Lightroom’s Selective Color tools enable you to target and adjust specific colors independently of one another to accentuate or deemphasize certain elements within the frame. In this tutorial from one of our favorite post-processing experts you’ll learn a unique twist on this technique for transforming a color shot to b&w while retaining colors in the main subject of the shot.

Instructor Anthony Morganti is a NY-based photographer, workshop instructor, and professional retoucher with more than 400K subscribers to his globally popular YouTube channel, and in this episode he demonstrates a unique twist to the hybrid b&w/color transformation mentioned above.

His goal for the demonstration photo of a woman riding a bike ride is to retain color in the subject and convert the rest of the scene to monochrome, but he does so in a way than differs from the typical approach. He explains the effect like this: “Typically, every part of the subject is in color, including their clothing,” but with this trick only the model’s hair, eyes, and skin retain the colors of the original shot.

Morganti recommends making all the basic edits to your original at the onset and saving the Selective Color modification until later in the process. Masking is used to separate the cyclist from the background. He clicks on People in the Masking panel where you’ll find several options for refining the selection, and he enables all of the parameters except Clothing.

The next step is inverting the mask because that’s the part that’s going to be in color. At this point the selection may appear imperfect, but Morganti demonstrates how the Subtract option enables you to quickly make refinements as needed. He also describes the best settings to choose for the various variables at your disposal.

Morganti is working in Lightroom Classic for this demonstration, but the method works equally well in the Cloud version of Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). The remaining steps are straightforward so we’ll let Morganti explain how they work.

Once the video concludes pay a visit to Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find a wealth of how-to videos that will greatly elevate your skills.

And don’t miss the earlier tutorial we featured with another post-processing specialist who demonstrates how to get the light right in outdoor photographs with a simple exposure-blending technique that’s appropriate for users of all skill levels.

There are a variety of reasons that some photographers are moving on from Adobe, and today we’re looking at a few alternatives that are worthy of your consideration. Perhaps Lightroom and Photoshop are too complicated for your needs, or you’re unhappy with paying the “Adobe tax” every month or the premium overall cost.

Today’s instructor Trent says, “I officially cancelled my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription two months ago, so let me show you what I’ve been using instead.” His choices include highly regarded replacements for Photoshop and Lightroom, along with alternatives to Illustrator, Premier Pro, and After Effects for the designers and digital artists among you.

Trent reveals both free and affordable options (some without subscriptions), many of which are supported on multiple platforms like Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad and mobile. He begins with the photo-editing programs and Affinity Photo 2 is a top pick. He notes that “you only have to pay once for the major version and it’s yours.”

Affinity Photo offers many of the same features as Photoshop, and most users consider it easier to use and appreciate it’s streamlined interface. “Blend modes, adjustments, filters, and effects; it’s all there.” That said it lacks a few of the newer AI features and Neural-based tools.

If you want a totally free image-manipulation package Trent suggests you try out Gimp, a time-proven option that’s been around for years and is a staple of the open source image-editing community. Gimp does have the reputation of being a bit difficult for beginners to use, “but if you’re willing to take the time to learn it, it’s a very powerful tool.”

Trent continues with post processing options for photos, digital painting, and video editing, with a high recommendation Davinci Resolve. He says, “This free video editor has more powerful tools than most paid software. There’s a paid version as well, but I’ve never come close to needing it.” The interface is sleek and modern and there are pro-level tools for working with color and audio.

So invest six minutes in this quick discussion and you may find yourself saving big bucks by switching to an Adobe alternative that perfectly suits your specific needs. Then head over to Trent’s popular YouTube channel for more helpful tips on gear, software, and image-editing techniques.

On a related note, we encourage you to watch the recent tutorial we featured with another expert who demonstrates six common editing mistakes that can easily spoil outdoor photographs with whatever post-processing software you use. Effective solutions included.