Leave Color

The Leave Color effect removes all the colors from a layer except those similar to a given color. For example, a movie of a basketball game could be decolored except for the orange of the ball itself. The layer's quality setting does not affect Leave Color.


Original (left) and after applying the Leave Color effect (center and right)

Adjust the following controls for the Leave Color effect:

Amount to Decolor

Specifies how much color is removed from the layer. A setting of 100% causes the areas of the image dissimilar to the selected color to appear as shades of gray. At 50%, those areas lose half of their color saturation.

Color to Leave

Specifies the color that is to be left untouched.

Tolerance

Specifies how closely the effect matches colors. A value of 0% decolors all areas of the image except those that match the Color to Leave exactly. A value of 100% causes no color change.

Edge Softness

Specifies the sharpness of the color boundaries. High values smooth the transition from color to gray.

Match Colors

Specifies the color model to use for similarity. RGB uses the RGB color space to determine which areas are decolored. Match Colors is a strict matching technique and usually decolors more of the image than Hue. Hue uses hue (color) to determine which areas are decolored. In other words, choosing light blue as the Color to Leave also leaves dark blue, since both colors have the same hue.