Sunflower picture

I'm having some fun taking a color photo, changing it to black and white and then creating spot color by restoring the original color by "erasing" the black and white information from the picture. It can be done in both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro 8 which I have at home.

Here's how it's done in PSP according to a recent forum posting:

A very simple method is to make a duplicate image (layer) of your photo...In PSP 8, activate the top layer and go to ADJUST -> Hue and saturation -> Hue/Saturation/Lightness and move the left slider all the way down to make a B&W image. You now have a B&W image on top of the color image. Make the top image active and use the ERASE tool to remove the B&W data from the areas that you want to be colored.

You can then save the file "as-is" in the PSP file format or flatten (merge) the layers and save it as a JPG file.

The above steps can also be followed in Photoshop. The wording is slightly different, but you go to Layer -> Duplicate layer (accept the default background layer name) and then IMAGE -> Adjust -> Hue/saturation and then follow the rest of the above steps. (Tip: use a small brush to "color" the outside edge and a larger brush for the inside.)

It sounds more complicated than it really is. I tried it out on this sunflower photo from a couple of years ago.