the special grin by ltodd

the special grin

The apparent temperature when I left work tonight was zero, and I had little enthusiasm for an outside photo, so at the supermarket on the way home I approached the owner for permission to photograph his shelves. (365 - what are you doing to me??). This is my first attempt at selective colour; and I also learnt a lot about perspective, and how the position of shooting can dramatically change those angles.
I didn't quite get the bottles aligned 'perfectly' for this shot, but I did manage to ignore the odd looks of all the other shoppers!
wow, I think this is a fantastic shot...original and unusual, and certainly effective...I like it
June 22nd, 2011  
that is so cool, great selective colour :)
June 22nd, 2011  
Thanks @maribelrivera & @tkeen - I do appreciate the feedback - I learnt a lot tonight !
June 22nd, 2011  
Brilliant selective colouring! Did you do this in Photoshop? Just curious as i don't have PS and the free software programs I use can't do this type of processing.
June 22nd, 2011  
Neat shot, I love it.
June 22nd, 2011  
Hi @deens, I have recently bought Paint Shop Pro Photo X3, and using layers I placed a second copy (in B&W) on top of the original and then used the background eraser (a bit like scraping away black crayon from the top of colour pictures as kids). I used 100% remove on the central bottle and then 'weakened' the eraser to 30% on the two bottles either side, and 20% for the rest of the colour. Mid-week processing has to be quick & easy for me!. It looks like 'Gimp' (free) might be able to do a similar thing ( ie by 'adding' colour - see http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/ ) It may also do selective background erasing (often an easier way - depending on what effect you are wanting ), but I have not tried the program. Using layers can take a little while to get the hang of, but it does give a lot of flexibility. Hope this helps.
June 23rd, 2011  
@deens PS - I have just read the GIMP tutorial MORE carefully (DOH!!) & it does remove the B&W from the top layer, but using 'masks' rather than a built in 'eraser'. If it was the weekend, I may have used the mask technique (for more control of the finished image), but I had just read the manual about using the eraser, so thought I would give it a go. A 'mask' is a more controllable 'layer of black crayon'.
June 23rd, 2011  
This is great! Very interesting and sounds like a great learning moment for you!
June 23rd, 2011  
Very creative Lyn!
June 23rd, 2011  
Lyn, that is fantastic! I love your perspective and the row of 'never-ending' jars =D
@deens you can do selective colouring quite easily in Picnik which is a free on-line editing program although it is a very simple version and won't allow you to get as intricate as Lyn did with her wonderful creation above =D
June 23rd, 2011  
@loopy12 , Thanks for the very kind words Lyndal. I learnt a lot, which I hope will add to the 'whole' of my photographic ability down the track.
June 23rd, 2011  
awesome! It's given me an idea for a shot!!
June 29th, 2011  
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