How to remove color from photo except in 1 area?

[iBunny]

I am working with this picture below. I would like to grayscale the entire picture, however leave the red string. What would be the simplest way to do this?

I have iPhoto, which I know is meek at best. And Also have Gimp, however i am not proficient in it.

Thanks

 

[Abstract]

And Also have Gimp, however i am not proficient in it.

Uh oh....

 

[iBunny]

Uh oh....

lol why is this bad? lol

What im asking for here cant be too hard can it?

 

[Mr.Noisy]

I am working with this picture below. I would like to grayscale the entire picture, however leave the red string. What would be the simplest way to do this?

I have iPhoto, which I know is meek at best. And Also have Gimp, however i am not proficient in it.

Thanks

Only know how to do this in photoshop (i use CS2), desaturating the image then using the history brush tool, i think thats about the easiest & quickest way to do it, never used Gimp, unfortunatly the history tool isn't included in elements 3 or 4 dont know about 5, try & google it, there are a load of photoshop tutorials out there, so i'm sure there should be a few for gimp, hope your get there in the end.

 

[iMeowbot]

For gimp, you could duplicate the image layer, desaturate the upmost layer, then erase the ribbon to let the red show through. If your original image is as low res as what you posted here, I think you're going to find that the ribbon will look a little washed out since the red bleeds so heavily into the background.

An alternative that may look nicer, since it's a drawing anyway, would be to repaint the red onto a desaturated copy of the image.

 

[erickkoch]

Just make the photo B/W and draw it in with a drawing tool. Took me 2 min.

 

[iMeowbot]

Just make the photo B/W and draw it in with a drawing tool. Took me 2 min.

Yes, that's the general idea, but take a little more time and color inside the lines

 

[erickkoch]

Yes, that's the general idea, but take a little more time and color inside the lines

OK, but that would take me 4-5 min.

I tried this again in GIMP. Very awkward.

To OP. Use iPhoto to edit the pic making it B/W. Open the file in GIMP. Use the Magnifying Glass in GIMP to magnify the area of the string. Then use the drawing tool in GIMP, looks like a pencil. Change the color to Red in the color boxes. You'll have to change the brush size to something small, probably Circle(01). Color away. It's quick and dirty, but it works.

I never noticed that in GIMP you cannot adjust the size of the brush, each brush type has its own size. Weird.

 

[iBunny]

Cool Thanks.

I am just trying new things. I go this MBP and would like to start doing creative things with it. I figured I would give photo editing stuff a try, but found it hard without Photoshop. I currently own PS7 for the PC, but I dont use it anymore. Dont really feel that buying CS3 would be worth it at this level. I am just messing around.

But thanks for the tips.

 

[tominated]

marque everything, deselect the string and there should be some sort of desaturate option.