What do you think

Light Guru · May 16, 2017

NOT a fan of the selective color.

zombiesniper · May 16, 2017

I think you're a little lazy with the question. Since you didn't narrow it here we go.

Agree with above that I dislike selective colour but that is just an opinion so it's irrelevant to you becoming better.

What can help is to tell you what I like, why and where I think it can improve.

I like the idea of catching what appears to be a candid moment.

The overall shot to me feels more like a candid photo due to the extra room above the subject that really provides nothing to the photo. Just because it's candid doesn't mean we can't adjust it some. I would have framed the shot a little lower to show less background above the subject or shot in tighter to the hands and face.

Hard to tell from this photo but they focus does appear to be on about the same plane as the eyes or maybe the nose.

The mask used to create the selective colour is pretty rough. I'm not the best to answer how to correct this.

Oh ya. Welcome to TPF.

Derrel · May 16, 2017

Astute comments above, from zombiesniper. And yes, welcome to TPF! Hope you stay with us here!

Dashur · May 17, 2017

The selective color is distracting - his body seems OOF but in a way that makes him seem to be glowing. Too much space above his head.

Cute shot, however.

goodguy · May 17, 2017

Selective colour can work in some shots and other it wouldn't, in this case it doesn't work for me

tirediron · May 17, 2017

The conversion seems rather mid-tone rich, lacking any pure black or white and without contrast. A little more work there would have improved that aspect of it significantly. As far as the selective colour, the question you need to ask yourself is, 'Why?' Selective colour is really an advertising technique, NOT an artistic one (with rare exceptions of course), the purpose of which is to draw the viewer's eye to a particular component of a scene. In this case you have a photo of [I assume] your child, eating a slice of water-melon. WHY is the water-melon more important than the child? If you're selling water-melon, that's one thing, but as a photo of your child, with no emotional investment, I look at the image and all my eye really sees is the water-melon. You could have just as easily put it on a rock and left the child out of the scene altogether.

ConverseAddict10 · May 25, 2017

Thanks all for your input

I am. A student photographer who has just started to take photography more seriously and get involved in journalism

Please keep the advice up as I am striving to become a better photographer

-Aryn

ConverseAddict10 · May 25, 2017

tirediron said:
The conversion seems rather mid-tone rich, lacking any pure black or white and without contrast. A little more work there would have improved that aspect of it significantly. As far as the selective colour, the question you need to ask yourself is, 'Why?' Selective colour is really an advertising technique, NOT an artistic one (with rare exceptions of course), the purpose of which is to draw the viewer's eye to a particular component of a scene. In this case you have a photo of [I assume] your child, eating a slice of water-melon. WHY is the water-melon more important than the child? If you're selling water-melon, that's one thing, but as a photo of your child, with no emotional investment, I look at the image and all my eye really sees is the water-melon. You could have just as easily put it on a rock and left the child out of the scene altogether.

This is just a pic that I snapped while my brother was standing there eatting I have since cropped it so that the head is not so far down.
Thank you from your input

-Aryn

ConverseAddict10 · May 25, 2017

goodguy said:
Selective colour can work in some shots and other it wouldn't, in this case it doesn't work for me

Thanks for your input

-Aryn

ConverseAddict10 · May 25, 2017

Dashur said:
The selective color is distracting - his body seems OOF but in a way that makes him seem to be glowing. Too much space above his head.

Cute shot, however.

Thanks for your input

-Aryn

ConverseAddict10 · May 25, 2017

zombiesniper said:
I think you're a little lazy with the question. Since you didn't narrow it here we go.

Agree with above that I dislike selective colour but that is just an opinion so it's irrelevant to you becoming better.

What can help is to tell you what I like, why and where I think it can improve.

I like the idea of catching what appears to be a candid moment.

The overall shot to me feels more like a candid photo due to the extra room above the subject that really provides nothing to the photo. Just because it's candid doesn't mean we can't adjust it some. I would have framed the shot a little lower to show less background above the subject or shot in tighter to the hands and face.

Hard to tell from this photo but they focus does appear to be on about the same plane as the eyes or maybe the nose.

The mask used to create the selective colour is pretty rough. I'm not the best to answer how to correct this.

Oh ya. Welcome to TPF.

Thanks for your input it's very helpful

I am a student photographer and I am just starting to get involved in journalism and yearbook so I am currently.doing candid and are trying to venture a little bit farther away in my freelance stuff.

As for the color I was playing with diffrent tones and colors that week

-Aryn

tecboy · May 25, 2017

It's interesting. Remind me of a modern art museum.

DanOstergren · May 26, 2017

The lighting in this is perfect, and personally I think the black and white conversion is quite pleasing to look at. A full range of tonality isn't always necessary in a black and white photo; it's best to let the feeling of the image dictate the range of tones (blacks, midtones and whites), rather than following the same formula for every black and white conversion; being heavy on the midtones isn't a bad thing and I think it suits this image just fine. As far as the composition goes, I like it. It isn't perfectly framed for your average portrait, which to me implies a sense of spontaneity which is fitting for the subject matter, and there is just enough room over his head to show the background and give a sense of environment. My vote is to keep the crop, and keep the black and white conversion it already has.

As others have pointed out, they don't like the selective coloring. Neither do I, and heres why: everything about this shot seems very natural and fun, until your eye is drawn in by the very saturated tones of the watermelon, which to me kills anything natural looking about this shot. Selective color rarely works for any image, and I don't think this photo happens to be one of them. I'd love to see what this looks like in full black and white, or full color even.