Photoshop Tutorial： Color Splash Effect

Our goal is to isolate the color of this egg here, while keeping everything else black and white. And we're going to be using layer masks to do that. First of all, a lot of times when you open an image in Photoshop, you see that little lock sign next to it. Just double click on it and hit OK so that you can start editing on the layer. Right click on your layer and select Duplicate Layer, or press the shortcut Command J. The layer on top is the one that's going to have all the effects on it, and the one on the bottom is what's going to show through with the original color. So with your duplicated layer highlighted, go to Image, Adjustments, Hue Saturation, or hit Command U. And turn the saturation slider all the way down to negative 100. Hit OK. Now for the most important step, we're going to create a layer mask. So go to Layer, Layer Mask, and choose Reveal All. Now you notice that this white box just popped up next to your layer. The layer next to it is only going to show on the parts of the layer mask that are white. Anything on the layer mask that's black is going to hide whatever's on that layer. And in this case, our original layer with the color will show through those spots. In other words, white reveals and black conceals. So when I start painting black onto my layer mask, it conceals everything on that layer that's in that black line. And you can see it works the same no matter what you draw. So if I make that squiggle there, you see it? Now there's tons of ways you can fill in the shape of the egg. Most precisely would be the pen tool, but I'm going to use a brush tool to show you some of the things that you can do with layer masks. So color in your layer mask. Just make sure you're using a hard brush, and if you have to change brush sizes to get some of the details, that's fine. Now you want to fix up the little edges that you messed up on using a brush. You could use a pen tool, but I'm just using a brush to show you how layer masks work. Now turn the hardness of your brush all the way up so we can clean up the edges. And paint in white to reveal the desaturated layer and bring the edges in closer. If you want to zoom in or zoom out of your image at any time, just hold command and use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Again, if you want to do this another way, you could use the lasso tool or the pen tool. I just want to show you guys what the layer mask is capable of. Now I notice that spot that I didn't paint. So instead of going to this arrow switcher to switch to black every time, just press X on your keyboard and it'll go back and forth. I'm painting in black right now, and I need a smaller brush to get the details. And go right up this circle, and then hit X to go to white, and go back down and clean it. So now let's say, alright so now I'm painting in black, and let's say I go over the line too much, I just hit X, turn to white, and erase it. Turn back to black and keep going. And do that all the way around. Now we have pretty much the final image here. I just want you to see, that's what we were doing, and everything underneath is showing through. Now there's a difference between painting on the layer mask and painting on the layer. See I'm painting right on top of the actual image right now, but it still has to follow the edges of the layer mask. But when we click back on our layer mask and start painting, you see the difference. Now that you've done all that work, the great thing about layer masks is that you can use any effect you want now. You don't just have to use that desaturation effect, because honestly that's a pretty overused effect. For example, I added a radial blur, and it still follows the layer mask, keeping the original egg the same. You can go through the filters and try whatever you like, like any of these, and it still keeps the original egg the same. So you can even lower the opacity, just desaturate it a little bit. Now that you have the layer mask, you can adjust the layer however you like, and the original one will always show through. So I'm just going to turn the brightness and contrast a little bit down, to make the egg stand out. And if you ever apply an effect too strongly, like I just did there, you can go to edit, fade, and fade it a little bit. And that's it. Thank you, subscribe for more, and tell me what you want to see.