Make one color pop: click the red umbrella, the yellow taxi or the blue eyes, and everything else turns black and white. Adjust the hue range for a clean edge, or paint the exact area to keep in color with the brush.
Last updated:
Click the color you want to keep. Click again on another color to keep up to 4 colors.
Advertisement
Advertisement
How to use the Color Splash Effect
Open a photo by dropping, pasting or choosing it. A sample rainy street with a red umbrella shows the effect right away.
Click the color you want to keep with Pick color selected. Click other colors to keep up to four; remove one with its × button.
Tune the edge. Widen the Hue range if parts of the object stay gray, narrow it if similar colors elsewhere stay colored, and raise Ignore dull colors to drop grayish areas.
Brush the details. Choose Paint color to bring back an area by hand, or Paint gray to remove stray colored spots. Undo stroke steps back.
Download the finished color splash image as JPG, PNG or WebP at full resolution.
Hue ranges for common colors
Hue is the position of a color on the color wheel, from 0° to 360°. When you click a pixel, the tool measures its hue and keeps every pixel within ± Hue range of it. Typical hues of popular splash subjects:
Color
Hue (approx.)
Good subjects
Suggested range
Red
350°–10°
Umbrellas, roses, buses, lipstick, strawberries
± 15–20°
Orange
20°–40°
Pumpkins, autumn leaves, life jackets
± 10–15° (close to skin tones)
Yellow
45°–65°
Taxis, sunflowers, raincoats
± 12–18°
Green
90°–150°
Leaves, apples, frogs
± 25–35° (greens vary widely)
Blue
200°–240°
Eyes, jeans, doors, sky
± 20–25°
Purple / pink
270°–330°
Flowers, balloons, dresses
± 15–25°
Tips for a striking color splash
Choose a subject with a unique color. The effect is strongest when the kept color appears only once in the scene; a red object in a green park is ideal.
Raise Ignore dull colors to about 25–35% when skin, wood or brick show up faintly; those are low-saturation versions of red and orange.
Use a little edge softness (5–15°) so the shaded side of the object fades naturally instead of having a hard outline.
Darken the background to 80–90% for a moody look that makes the color glow.
Check with the green overlay. Turn on Show kept area to spot small colored specks, then remove them with Paint gray.
Color splash, also called selective color or color pop, is a photo style where most of the picture is black and white and one object or color stays in full color. It draws the eye straight to the subject, like a red umbrella on a gray street or a bouquet in a black and white wedding photo.
How does the tool decide which pixels keep their color?
Each pixel is converted to hue, saturation and value (HSV). A pixel stays in color when its hue is within the Hue range of a picked color and its saturation is above the Ignore dull colors threshold; within the Edge softness zone it fades gradually. Pixels painted with Paint color always stay in color and pixels painted with Paint gray always turn gray.
How is the black and white part made?
Gray pixels use luminance, Y = 0.2126 R + 0.7152 G + 0.0722 B (Rec. 709 weights), so a green leaf and a red flower of the same brightness turn into the same gray, as the eye would expect. Background gray at less than 100% keeps a little of the original color for a muted look instead of pure black and white.
Why is part of my object still gray, or the background still colored?
Real objects contain several hues because of shading and reflections. Widen the Hue range or click a second shade of the object. If something in the background has the same color, narrow the range, raise Ignore dull colors, or simply paint it with the Paint gray brush.
Can I keep a person in color instead of one color?
Yes. Clear the picked colors, choose Paint color and brush over the person. Skin tones are close to many other warm colors, so painting usually gives a cleaner result than picking a hue. A large brush for the body and a small one for edges works well.
What does Invert do?
Invert swaps the selection: the picked colors turn gray and everything else stays in color. It is handy for removing a distracting color, such as a bright sign, while keeping the rest of the photo natural.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The photo is processed inside your browser with the Canvas API and the result is created on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.