Photoshop Example Tutorial

I wanted to find examples of shapes students would see in their everyday lives and display them in pictures. I found this picture of construction cones and wanted to make the cone shape really stand out from the rest of the picture to show as an example for my students. The end result of this Photoshop technique is one or multiple colored objects in a photo becoming an area of interest/focus on a black and white background. I use this on school projects as well as family photos frequently. I edited this picture in Adobe Photoshop CS4 on a Mac.



Original Photo


I selected the construction cones with the Quick Selection Tool by clicking on the area I wanted selected because they are what I want in color in my final product.


When using a Mac: to add to your selection click area you would like to add, to subtract hold down the option key and then click on the area you would like to subtract until you have the exact area you want surrounded by the dashed lines. I specifically wanted the cone part of the construction cones to be my only selection.


Right click and choose Layer via Cut. Your selection will show up as a separate new layer on the bottom right hand side of your screen.


Clicking the picture of the eye so it disappears next to a specific layer will make that layer not show on the picture. I clicked on the eye next to my orange cones to make that layer not show and then I made sure to click on the picture of my background layer since that is the layer I want to adjust.


To change the background to black and white: Go to Image, Adjustments, Black and White.
Also in adjustments are tools to lighten/darken the picture or change color tone.


When this window pops up click ok.


Now if I click the box next to my cones layer to make the eye reappear, I will see bright orange cones and a black and white background.


Finally I touch up any remaining problems with the eyedropper and paintbrush. First I click on the eyedropper tool and then on a color in the picture I want to match. After I have selected my color from the picture I click on the paintbrush then click and drag to paint areas I want to cover with that color.




Here is my final product