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I tend not to edit photos much, other than simple cropping and colour correction. But this is one technique – creating a selectively coloured B&W photo from a colour original – that can keep me amused for hours.

Want to know how it’s done? It’s actually very easy, but requires a tremendous amount of patience.

The following instructions are based on PaintShop Pro (PSP), but any image editing software that allows working with layers will do, including the incredible and totally free GIMP, which I also use a lot.

1. Take a suitable colour photo, preferably one with a brightly-coloured subject in the foreground.
2. In PSP, prepare that photo (crop, adjust, resize, sharpen) exactly as you would normally.
3. Copy the entire image (Edit->Copy) and then paste as a new layer (Edit->Paste as New Layer). The Layers toolbox, usually on the right of the screen will show a new layer, typically called “Raster 1″.
4. Making sure the new layer is selected (click on it in the Layers toolbox), convert that layer to monochrome. Perhaps the easiest method is by selecting Adjust->Color->Channel Mixer, then checking the “Monochrome” checkbox.
5. Click on Layers->New Mask Layer->Show All. This creates a new layer that shows up as a white box in the Layers toolbox. A mask layer is a difficult concept to grasp (and explain!), but easy to use. Basically, if you paint on this mask with black paint (left mouse button) it makes the B&W image transparent, allowing the colour beneath to show through. If you paint it white (right mouse button), you make the B&W image opaque, which means the colour is hidden again.
6. So, with the mask layer selected (don’t paint on the other layers or you will be defacing your masterpiece!), click on the paintbrush tool and begin “painting” over the subject of your photo. Zoom right in to the image and choose a small brush when doing the edge of your subject to make sure you don’t go over the lines. But don’t worry if you do: simply paint over your mistakes with the right mouse button held down to put things right again.
7. Rather than paint freehand, you can select areas using the Select tool (square, freehand or Magic Wand) and then paint / bucket-filly freely with no fear of making any mistakes. Remember to select on the coloured image layer and paint / bucket-fill on the mask layer!

That’s it! Have fun experimenting and feel free to post a link to your results in the comment section below.