i don't use it that much...and i thought the people @ work here would know how but they don't......i have a photo that i would like to convert to black and white (whoo hoo i can do that) but i would like to retain a portion of the photo (irregular shape) in color....any easy way to explain how to do that?

Use the layer with mask feature. First take the original and make a duplicate layer.

Take the top layer and desaturate. Then create a mask on the b/w layer. Then draw on the new mask using any brush tool and the original will show through.

Really, I don't have photoshop on this computer, so it's from memory, when I get home I'll give you better instructions.

thanks....i just figured out the 'magic wand'....i used that, selected, inversed, desatured, and the results were what i wanted....thanks