Selective Colour - c & c welcome

[Lazy Photographer]

I'm taking a short photography class and one of our assignments was to create a selective colour (if that's the correct term) shot using Lightroom 3. I'm new to Lightroom 3, but it seems pretty straight forward. Slow as all getout on my machine, unfortunately, and not as user friendly as my 5 yr old ACDSee Photo Manager Pro, but it does have some tools that are pretty cool.

As for the photo, there's a main artery in the east end of Toronto called Lakeshore Blvd and at one intersection a group of people hang out and beg for money from car drivers waiting at the lights. Fortunately I had my camera on the seat beside me. When the guy realized I was taking his photo he raised his hand in a half-assed sort of wave. Really made the shot, in my opinion.

 

[Forest Power Ranger]

that truck is killing me.

 

[rusty9]

the shot's not very well composed

 

[mrpink]

That photo tells me nothing of the story you conveyed in text.

The selective color does nothing for the shot. There is no mood or feeling to it at all.




p!nK

 

[Juice]

How did you do that just using LR?

 

[lunaaa]

could've been much better without the truck

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Sounds like we have a consensus here. Oh well, they all can't be winners, right? As for the truck and the composition, I was sort of stuck in one spot waiting for the light and only had a moment before that lane beside me (the empty one in the photo) was to be filled with more cars stopped at the light too. If I'd had more time I would have waited for that truck to pass -- well, maybe not, I don't know. There was only one moment where the guy waved and it's that odd wave and his stance that attracted me to the shot.

Anyway, I'm sure it all sounds like a bunch of excuses. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and criticisms.

P.S. Oh, I forgot to address one thing: Someone mentioned the photo doesn't convey the story I told. Coincidentally, I'd considered posting it without the story, since I did not take the photo to tell that story. The story (waiting at the lights while someone begs for change) really isn't photo worthy, in my opinion. What I like about the photo (and of course your mileage may vary) is the oddity of it. Personally, I think the guy looks rather strange and if you didn't know he was bumming for money maybe your imagination would create its own odd back story, or better yet, create a desire to know the back story. I find this photo to be relatively ambiguous. And again, your mileage may vary. I'm not telling you what to think or asking you to agree with me, just mentioning what I think.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

How did you do that just using LR?

I used the brush to de-saturate everything but the guy. I started by zooming right in and tracing along the outside edge of his body, taking care not to touch him with the brush. Once I had a de-saturated outline I made the brush a lot larger and then wiped away all the colour from the rest of the shot. That part was pretty quick.

 

[burstintoflame81]

Sounds like we have a consensus here. Oh well, they all can't be winners, right? As for the truck and the composition, I was sort of stuck in one spot waiting for the light and only had a moment before that lane beside me (the empty one in the photo) was to be filled with more cars stopped at the light too. If I'd had more time I would have waited for that truck to pass -- well, maybe not, I don't know. There was only one moment where the guy waved and it's that odd wave and his stance that attracted me to the shot.

Anyway, I'm sure it all sounds like a bunch of excuses. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and criticisms.

P.S. Oh, I forgot to address one thing: Someone mentioned the photo doesn't convey the story I told. Coincidentally, I'd considered posting it without the story, since I did not take the photo to tell that story. The story (waiting at the lights while someone begs for change) really isn't photo worthy, in my opinion. What I like about the photo (and of course your mileage may vary) is the oddity of it. Personally, I think the guy looks rather strange and if you didn't know he was bumming for money maybe your imagination would create its own odd back story, or better yet, create a desire to know the back story. I find this photo to be relatively ambiguous. And again, your mileage may vary. I'm not telling you what to think or asking you to agree with me, just mentioning what I think.

There are many things wrong with the shot. As for your selective coloring technique, It doesn't look extremely sloppy or anything, but the rest of the picture isn't very great if I am being honest. The truck in the background kills it as others said, but even if you removed that, there would be a ton of dead space around the guy.

You were shooting at 17mm which is a fairly wide angle. That is going to accentuate the fairly pointless and cluttered background especially when it is shot at f/8. You could have zoomed in on him more and used a wider Aperture with a slower shutter speed ( or ISO 200 ) and gotten the background to blur a little, since it doesn't add anything to the composition.

You should have been more patient with your shot, and also chose a different angle. ( drive around the block and do a few passes or get out and walk up to the area. Social issues ( poverty, homelessness, immigration, economic problems etc etc. ) are in fact VERY worthy of your cameras attention and are usually well regarded in both the fine art world, and the journalistic world if well done.

I realize this was just a quick spur of the moment shot, but if you want to go back to this spot ( since you said they routinely beg here ) and try the shot a different way....here is some advice.....( assuming this is possible at the location ) cross the street to the right of the cameras view. Crouch down with a 70-300mm lens, wait for a car to pull up and hand money out to him. Zoom in with a vertical composition showing the side of the car, and car window on the left, and the begger on the right with out stretched hands taking the money. Use the lowest F/stop you can get to blur the background out of focus. Have your camera in continuous shooting mode and fire off as many frames at once as you can everytime someone hands him change. Desaturate and selectively color. If you are lucky maybe you will get a good view of the money being handed to him and are in tight enough to selectively color the money instead. Story told!

Just my 2 cents, take it for what its worth.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Thanks biflame81, very helpful advice. I actually do shoot a lot around the subject of inner-city poverty and this location isn't out of the way for me, so maybe one day... I'm still not unhappy with this photo, but I do appreciate the points others have made -- especially around the presence of the truck.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

What about a re-crop?

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

The trees look like they are growing out of his head. The also look like wings.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Thanks Bus Rider. I also tried the crop, but to be honest I really liked the guy centred in the shot. I know, rule of thirds blah blah blah, but I sometimes think a centred subject can really work. Just my opinion, of course.

Bitter Jeweller: And his shoes are hidden slightly by grass and he's not standing straight and he isn't facing the camera and one tree looks like it's riding a bicycle. Ideally, I should have taken the guy to a studio with proper lighting and backdrop and created a professional portrait photograph. All this real life crap is really getting in the way, it seems. Joking aside, the background is a tad busy around the guy, isn't it.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Thanks Bus Rider. I also tried the crop, but to be honest I really liked the guy centred in the shot. I know, rule of thirds blah blah blah, but I sometimes think a centred subject can really work. Just my opinion, of course.

Hey... It is YOUR photo. If you like it centered... then it should be centered.

 

[flyingember]

honestly, I can't stand these types of photos.

there's a guy near here who does this with colored blue jeans. all I see are the jeans.

I much prefer photos like these. I've done this with the subject in full color all the same. desaturate the color in most of the photo, removing it completely looks wrong to me
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