Selective Color... Yes, No, Maybe?

[Chris Stegner]

I'm not usually into selective color, but I think this one works pretty well. I recently shot "The Sound of Music" at the school my wife works at. I'm putting together an Apple Book to auction off at a fund raiser and this is the opening photo. I'm pretty happy with it and wanted to get some feedback. Does the selective color work for you guys in this case?

 

[Flash Harry]

This idea is actually the first selective color I ever saw which did work, however at the time it had been done with film and was pretty hard to understand how, but yes, this works for me, natural and not overcooked. H

 

[Eldrich]

Yes it works for me. I think it work well in this photo because you can interpret the selective color to say something about how acting and performing is more about your image, (i.e.) reflection than the actual person. I'm not sure if thats what you were going for, but thats what I got out of it.

 

[skiboarder72]

Interesting, I like it!

 

[bigtwinky]

I'm not usually a fan of selective colouring, but I do like this. I actually find it adds more emotion / feeling to your image. Not sure if the same would work with a single model putting on makeup in front of a mirror, but it does work for the stage

 

[Big Mike]

For me, the key to using selective color is that it directs the viewers eye to certain spots of you image. So as long as you are aware of that and actually want those parts to be the strong focal points of your image, then it's OK. In this case, you want the viewer to look at their faces in the reflection, so I think it works.

I see way too many shots (usually of kids) where the shot is desaturated expect for a bow in their hair...or on their dress etc. I don't like this because it focuses attention on the bow, rather than on the face/eyes of the subject.

Also, I really, really dislike it when people use that type of selective color with young babies. To me, it always looks like a [gasp] dead baby.

 

[jaharris1001]

I like it, it draws my attention to the mirror where I see a young lady adding color to her face, I think it fits this image well