Select Colors isolates and keeps chosen target colors across the frame while adjusting the saturation of everything else. Its most common use is the "color splash" look—turning most of the scene black and white while keeping the subject's colors vivid.
Turn on Invert Selection to do the opposite: desaturate only the chosen colors while leaving the background untouched.
OriginalEffectColor Slots
The effect provides 10 independent color slots managed sequentially via the Color Slot selector, allowing granular control over each slot's active state and target color:
| Slot | Default Color | Slot | Default Color |
|---|---|---|---|
| Color 1 | #ff0000 | Color 6 | #ff00ff |
| Color 2 | #ffff00 | Color 7 | #ffffff |
| Color 3 | #00ff00 | Color 8 | #808080 |
| Color 4 | #00ffff | Color 9 | #000000 |
| Color 5 | #0000ff | Color 10 | #ff8800 |
Only Color 1 is enabled by default; the other nine slots start off. If all slots are turned off, the selection is empty, and the entire frame is treated as unselected.
Controls
| Control | Range | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invert Selection | Switch | Off | Inverts selection logic to adjust selected colors and keep the rest |
| Hue Range | 0 – 0.5 | 0.08 | Color tolerance band around the target hue |
| Saturation Range | 0 – 1 | 1 | Permissible difference in color saturation |
| Brightness Range | 0 – 1 | 1 | Permissible difference in brightness |
| Unselected Saturation | −1 – 1 | −1 | Saturation change applied outside the selection (−1 produces full black-and-white) |
| Blend | 0 – 1 | 1 | Mix ratio between the adjusted result and original image |
Tolerance and Matching Range
Three range controls work together to determine which areas are selected:
Hue Range is the primary matching control, measured around the color wheel. The default value of 0.08 spans roughly 29°, wide enough to catch natural lighting and shadow variations across clothing without bleeding into neighboring colors. Start with a low value and increase it until your subject is fully selected.
Saturation Range and Brightness Range both default to 1, meaning anything matching the hue is selected regardless of how bright or vivid it is. Lower the brightness range when you need to separate bright highlights from deep shadows within the same color; narrow the saturation range to isolate vivid accents while ignoring muted, washed-out tones.
Unselected Areas and Blend
Unselected Saturation controls how areas outside the selection appear. The default value of −1 drains all color for the classic color-splash look; 0 leaves the background untouched; positive values boost background saturation to make the selected subject look more subtle by contrast.
Blend acts as an overall effect slider, mixing smoothly between the adjusted look and the original image. For a gentle, muted look where colors are softened rather than stripped completely, lowering blend often looks more natural than adjusting saturation directly.
Processing Order
Select Colors evaluates after color shift and before blur, serving as the final stage of the color adjustments chain.
Last updated on October 16, 2026