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Pleasantville Effect


If you've ever seen the movie "Pleasantville", you will undoubtably have noticed that parts of the screen are in black and white, and parts of the screen are in color. This was a very cool effect, and in this tutorial I will show you how to make it in just three steps. Unlike other tutorials, this method is non-destructive, which means you can just delete the layer and the edits will be restored. Also, if you erase too much you can "un-erase" since we will be using layer masks as opposed to the Eraser tool.

Step 1

Grab your source image and duplicate the background layer. You should now have only two layers. If the image you want to apply the effect to has more then one layer, create a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + N) and move it to the top. Then, go to "Image -> Apply Image" and hit OK.

I will be using this image.

Original

Step 2

Make the picture black and white by either hitting "CTRL + SHIFT + U" or going to "Image -> Gradient Map" and using the Black and White gradient. This is how the different techniques turned up.

Desaturation:

Desaturate

Gradient Map:

Gradient Map

Step 3

Add a layer mask by going to "Layer -> Add Layer Mask -> Reveal All".

This should now show up. The WHITE BOX is the layer mask.

image 4

You can now brush on the layer mask using BLACK to remove the black and white, or brush on the layer mask using WHITE to add back to the black and white, if you accidentally removed too much. Simply brush with black on what you would like to be colorful.

This is my final result, with both of the techniques.

Desaturation:

Pleasantville Effect Tutorial: Final Result

Gradient Map:

Pleasantville Effect Tutorial: Final Result



Author's URL: GreyCobra.com
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Reader's comments
comments outsider_entity April 12, 2007 says:
Pleasantville Effect
hi new in this site
i just wanted to notice that there's a much easier way to reach the same effect
1. Open color img
2. Go at first to History panel make a new snapshot (the middle icon)
3. Desaturate (ctrl+shift+U)
4. Choose History Brush Tool
5. Again go to the History panel at the top of it you see snapshot 1 click at the grey empty square at the Left of it for settitg the source of the History Brush tool
6. Start paint over the parts of the img you want back in colors. and that's it!!...
good by and good work :wink: