Tools / Color Splash

Color Splash

Keep your subject in colour and drain the background, free.

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Color Splash

keep the subject in color and turn everything behind it black and white.

Or drag your image here

JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and more. Max 20MB

No image?
Try one of these

Stock image 1
Stock image 2
★★★★★
4.7 (29 reviews)

Looking to create a color splash at scale?

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Free Online Color Splash

That one shot where the subject pops and everything behind it falls away.

Why use our Color Splash tool?

The classic colour splash used to mean masking by hand. Here the subject is detected for you, so you pick a look and download.

Built for the browser

Works right in your browser, free, with no software to install and no watermarks.

The subject is found for you

No masking, no lasso. The person or object in front stays in colour on its own.

Four looks for the background

Black and white, sepia, dark black and white, or black and white with a blur behind.

Quality preserved

Cloudinary keeps your output crisp and true to the original.

Do it at scale

Process one file or thousands with our free API and create a color splash automatically, with no manual steps.

Format versatility

Works with all major formats, so your result fits right into your workflow.

How to create a color splash in 3 steps

Create your colour splash in 3 simple steps. Upload your photo, pick a background, and download.

Upload your photo

Drag and drop your photo into the browser, or upload it from your device.

Pick a background style

Black and white, sepia, dark, or blurred. The subject keeps its colour in every one.

Download

Save your result, with no watermarks.

Go beyond a colour splash

Change the colours in your images with more free tools: Convert Image to Black and White, Grayscale Image, Recolor Image.

A woman and a golden retriever in the mountains. They're sitting, facing away from the camera while the dog noses the woman. They're surrounded by natural splendor including majestic mountains, puffy clouds, and evergreen-studded hills.
An un-cropped image overlaid with a cropping window showing how it would be cropped by Cloudinary.
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the cropped asset
A woman and a golden retriever in the mountains. They're sitting, facing away from the camera while the dog noses the woman. They're surrounded by natural splendor including majestic mountains, puffy clouds, and evergreen-studded hills.
The same asset cropped using the following settings: Aspect Ratio: 1:2. Crop Mode: Content-Aware.
Images
Videos
Crop Mode
Aspect Ratio
Original
18 MB

We’re showing a resized version of the original asset to avoid slow loading speeds. View the original.

The original asset:
JPEG
135 KB
WebP
135 KB
AVIF
90 KB
JPEG XL
94 KB
The image after being optimized using the following settings: Quality: Auto. Width: 1000px.
Original
18 MB

We’re showing a resized version of the original asset to avoid slow loading speeds. View the original.

The original asset:
JPEG
135 KB
WebP
135 KB
AVIF
90 KB
JPEG XL
94 KB
The image after being optimized using the following settings: Quality: Auto. Width: 1000px.
Images
Videos
Quality
Width
An un-cropped image overlaid with a croppingai window showing how it would be cropped by Cloudinary.
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the cropped asset
The same asset cropped using the following settings: Aspect Ratio: 1:1. Crop Mode: Content-Aware.
Images
Videos
Crop Mode
Aspect Ratio
The original image:
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the transformed asset.
The personalized image:
The original image:
The personalized image:
Product Photos
Backgrounds
Overlays
Duration
Full length video: Surfing Trip
An arrow pointing from the original video to the AI-generated preview.
Duration
A shorter video preview generated by Cloudinary's AI using the following settings: Duration: 15 seconds. Max Clips: 9. Min Clip Length: 1 second.
Videos
Duration
Max Clips
Min Clip Length
URL:
/ar_0.5,c_fill,g_auto,w_433/q_auto/f_auto/hiking_dog_mountain.jpg
cloudinary.image("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg", {transformation: [
  {aspect_ratio: "0.5", gravity: "auto", width: 433, crop: "fill"},
  {quality: "auto"},
  {fetch_format: "auto"}
  ]})
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg").image(transformation=[
  {'aspect_ratio': "0.5", 'gravity': "auto", 'width': 433, 'crop': "fill"},
  {'quality': "auto"},
  {'fetch_format': "auto"}
  ])
(new ImageTag('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg'))
	->resize(Resize::fill()->width(433)
->aspectRatio(0.5)
	->gravity(
	Gravity::autoGravity())
	)
	->delivery(Delivery::quality(
	Quality::auto()))
	->delivery(Delivery::format(
	Format::auto()));
cloudinary.url().transformation(new Transformation()
  .aspectRatio("0.5").gravity("auto").width(433).crop("fill").chain()
  .quality("auto").chain()
  .fetchFormat("auto")).imageTag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg");
cl_image_tag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg", transformation: [
  {aspect_ratio: "0.5", gravity: "auto", width: 433, crop: "fill"},
  {quality: "auto"},
  {fetch_format: "auto"}
  ])
cloudinary.Api.UrlImgUp.Transform(new Transformation()
  .AspectRatio("0.5").Gravity("auto").Width(433).Crop("fill").Chain()
  .Quality("auto").Chain()
  .FetchFormat("auto")).BuildImageTag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
cloudinary.image('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg').transformation(Transformation()
	.resize(Resize.fill().width(433)
.aspectRatio(0.5)
	.gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	)
	.delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	.delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())));
imageView.cldSetImage(cloudinary.createUrl().setTransformation(CLDTransformation()
  .setAspectRatio("0.5").setGravity("auto").setWidth(433).setCrop("fill").chain()
  .setQuality("auto").chain()
  .setFetchFormat("auto")).generate("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")!, cloudinary: cloudinary)
MediaManager.get().url().transformation(new Transformation()
  .aspectRatio("0.5").gravity("auto").width(433).crop("fill").chain()
  .quality("auto").chain()
  .fetchFormat("auto")).generate("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg");
cloudinary.image('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg').transformation(Transformation()
	.resize(Resize.fill().width(433)
.aspectRatio(0.5)
	.gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	)
	.delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	.delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())));
cloudinary.image {
	publicId("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
	 resize(Resize.fill() { width(433)
 aspectRatio(0.5F)
	 gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	 })
	 delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	 delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())) 
}.generate()
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));

Frequently Asked Questions

Color splash is the effect where one subject stays in full colour while everything behind it drops to black and white. This tool does it in your browser, free, with no editor and no masking by hand. You upload a photo, the subject is detected for you, and you pick how the background should look. The result downloads as a JPG, PNG or WebP at the original resolution, with no watermark.

The subject is detected automatically, so there is no lasso, no brush and no layer mask. In practice it works best when one person, animal or object clearly stands out from what is behind it, which is the same situation where a colour splash looks good in the first place. A flat scene with no obvious subject, or a crowd where everything competes, gives the tool nothing to lock onto and the effect falls apart.

Yes. It is free to use online, there is no watermark on the result and you do not need to install anything. Upload your photo, choose a background style and download. If you need the same effect applied to hundreds of images rather than one, the Cloudinary API does it programmatically on the same infrastructure.

Four background treatments: plain black and white, sepia for a warmer vintage feel, a darker black and white that pushes contrast, and black and white with a blur that also separates the subject by depth. On top of that you choose the output format, between JPG for sharing, PNG when you want lossless, and WebP when the image is going on a web page and weight matters.

Yes. Developers can combine subject detection with a greyscale effect through the Cloudinary API and run it across a whole catalogue, which is how you would treat a product library or a batch of event photos without opening a single file. The same API also covers the simpler cases, such as converting an image to black and white or applying a plain greyscale pass.

Related tools: Picture to Pixel Art · Professional Photo Maker · Convert Image to Black and White

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