Mixing black-and-white effects with color
Published: February 15, 2006
You might choose to use different black-and-white effects to change the appearance of the photo. Black-and-white effects mimic the color changes that appear if you were to use black-and-white film and apply different color filters. In addition to adding the different filters, you could also choose to have an object or person appear in color. Typically, this works best with a photo that has a particular object or person that you want to emphasize in the photo. This article will explain how to use black-and-white effects mixed with color by using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006.
Note
Before you edit your digital photos, it's a good idea to make a copy of the original image and make your edits to that copy. This way, you'll still have the original photo.
The first step is to select the object (or objects) that you want to appear in color in your photo.
To select objects in the digital photo
1. | Click the Edge Finder tool, which is highlighted in the following figure. 
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2. | If you want, in Zoom, move the slider to zoom in on the object, so you can find the edges of the object. 
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3. | To select the object that you want to emphasize and have appear in color, click the edge of the object, move the mouse along the edge of the object, and then click another point on the edge. Continue doing this along the edge of the object. When you are at the starting point, click the solid white square to complete the selection. The following figure shows an object that is selected using the Edge Finder tool. 
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4. | To change the selection, click the Selection button. |
5. | To change the different points of the selection or selections, in the Edge Finder dialog box, click Adjust edges, click and drag any of the white boxes around the selection, and then click Done. (The following screen shot shows the adjusted edges.) 
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6. | If you want to select more than one object, in the Edge Finder dialog box, in the Selection Modes area, click the plus sign (+), and repeat steps 2 through 5. 
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7. | To soften the edges of the selected object, click Feather, and then, in the Feather dialog box, type a lower value for the feathered edges, such as 2 or 3. |
To copy and paste the selected object
After you select the object, copy and paste it. The copied object will then appear as a new layer in the photograph. In this example, the layer that is copied and pasted will appear in color in your edited image.
1. | To copy the selected object, on the Edit menu, click Copy. |
2. | To paste the copied object on a new layer, on the Edit menu, click Paste. |
To add an effect to a layer
1. | If the stack is not displayed, click Stack. The stack lets you see the different layers of the image. Because the image has different layers, you can make changes to one layer and the other layers remain unchanged. |
2. | Click the bottom layer of the Stack. This is the layer that will have the black-and-white effects. 
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3. | On the Effects menu, click Black and White Effects. |
4. | In Black and White Effects, do any of the following: | • | Under Filters, select one of the four options to apply a filter to a picture. | | • | Under Channel mixing, Contrast, or Toning, move the sliders to the left or right to fine-tune your black-and-white picture. |
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5. | When you have completed your changes, click Done. 
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6. | On the File menu, click Save As, and then do the following to save the changes you made to the image. | • | In File name, type a name for your edited image. | | • | If you want to preserve the layers in the photo so that you can edit the different layers at a later time, in Save as type, click Digital Image PNG Plus. | | • | Click Save. |
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For more information about the specific black-and-white effects and filters that you can use in Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, see "Apply black-and-white effects" in Digital Image Editor Help.
This is only one of many different possibilities. For example, if you want, you can combine two images into one by cutting an object from one photo and pasting it on top of a related photo, and then applying a black-and-white effect to the background. Remember, this is only one of many different effects that you can achieve by using different layers and applying different effects. Experiment with the different effects to see what you can do.
