Artistic use of selective color on a flag.

Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color. This is usually achieved by using layers and masks in photo editing software (The GIMP or Photoshop, for example). The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a free Raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs

A common application for selective color is portraiture, to keep the eyes and sometimes the lips in color, against an otherwise black and white photograph. Portrait photography (also known as portraiture) is the capture by means of Photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people in which Small bits of color in an otherwise monochrome image immediately draw the viewer's eye. Monochrome comes from the Greek μονόχρωμος ( monochromos) meaning “of one color” which is a combination

Landscape photography is another common application for this technique. Colorful leaves in an otherwise drab scene can breathe life into a photo. Of course the technique can be applied to any genre, but portraits and landscapes are the usual beneficiaries.

More recently, films such as Schindler's List and Sin City (film) have made use of the technique. Schindler's List is a Biographical film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. Sin City is a 2005 film written produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.

Selective coloring is generally regarded as cheap or tacky by higher end clientèle and professional photographers.

See also

• Black-and-white
• Monochrome
• Sepia tone
• Photography
• Digital darkroom
• Hand-colouring ( The same effect using the opposite technique. Black-and-white is a number of Monochrome forms in Visual arts. Monochrome comes from the Greek μονόχρωμος ( monochromos) meaning “of one color” which is a combination Sepia tone refers to the coloring of a black and white photographic print or motion picture film that has been toned with a sepia toner to simulate the faded brownish color of Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing See also Digital darkroom. Digital Darkroom was an innovative award-winning Apple Macintosh Graphics program for editing Hand-colouring refers to any of a number of methods of manually adding colour to a Black-and-white Photograph or other image to heighten its realism )

External links

• An article by LandscapePhoto.us on how to create Selective Color photos.
• A tutorial on how to do selective color using GIMP.