INTRO:

Desaturating or removing color from something is easy. But doing it properly isn't as easy as finding and clicking on the "desaturate" function.

Every photo is different and should be treated that way in all editing. Tutorials are great for showing people how to perform a function or give them general steps to take in creating something, but people would do well to understand that these are just guides and the information in them needs to be flexed and bent to fit their actual needs. It's hard to make tutorials fluid that way so we do our best to just give people an idea and hope they run with it. What I'll show you here might work with the photo I'm using this time, but, though I would use the same steps I would also be using different values and settings along the way.

We use this method because it gives us more control over the levels in desaturating the photo or object. Using the IMAGE, ADJUST, DESATURATE function uses the same pre-defined settings all the time, while it's quick and can work out, it's not as good as doing it manually. Like I said, every picture is different and should be treated as such in editing to get the best results.

Try to keep in mind the end goal for the object whatever that may be for you. There are lots of different reasons to remove color, this time I'm focusing on my need to remove color and create a gray object for color replacement.


TUTORIAL:

Once you have your photo you can either desaturate the entire thing, or choose one object. For my purposes I'm choosing just part of the object in the photo. To do this you will need to use the PEN TOOL.



Go around the boarder of your object clicking and adding points. The more points you add the more accurate your selection will be in the end.



Once you completely connect the first point to the last point the points will become a solid line. Right Click inside the selection and choose "MAKE SELECTION"



In the window that pops up make sure your "RADIUS" is set to "0" - then click OK.



Go to the "LAYERS" window and RIGHT CLICK over the name of the layer and choose "LAYER VIA COPY".



You might want to HIDE the bottom layer so you can concentrait on just what you're trying to accomplish with the color of the object you're modifying.



Select the TOP layer then go to IMAGE, ADJUST, HUE/SATURATION.



Take "SATURATION" and move the bar all the way to the left to remove the color.

Take "LIGHTNESS" and move the bar either LEFT - if your gray is to light or RIGHT - if your gray is too dark.



Remember to not over do it, you still want to see shadow, you don't want to have blown out (overly white) spots either.

You can also go to IMAGE, ADJUST, BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST to tweak this a little more if you want to experiment.





Messing with these settings will help bring out shadows you want to keep and highlights you want to emphasize. Again, this is based on what YOU are trying to accomplish. For my needs I'll am replacing color and having the emphasized shadows and highlights will help me later.

Check out my tutorial on Changing Color of an Object if you want to see where I'm going with this.