Isolate a Colour in a Photo for Striking Results

Like many things in Photoshop, there are numerous ways the same result can be achieved. For this tutorial we have descibed the way we most commonly use, allowing us to not only pick out one colour but whole elements, making them the focus of the photo.

What you will need:

• Photoshop

1. Once you have loaded the image into Photoshop, the first step is to duplicate the layer by dragging it in the layers panel onto the 'new layer' button.

2. With the original background layer selected, we will now convert this to a black and white image with which the coloured element will sit. To convert the layer to black and white navigate to the 'image' menu, then go to 'adjustments' and finally click on 'black and white'. You will now be presented with a dialogue box in which you can adjust the levels of black white on a per colour basis. The idea here is to try and tone down the contrast on the background elements so that the colour element will be more prominent. Because our image is primarily pinks and reds we will increase the pink and red sliders to tone down the contrast on these colours.

3. Once the background has been converted to black and white the next step is to select the top 'coloured' layer and erase the unwanted area. In this case we want to keep the one flower and erase everything else. Select the erase tool and delete everything you don't want to keep, leaving only the area you want.

4. Once you are happy with the finished image, save it to the format of your choice.