How can I create a grayscale with color highlighting effect in Lightroom?

Question

Highlighting certain area with color, leaving the rest grayscaled — what is the name of this effect in photography?What is the most precise way to achieve this effect in Lightroom?

Answer 1

Hi! The best way to do this sort of "Selective Color" effect in Lightroom would be to navigate to the masking panel in Develop mode, select "Create New Mask" and go for the "Color Range" option. Then you just select the color you want to isolate. Once selected, you can invert the selection by right clicking the mask and selecting the "Invert" option.

Once you've done that, you can scroll down on the mask adjustments and set the Saturation value to zero, all the way to the left. Now you can tweak your color range as you wish by scrolling back up. You can use the "Range" slider to have it be more or less precise on the color you want to isolate, and with the range mask selected you can also click on any spot on the image to change the selected color.

Hope this helps!