel free to play with it. Once you have checked those, move the Red Green and Blue sliders back and forth until the preview image looks good. If you don't like the final product, "Undo" and try again.

Once you have the black and white image how you like it, create a new layer and then go open up the original color image. "Select All" and "Copy" the color image and "Paste" it into the new layer in the black and white image. Then add a layer mask to the color layer and paint out the layer mask where you want the black and white to show through.

Hope this helps.

NOTE: if you don't have the channel mixer (or any other plugin that you might want) check out the plugin registry :

Gimp plugins:
http://registry.gimp.org/

--Aaron

[devbobo]

Unfortunately, there are a million and one ways to convert to B&W, depending on how you want the result to turn out.

Here's a tutorial (http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/Color2BW/) for a few different methods in the GIMP.

Cheers,

David