Selective Colorization in Photoshop Launch Adobe Photoshop. Open the "Butterfly.jpg" file (you can FTP this file - 96K or click the mouse on the image above and choose "Save this Image As") in Photoshop. Choose Select all from the Select menu (command-A) and copy (command-C). Under the Edit menu select Paste Layer. Name the new layer "Gray". Under the Image menu, select Adjust -> Desaturate This makes the "Gray" layer a grayscale image. Under the Layers palette, select Add layer mask. This creates a white, opaque mask. Click on the default settings icon under the Foreground color icon in the Tools palette to make the foreground color black. Select the paint brush or air brush tool and begin painting on the "Gray" layer mask where you want color to appear. Notice that the mask allows you to paint black on the white, opaque mask making those areas transparent and revealing the color below. Remember painting with Black reveals the color below and painting with white acts as an eraser restoring the grayscale portion of the image and eliminating the color. Your final image should look something like this depending where you painted: