#stcny

Steve and Tony + unspoken conversations

+ bonus:

Hey thanks for asking :)

So how I did it then is probably different from how I would do it now (with premiere pro using leave color & a subject mask, though refining that might be just as much of a pain...). But since I was using Photoshop exclusively at the time this was my probably overly time consuming process:

1. Do colour adjustments first

Get your cropping, colouring, etc. pretty much exactly how you want it, save it, then use the Create a New Document from Current State option (under the history menu). A new copy of your gif will open. Now flatten the layers into frames so all the adjustment layers are incorporated. This is destructive editing and can't be undone; hence why we made it a new copy just in case you change your mind. It's a lot easier to avoid messing up the b&w this way — you can still make changes to levels, contrast, & selective color afterwards, but a hue change or colour filter is pretty much out of the question.

2. Create an action

In the actions menu, click “Create New” and name it whatever. Mine is called BW Subject. Then hit the record button and do these in order, starting with the first frame:

Create a B&W adjustment layer

Clip it to layer 1 (cmd+option+g on a mac)

Click on mask options in properties and click “Select & Mask” under refine

Click “Select Subject” at the top of the screen in the new window. Hopefully said subject is now selected. It’s okay if it’s not perfect, you’ll fix that later.

Click “Invert” on the right side to flip the BW filter to the background instead of the subject and hit enter.

Stop the action now.

3. Refine the selection

Now that your action is complete, you can click on each layer & frame individually and just play the action — Photoshop will do all the above steps for you. From this point use the brush to paint in or out any sections that are wrong on each layer mask until you’re satisfied.