Color Subject - B/W background

[kyamphotog]

I've been lurking to this point, but have a new lens for my camera and look forward to posting soon. I've seen a few posts where the subject is in color but the background is in b/w. Can someone describe the method and software used for this. I have access to Adobe Elements. Can I do it with that?

Any help would be appreciated.

First off, congratulations for your emergence from lurkerland.

Elements can be used to do the B&W background thing.

The following is how it may be accomplished using Elements 2. Later versions
will have similar steps.

Open your pic. Up in the right part of the screen you will see the tabs, one of
which is Layers. Click on that and you will see a layer labeled Background with
a thumb of your pic and an eyeball icon. At the bottom of the layer palette
there is an icon of a sheet of paper. This is the Create New Layer button.
Click and drag the background layer onto that button. A new layer named
Background copy will be created above the original layer. Select the
Background copy layer by clicking on it. Then up in the menu bar click
Enhance > Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation. Pull the Saturation slider to the left
to desaturate your image as desired. Now select the eraser tool on the Tool
Palette. Select a soft round brush appropriately sized to erase the region of
image you wish to show in color. Carefully erase the region occupied by your
subject to reveal the colored background layer. Use the undo feature when
you make a mistake. Once completed, click on the menu Layer > Merge
Visible.

There may be more elegant ways to do this but this is simple to understand
and execute.

Have fun!

[kyamphotog]

Thanks for the info. Trying now.

[Freeze Frame]

I was wondering too...thanks for the details DP.