Converting Portions of an Image to Black/White

- After placing an image, select the pen tool (located directly under black arrow) in the
toolbar

- We are going to draw a path that surrounds the area to be converted. Now that the pen
tool has been selected, select an imaginary point to begin the path. This imaginary point
is your “path origin point”.

- Before drawing your path, change the fill and stroke properties of your path. Go to
“Window” and select “swatches”. After your color swatches appear, change fill to none
and stroke to black. *note: You may want to increase your stroke weight to a minimum of
2pt to view path more clearly.
- Ok, now that you have selected a “path origin point” and changed the fill and stroke
colors, we can proceed with our path drawing. Click your left mouse button to select that
“path origin point”. *note: Remember where your “path origin point” is located. You will
have to end your path at the “path origin point”.

- Click your left mouse button repeatedly as you draw your path around the object to be
converted to black and white. *note: avoid drawing over the edge of image.
- Continue to draw path. To close path, click on your “path origin point”. *note: if you forgot
where your “path origin point” is located, move mouse over original points and you will
see a small circle below your pen tool cursor.
- Now that the path has been closed. Select the direct selection tool (white arrow) in the
tool bar. Click your left mouse key on the white-space on your page. Basically you are not
selecting anything but clicking off of your path control. You should now see a dark black
line (my path is in red so you can see), where you have drawn your path.

- As you can, my path surrounds the area I want to convert to black and white. Ok, now
you can actually select your path by clicking with your left mouse on your drawn path.
- Open swatches again and change the “Fill” color to “Paper”. The area of your path will be
filled (see below).
- Next, select “Window”. Then select “ Transparency”. The Transparency window should
be visible on your page.

- In the drop down menu, currently listed as “Normal”, change selection to “Color”.

- The desired area should now be converted to black and white

- Finally, lets remove our path line. Click with your left mouse on the path line.
- Then open swatches.
- Lastly, change “stroke” color to “none”. This should remove path line.
CONGRATULATIONS – You have just converted the background of a photo to black and white.