Okay, let's talk "selective color," the editing style of making an image all b/w except on specific part left in color.
I see this all the time and usually dislike it. I'm thinking it's because I don't like it wedding photography at all. You know the bride holding her bouquet and everything is in b/w except the flowers. You see it being overly done in this type of photography.
Anyway, I don't want to dismiss one specific type of editing technique because of it being overly done. I want to know what your take on it is and if you have some photos done in selective color, please share on here.
Here is one recent shot I did and decided because of the content, selective color could work, but I'm still not sure how I feel about my choice.
in the right context it can be really effective but I do agree especially with wedding bouquets and eyes it has been done to death (not saying there are not some beautiful examples of both out there.) anyway heres one of my selective shots
here is the thing... I don't like it... but I am not the bride paying for it... so i wouldn't talk someone out of it...
it can radically change a photo like @vikdaddy lipstick girl... she look positively clownish, vs in muted colours she would look very different vs in full B&W or colour... all different...
@asrai 's example is more subtle and can be used really well to pull the subject out of a detracting background...
I love it but I've only recently learned how to do it. And I only have 1 in my 365 project so far. I think it works with this picture because it means something. It is silly, but it still means something. LOL Cause to me, O'Charleys really IS... all about the rolls.
In learning how to do it, I played with a lot of pictures and learned that it only works sometimes.So I THINK I know when it's ok to use it and won't go overboard.
not a fan of selective coloring but i think it works well in editorial work. that's about it. i won't selectively color for my clients - i've had a few ask but it's just not my artistic style.
Thank you all for your input. I also think it can work more so in editorial work. There are some great examples of that here. It does seem that red it the color to select though huh?
Just to be different.. I love it!! I think that it is really effective and interesting.. maybe because I am not a pro photographer and don't see it all the time.. and I've never been able to (or even tried to) use it in my photos.. but I still love the effect of it :)
I think it's too easy to say "I don't like it". It depends on context and image. I agree it's overdone and often done unnecessarily, but in my opinion when it's done well, it looks good.
@vikdaddy thank you =) but yeah i dont use it really often... this is my first time to use the style, as far as i remember.. ^__^ i even call them "COLOR-POP" wahhahahha silly me....
these are my 2 examples of selective colouring that i have in my project,i like it sometimes,i'm limited to what i can use it on as i only have very basic editing software that only does it in circles of varying sizes and sharpness
I think selective color, in some cases is a little weird, like black and white with a child and the eyes are only color. I've never paid much attention to wedding photography, so can't really say much about that. I find I either like my photos one way or the other, color or black and white. I don't know why, maybe just personal preference. Some of the earlier examples are great! I like your lipstick shot, but it's hard to say if I'd like it w/o seeing it all b&w vs. all color.
This photo however, just had to be selective color, I tried it all color, then tried it all black and white, but here's what I ended up with.
One of my fav's of all time is this one:
@positronicmommy
She has done some neat selective color shots that I like. So I think in some cases it works!
@esostizzo I totally kwym mean about wedding photographs... so many times, it can look really cheesy/corny almost overtly manipulative. But I think it can also be well done and can emphasize a point. Someone said there has to be a purpose and I agree with that. Like the boxing glove in red and everything else b/w really emphasizes the power represented in a "punch" to me so I really like it.
@lislee75 Thank you so much for the mention Lisa. That particular shot isn't selective color though. I actually painted myself for that self portait. I do have several selective color shots though and I have to admit I have always loved selective color.
I think I must be in the minority, when selective colouring is done well I think it looks fantastic and can be really eye-catching. My editing skills are very, very basic but I look forward to learning how to do it well.
I like it when done well. but I also like it when its comical... so this was my take on the red theme back in Aug last year.
When fruit goes bad....
and then this one , again for the red theme..
Hmm I'm unsure about selective colouring too. I think it can be effective but it can also be quite a cliche. I've played with it a couple of times and here is a shot I'm proud of, but I don't want to overuse it.
It can be over done especially when it comes to weddings and the flowers. However, I do think it is a useful tool to help point of the stuff you really want to stand out in a photo. Especially when the background doesn't matter... not all photos (or people taking them) have the pleasing black backdrop background. Even when you even have minimal background it can create a lot of noise in the picture distracting your eye from the point of the shot [especially if it is an off center shot]. Sometimes though the background can give emphasis to the image but distract if it was all in color or all in black-and-white [like the photo with the umbrella above]. And as a fan of color but hating a lot of distracting background [and lacking a nice plain black backdrop to work with] am a fan of this method.
I use it to help add emphasis to some of my photos... like the one I used for my display picture. [Because I absolutely love the colors of the mask, my eyes, and feathers I wanted to keep all the color from them I could... however, believe me the image in color is rather unpleasing and bland.]
Ivd only done it on a few photos. I think it should be done if theres an object you want to give the spotlight to. The object should be the main focus, or pull the focus to something. Here's the few I've done
And this one is very slight, but It's my favorite part of this photo.
Sometimes it is fun, but can be so overdone IMO. I just see so many of them and it's the "cool" thing to do and I am quite honestly sick of it lol.
But I like in yours that it doesnt look blatant like some of the others. It could almost be like this shot I took of this rose. I did not do a colorsplash, but I lowered the vibrance in Lightroom and then upped the saturation to give it the same vibe without looking so over done (IMO)
Usually, I do not like it; however, I think sometimes it can serve a purpose, for example, in this shot I did for the wear-purple day theme back in October:
I don't love it. I think it tends to diminish the strengths of both a strong black + white image AND a vibrant color image. When Photoshop was new, it had a place for its wow factor, but now I do find it's overdone and not always to the most pleasing degree. That being said, I am quite impressed with its use in the yellow umbrella image (@wrighty) above and the image of the 3 pairs of legs/shoes (@webfoot). Maybe I just don't enjoy the single color selective edit?
Hmmmmm .... this could be a weekly challenge project!! I'd welcome the chance to eat my words AND see for myself how hard it really can be to do well!
I think it's the same with most vibrant editing techniques. If done well and in moderation, it can look stunning, but if done too much, it can look tacky
I don't do it, just because I always tend to end up with a product that just looks cheesy and over processed. I've seen it done wonderfully and look really awesome, though.
But I do see it as overdone and stomped into the ground most of the time, I guess.
@maceugenio This is not a critical comment so much as a "like/dislike" one. I really like the top photo, but the bottom one does nothing for me. I think that, as a single example of what works for some people, and not for others, these two shots, both of which are quite nicely done, are perfect. I have never tried to do this sort of thing, but I really like it in some situations.
@wolfe The use of red in the essay title is perfect, especially as the rest of the thing is B&W, anyway.
I guess it comes down to, if the shot has an element that either stands out, and you want to really accentuate it (advertising is an area where this can be useful), or else you are artificially accentuating something for some reason (there are several examples above: a tattoo, a light saber, an umbrella...), then this effect can be valid. But doing it just to do it is trite.
Wow, who knew this could be such a hot topic. I'm glad I'm not the only one with reservations about using this technique. Like most of you, I do see it being overdone or not in the right context, but there are some great examples on here of how to do it. Maybe it should be a theme. See the good, the bad, and the ugly of selective color...dom, dom, dom, dommmm
I use it once in a while, just for fun ... in this case her pink tongue was totally lost in both the black&white and colour versions of the photo ... I think it made the shot. :)
When you selectively color a shot, it draws your attention to that spot. Some times I see shots that have colored a spot that doesn't seem, to me, to be the place where you want the attention. A cute kid with their eyes colored draws your attention where you might expect, but if the flower on their shirt is colored, I'm left to wonder if that was the most important part of the picture. And maybe it was to the photographer but the audience doesn't understand it and the impact is lost.
@lynnmwatson@looseimages ~ thankyou both :)
my editing skills are probably better than my photography skills at this moment in time , hense the reason im doing 365 to strengthen my photography skills :) i love colour splash i just cant help but use it now & again :)
The first time I seen it I didn't like it (the selective colour processing, not your photo), and I think I've seen far too many b&w babies with coloured clothes on facebook. So overdone. But I have given it a go recently, in this photo I wanted to bring attention to the apron, and give it an old movie feel. I kind of like how it turned out but I won't be using this kind of processing much. Have to say that there are some fantastic examples of how it should be done in the posts above though :)
I hate straight B&W with selective color. Mainly because I find it too harsh and the colors don't blend well with black & white. If/when I do this type of photography I usually go with a sepia tone to soften the contrast a bit. I wish I had some examples to show :(
Just tried it myself as an experiment, maybe should have been a more sepia tone instead of straight B&W, but still like the way it came out. Whether I continue to use the effect, well, we'll see.
I'm really not a fan of it at all. I have done it before years ago when i first started (only because people suggested it would look good with the photos I had taken), but I haven't done it in a really long time. I do think there are some pictures where it works, but very few.
I was never really a big fan, I felt, like many of you it was overdone for no good reason, but I did like the handpainted color on B&W prints back in the time of film (LOL) but those were usually much more subtle than many of the digi photoshoped images. That being said I have been playing with it & have done it in this project so far & the reason was because I really wanted to create & pop & central focus point on the pic.
Here it is:
I haven't been a fan of this style either, but after looking at so many great examples on this thread, I decided to try one of my own. @mikichelle I love what you did with the bananas. It's such an unusual way to use selective color -- to pop out the color of something that is the exact same color as everything around it!
My 3 yr old was hamming up his sad faces because xmas was over and i was going to make him blue all over and then decided to make him colourless and the background blue. Not sure what other people might think but I had a really good time doing it which was my aim since it was the start of my project.
My other example was this:
The main reason behind this is that my babies have such amazing blue eyes right now and i wanted to record the colour without the distraction of anything else.
I agree that the technique can be over used and badly done, but then so can high contrast, dof shots, macros of bugs/flowers and many more. I personally think that its good fun and since that is why I am doing the project as well as to improve both as a photographer and a editor then i'll carry on using it if it is relavent to the photo i am taking.
I also love many of the examples on this thread - some are clever, funny and some are just very well excecuted!
Never tried it until I read this post. I agree it's done a lot, I haven't tried it yet in my wedding photography as i'm fairly new to it, but i would certainly use it as i'm pretty certain clients would love it!
Here is a couple I've done over the last few days:
I tend not to use it, I'm generally inclined to partially desaturate or use other editing techniques on areas that I wish to draw focus from - in the majority of images they work much more effectively and seamlessly than selective colouration. There are some examples where it is used to great artistic effect, but I do find it over-used and usually used purely for its own sake rather than for any intrinsic artistic merit.
I think, like all styles of editing, (or art for that matter) it has it's place. Every once in a while it works with an image, other times it just doesn't. I don't mind it at all when it's done tastefully. my favorite:
I now have to eat my words - this shot uses selective colouring. But in its defence, the fabric background was black and white anyway. Does it still count? LOL.
@vikdaddy you are right, it does seem so corny and cheesy on wedding photos. Why feature the bouquet???? It's taking the focus away from the couple.
@esostizzo thank you for starting this topic. i don't hate the selective color as much now. :)) It really does depend on the context of the photograph and it doesn't work all the time. I will have to start experimenting now......
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it can radically change a photo like @vikdaddy lipstick girl... she look positively clownish, vs in muted colours she would look very different vs in full B&W or colour... all different...
@asrai 's example is more subtle and can be used really well to pull the subject out of a detracting background...
In learning how to do it, I played with a lot of pictures and learned that it only works sometimes.So I THINK I know when it's ok to use it and won't go overboard.
Often it's done 'just because'. That's not good enough; You have to ask, what is the point of emphasising the flowers?
i have mine... i hate selective color too... ^__^ well that's before... =) and ermmmm yeah i kinda liked how these photos turned out.. =)
i kinda like it, but i dont usually do this anymore.... ♥
I think it's too easy to say "I don't like it". It depends on context and image. I agree it's overdone and often done unnecessarily, but in my opinion when it's done well, it looks good.
these are my 2 examples of selective colouring that i have in my project,i like it sometimes,i'm limited to what i can use it on as i only have very basic editing software that only does it in circles of varying sizes and sharpness
This photo however, just had to be selective color, I tried it all color, then tried it all black and white, but here's what I ended up with.
