Discover how to create a color mask for a construction worker in a black and white image using Photoshop. Learn how to adjust brush size for detailed work, use selection tools, and fill in selected areas to reveal the black and white image below.
Key Insights
- The article explains how to create a color mask for a figure in an image, using a construction worker as an example. The first step involves using a large brush to color in parts of the image far away from the figure.
- As you get closer to the figure, you can adjust the brush size to more accurately decide where to apply color. You can also use selection tools to select specific parts of the image to fill in with black, revealing the black and white image below.
- This process can be time-consuming and may require repeated adjustments to the mask. But the result will be an image where the figure stands out in color against a black and white background.
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In this video we'll continue working with our Construction Worker Adjusted PSD file. In the last video we talked a little bit about masks, and if we hold ALT and click on the icon, we'll see that we began creating a mask for our construction worker in color.
We'll hold ALT and click the icon again, and we can see that the black allows the black and white image to show through below. Let's zoom in, and we can talk about how we'll continue to pull only the construction worker out in color. With our brush set to a large brush tip size, let's continue to color over the rest of our image far out from the construction worker.
As we get closer to him, we'll be able to more strategically decide where we want the color in black and white. We'll simply hover over the outside and some of this, and then if we right-click with our brush, we'll see a little box comes up allowing us to change the size of our brush tip. We'll again start coloring in some of this middle bar and this bottom area to the right.
For now, this looks pretty good; however, I'm nervous to get too close with the brush tip, so there are a couple ways that we could do this now. If we zoom in closer, I could modify the brush tip size to a very small size where I can begin inching very close to his helmet in some of the tighter spots, or instead I can begin using the selection tools. For this method, let's do that.
For now, we're going to use our Quick Selection tool, and what we're going to be doing is selecting off pieces of our image to fill in with black so that our black and white image shows through below. So to do this, we'll start working around the helmet. And we'll just begin clicking and dragging right up and around the helmet.
And with all of this selected, let's move over just a little bit and zoom in. We'll see that I missed a couple spots of the helmet. First, I've missed a little yellow on his jacket, so I'll hold ALT, and this will give us a minus sign, meaning that it will remove it from the selection.
I'll then drag here, and I've also missed this black strap right here. In addition, let's come a little bit further down the helmet, and now holding ALT, I'm going to remove it from the front attachment. And it looks like we don't quite have his sleeve.
I'll use ALT there. I'll redraw it, and let's also come down here to his hand. Again, I'll use ALT to remove it from his glove.
And this is a pretty good selection around him right now for the top. Let's zoom in just to check it. We're going to remove some of the selection from the back of his strap here, and we missed just a little bit of his neck.
And this looks pretty good. This is a good line around him. I'll remove this part of the strap.
And now we have a selection that we want to be black and white. We want it to be black and white. Remember that we're going to fill this with black so that the image below shines through.
In order to do this, we can right-click on the selection and select Fill. We'll then make sure that the contents will fill with black, and we'll click OK. Now we can see that all of the area that we've selected is now black and white since it's showing from below.
So let's continue with this process and continue doing some of the close pixels around it. Let's zoom in on the left now, and we're going to start a new selection, first hitting CTRL+D to deselect our previous selection. And we'll start drawing around him here.
I'll hit ALT so that we don't get his glove. And using a combination of Add to Selection with the plus and Subtract from Selection with the minus, I'll simply keep selecting areas outside of him. In this case, we have a pretty clean line around him, and I want to add this entire bar to our selection since we want it to be black and white.
However, I don't want to add this color in the middle. We'll zoom in again. And I'll make sure I'll have this entire bar highlighted.
Again, we don't want him to be in any of the selection here, but we do want to contain the bar. And let's change the size of our selection tool by dragging it down. We can get this end right here.
In addition, I'll hit the minus key so we don't get any of his shoulders. And hit the minus key so we don't get some of his straps. Finally, let's reduce it very small, just so I can get some of that corner.
And let's zoom out. We're going to now adjust the size to be a little bit larger. And I'll keep grabbing other parts of our image.
I'll just subtract this whole section down here because we'll do that section next. And I'll subtract this in the middle here. All right, now we're ready to fill it.
We'll right-click, select Fill, and click OK. Everything has gone to black and white except our worker. As you notice, this is a long process.
Sometimes redoing it, sometimes re-clicking it, re-adding to selections. So let's pause for now. We'll hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work.
And in the next video, we'll be finishing it up. See you there!