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Make your photos look classic! This professional-quality photo effect looks natural and is a great alternative to black and white or selective grayscale. Read this Photoshop tutorial to find out how you can add a professional touch to your photos.

Open a picture

Open a nice family photo into Photoshop. To open a file, start Photoshop and choose File > Open. Then, browse for the image file and click OK.

Create a new duplicate layer

In the Layers palette, you should have one layer called Background. If you press Ctrl+J or chose Layer > Duplicate Layer, you’ll get two layers. Do that then select the top layer that’s the new one. Select Overlay from the blending mode drop down menu in the Layers palette.

Desaturate to create a neutral color effect

Now we’re going to add a nice urban color effect that makes this Photoshop tutorial different from other selective grayscale Photoshop tutorials. This is the key effect that professionals use when they create a selective grayscale effect. It makes the color more neutral so that it doesn’t have too much contrast with the grayscale background that we’re going to create later.

To desaturate, simply press Ctrl+Shift+U. If that doesn’t work, you can choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and move the saturation slider to the very left (-100).

Duplicate the layer and add a layer mask

Now we’re going to add a traditional selective saturation effect. This will make the background grayscale while leaving the subject (the family in the photo) in color. This effect is a great way to increase focus in a photograph.

Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. You should now have a new layer that looks like the one in the above image. Make sure that the layer mask is selected before continuing. Click on the layer mask thumbnail and you should see a white outline around the thumbnail to indicate that it is selected.

Erase the foreground

Now we’re going to mask out the selective grayscale effect so that it’s only affecting the background. Select the Eraser tool from the toolbar and in the option bar on the top, set the Hardness to 75.

Begin erasing the  foreground/subject that you would like in color. To make this faster and more precise, zoom in at around 400%. To change the brush size quickly, press the "[" or "]" key on your keyboard.

Here’s what my layer mask looks like right now.

Final Results