One of my fav's of all time is this one:
@positronicmommy
She has done some neat selective color shots that I like. So I think in some cases it works!
When fruit goes bad....
and then this one , again for the red theme..
I use it to help add emphasis to some of my photos... like the one I used for my display picture. [Because I absolutely love the colors of the mask, my eyes, and feathers I wanted to keep all the color from them I could... however, believe me the image in color is rather unpleasing and bland.]
http://365project.org/tickeltrunk/365/2011-02-02
And this one is very slight, but It's my favorite part of this photo.
I wanted to highlight the tattoo and the feeling of hope it conveyed for one of last month's themes.
The one below, the tiles they were standing on was a dull pink, which I felt distracted from the vibrant colors of the shoes and pants.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work at all haha
But I like in yours that it doesnt look blatant like some of the others. It could almost be like this shot I took of this rose. I did not do a colorsplash, but I lowered the vibrance in Lightroom and then upped the saturation to give it the same vibe without looking so over done (IMO)
Hmmmmm .... this could be a weekly challenge project!! I'd welcome the chance to eat my words AND see for myself how hard it really can be to do well!
But I do see it as overdone and stomped into the ground most of the time, I guess.
@wolfe The use of red in the essay title is perfect, especially as the rest of the thing is B&W, anyway.
I guess it comes down to, if the shot has an element that either stands out, and you want to really accentuate it (advertising is an area where this can be useful), or else you are artificially accentuating something for some reason (there are several examples above: a tattoo, a light saber, an umbrella...), then this effect can be valid. But doing it just to do it is trite.
i love selective colouring as u can see by the pics ive added , i think its fab if used in a way to enhance the photo :)
this first one didn't quite go to plan
This was one I didn't have my usual program for so not how I would normally do it
Back on track again
I guess as art if the colour choice was made by the artist it's up to us to view it.
As long as it wasn't selected by monkeys banging on the keyboard.
@flamez
That coloured pencils shot is just superb!
@flamez . . . colored pencil shot is a great example of selective color that DOES work!
@flamez I actually love all the SC shots you've put up here...they are well done, with sensitivity IMHO.
I liked this particular photo in selective color... because the warmth of the butterfly and their little hands adds to the feeling I was going for
my editing skills are probably better than my photography skills at this moment in time , hense the reason im doing 365 to strengthen my photography skills :) i love colour splash i just cant help but use it now & again :)
I just did this shot yesterday:
It's the only one I've done (I think) so far on this project but I'm most likely to do more if I get the right photo to use it on.
This is my first ever photo I did SC on, one of my favourite photos and it's not just the red t-shirt in colour if you look closely. lol
&&
The above two, I think work fairly well. The one below, I'm not too big a fan of. And I hate the cliche bride's bouquet shot.
Here it is:
@mikichelle I love what you did with the bananas. It's such an unusual way to use selective color -- to pop out the color of something that is the exact same color as everything around it!
This one
My 3 yr old was hamming up his sad faces because xmas was over and i was going to make him blue all over and then decided to make him colourless and the background blue. Not sure what other people might think but I had a really good time doing it which was my aim since it was the start of my project.
My other example was this:
The main reason behind this is that my babies have such amazing blue eyes right now and i wanted to record the colour without the distraction of anything else.
I agree that the technique can be over used and badly done, but then so can high contrast, dof shots, macros of bugs/flowers and many more. I personally think that its good fun and since that is why I am doing the project as well as to improve both as a photographer and a editor then i'll carry on using it if it is relavent to the photo i am taking.
I also love many of the examples on this thread - some are clever, funny and some are just very well excecuted!
:D
Yeah this effect can be so very boring with the original way of using it to the eyes, flowers etc. But it's always cool when it feels fresh :)
Just did a one myself too, kinda wanted to have some cartoonish look with it. What do you think? :)
Here is a couple I've done over the last few days:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6744717&l=7e6f879f51&id=733491878
@esostizzo thank you for starting this topic. i don't hate the selective color as much now. :)) It really does depend on the context of the photograph and it doesn't work all the time. I will have to start experimenting now......