FAQ: Color Popping in The Gimp

Color Popping is the art of accentuation by selective colorization

In the FAQ I will show you how to use this technique to create the below picture.

Before	Final Result

Step 1 – Duplicate the picture and make it black&white

Click on Image => Duplicate (or use the short-cut Ctrl-d)
Select the Untitled duplicate and click on Colors and then Desaturate. I usually choose Average and sometimes Lightness

Step 2 – Combine images

Select the black&white image. Click on select => All (or use the short-cut Ctrl-a)
Click on Edit => Copy (or use the short-cut Ctrl-c)

Select the original image and press Ctrl-l. This will show the Layer box. Click on the new layer icon or right click in the box and select New Layer from the drop down. Give the new layer a logical name and set the Layer Fill type to Transparency. After creating the new layer there will be two layers visible in the layer box. Click on the little eye before the color layer and make sure the new layer is selected. Select Edit => Paste. The Black&White image will become visible in the new layer. Now right click on the Floating Selection row in the Layer box and select Achor Layer. The layer box will now show two rows. One with color and one without. You can now close the duplicated image.

Step 3 – Go wild with the Eraser

Make sure the black and white layer is selected. Select the eraser tool and erase everyting you want in color. If you click on the first box of the color layer (the eye will be visable again) the color image will shine trough. Undoing mistakes is easy by checking the Anti erase checkbox.

Step 4 – Add some extra color

Select the Color layer. Click on Colors => Hue-Saturation. Slide the Saturation bar a bit to the right and look at the result. If you are happy with the result you can finalise the image by clicking on Image => Flatten Image.

More Info

– Instead of using a black&white layer you could use a sepia verion to soften the picture. The end result might look like this.
– You could also choose the use a extra color layer instead of the black and white for some great effects.
– Color popping is not owned by the Gimp. You can do the same thing in Paint Shop Pro
– If you need any inspiration check out the interesting shots on Flickr.