So you’ve seen those gorgeously styled black and white shots in those glossy mags and wondered how they get the effect where just the item is coloured and everything else is set in black and white? The instructions below will guide you through how to apply this effect to your photographs using Photoshop.

         Before                              After

First make a copy of the photograph you wish to use.  That way, you will always have the original if you don’t like the changes you made.

Open the copy in Photoshop.

 
Increase the zoom on the item that you want to remain in colour.

Fig 1

Select the lasso tool ( shown in Fig 1) in the tool bar on the left and trace out the outline of the item you want to remain in colour. 

  


















Trace the item all the way around until you come back to your starting point. Dotted lines will edge your selection.

Then inverse the selection to include all the area outside your traced item. Go to Select,  Inverse

This will select the area outside your traced item and you will see dotted lines around the outside edge of the photograph.

To make this selected area black and white, go to Layer , New, Adjustment Layer.

 

Select Hue/Saturation in the Type field in the New Adjustment box that appears.

 In the Hue/Saturation box that appears, move the slider for Saturation to -100 and hit OK.

And your new photographic effect is now done.

More before and after examples

I have been off the grid of late, busy with new creations and designs. One of my projects was to create a set of bangles and earrings to match a saree. The saree, which originates from India, is a lovely outfit that can be demure or vampish depending on the wearer. Modern sarees come embellished with embroidery, beads and sequins. My challenge was to create something to match a deep pink material with gold embellishments. It had to be resin and modern but still in keeping with the ethnic feel of a saree.

This was the result. Love to hear your comments and feedback.  

 

I have been thinking about spice and all things green and nice after a visit to the Penang Spice Garden in Malaysia.  It was really interesting to see the herbs and spices, that I use everyday, in their natural element. I have a picture here of a cinnamon tree. The bark is used in cooking and the leaves are also supposed to be fragrant. These were too high for me to sniff. (The cinnamon tree is the little sapling on the left)

And did you know that cardamom comes from a plant that is related to the ginger? The cardamoms are the seed pods that are formed after the plant has flowered. I was fascinated – so fascinated that I forgot to take a picture.

My mother came across a plant that is sold in her local market and it turned out to be these wild pepper leaves. They are such a lush deep green. I can understand why our ancestors were tempted to try them out. I think she is going to be buying some soon.

Did you also know that citronella, the popular insect repellant, is related to the lemongrass that is used so much in Thai and asian cooking? They had the two side by side. The citronella plant is much more robust – taller leaves and thicker stalks and have these plume like flower stalks shown above.

The spice garden also has an ornamental component to it and I came across some gorgeous plants and flowers. These were in the pond at the beginning of the walk. They are a variety of water lily which has huge leaves. These are quite small. I have seen pictures of leaves that are large enough to support the weight of a small child.

I have no idea what these are but I was reminded again of how nature creates some wonderful forms and structures.   

The Penang Spice Garden is located right next to the sea and you can get glimpses of the ocean as you walk the paths.

The visit had me thinking about natural remedies. Modern medicine is either unaware of these plants or tries to package the healing and medicinal properties into easy to take capsules or tablets. I somehow think we would be better of just adding these herbs and spices to our diet. I also hope the knowledge of how much we should take, preparation and frequency hasn’t been lost and there are still people out there to share this information with me.

If you are ever in that part of the world, the Penang Spice Garden is worth a visit.

I love going for walks around the neighbourhood. I get some of my best design ideas then. After a very wet spring, the plants on my walking route have had an enormous growth spurt. I found an abundance of gorgeous little cones on a pine tree and thought to myself that they would look amazing reproduced in resin.

This is how they came out.

 

I made a pair of earrings for myself to see what they looked like and got heaps of compliments when I wore them. They were even more impressed that I made them myself.  A couple of them said that they looked like miniature grenades complete with pin. I guess I shouldn’t have made them in black.  I poured some gold ones too for my sister to match an outfit for an upcoming party.

I'm going to work on them this weekend and list a few items in my shop!