If there is an element of a photo you want to draw attention to in a dramatic way, you can create a portion of the photo which is full color, and the rest of the photos which is duotone or gray scale. In this example I started with a photo of a bride with her bouquet (my step mother).
If I want to draw attention to the flowers I can make a copy of the image, and then desaturate it so I have a grayscale
image. Image menu > Adjust > Desaturate
Next I want to select just the bouquet.
I use the quick mask mode, and use the airbrush to paint over the bouquet.
Make sure you choose these settings for the quick mask tool. After adjusting the settings, select OK.
Now you can use the airbrush to paint over the woman. As you paint, a red mask
will appear.
If you goof, and accidentally paint over the flowers, just use the eraser to remove the red. You can
zoom in, change the size of your brush, and slowly but surely paint the selection you need.
Here is how the selection looks when in quick mask mode.
I switch to the normal mode and my grayscale bouquet is now selected
I delete the grayscale flowers and the color flowers show thru. My eye is drawn to color, so the bouquet seems more prominent.
If I want to accentuate the flowers even more, I can apply a gaussian blue of 1. 0 to the grayscale layer so the bride is slightly blurry, but the flowers
are in sharp focus. Here is the revised photo compared to the original, the photo on the left is best for selling flowers, the one on the right works
for my family photo album.
