Color selected photos....whats your take?

manaheim · Jul 18, 2013

Both interesting examples, though not photography. Sin City is closer, I suppose.

I think what happens with photography is people do it without thinking through what it means to do it... they just think "Oh this will be cool!" In Derrel's examples, what does it say when the bride is b/w and the bouquet is colorful? The bouquet is more important? The bouquet is alive and the bride is dead? Most of the pictures along these lines suffer from this same problem.

Even using that thought process, I've yet to see a picture where I thought selective coloring would enhance the image. Usually I feel like it's just a distraction.

PixelRabbit · Jul 18, 2013

IIRC last autumn(ish) someone posted a selective colour of the orange leaves in a landscape and it was done quite well and was fairly well received, I will have to see if I can track it down.

kathyt · Jul 18, 2013

It is kinda like really tight perms from the 80's, only a VERY selected few can get away with it! I was not one of them, and NO I will not show pictures.

KmH · Jul 18, 2013

It's a passenger car that has been modified for racing.

In many race cars the steering wheel has to be removed so the driver can get in and out of the car.

It looks like the passenger side headlight has been modified with an air duct for the engine, oil cooler, brakes, etc.

As mentioned, a major issue with the posted photo are all the reflections seen on the car.

Tip: Use a high quality CPL filter.

Dagwood56 · Jul 18, 2013

Derrel said:
When Adobe Photodeluxe was the amateur image editing/manipulation software of choice for amateurs, back in the late 1990's, selective color was one of the hot, new "special effects". The roots of the disdain for selective color date back to around that time...when wedding shooters would take a bridal photo with the bride holding her bouquet--with the bouquet in glorious, resplendent full color, and the bride in God-awful B&W tones. A year or two later, hordes of weekend warrior baby photographers were ripping off Anne Geddes, and dressing babies in huge "daisy" and "chrysanthemum" costumes, with you guessed it--black and white baby faces surrounded by huge, stupid-looking colored fake flower blossoms.

So, the roots of selective color being a newbie "Oh-wow-sooooo-kewl,man!" kind of effect go way back to the early days of digital cameras. It has never, ever overcome the stigma.

Selective color is the mullet hairstyle of the photo world. Selective color is the wife-beater and a 16-ounce can of Hamms beer of the underclass. Selective color is the hitch-hiking to see your girlfriend at the womens prison of white trash society. Selective color is the ________________ of ______________.

^^^DITTO^^^

BanditPhotographyNW · Jul 18, 2013

Gavjenks said:
Is that a disembodied random steering wheel on the windshield?

Ha it is indeed...tim is a bigger guy thats the only way he can Dukes of hazard his way out of the car lol

BanditPhotographyNW · Jul 18, 2013

@ Runnah

Side note....Jeremy Clarkson in the Ariel Atom is the greatest car video ever lol

BanditPhotographyNW · Jul 18, 2013

Thank you for all the great responses.....Its nice to see people can be critical but polite at the same time. This was one of 2 selective photos I have done, and I agree with all critique on it, the reflections do considerably mess with the image and I can see how it would be considered crowded.

runnah · Jul 18, 2013

BanditPhotographyNW said:
@ Runnah

Side note....Jeremy Clarkson in the Ariel Atom is the greatest car video ever lol

It's not the Atom, its from this season the BAC car.

BanditPhotographyNW · Jul 18, 2013

runnah said:
BanditPhotographyNW said:

@ Runnah

Side note....Jeremy Clarkson in the Ariel Atom is the greatest car video ever lol

Click to expand...

It's not the Atom, its from this season the BAC car.

Nice!! I havn't seen that yet. Is it better than the atom? The gif you have looks very similar to the atom lol

Ilovemycam · Jul 18, 2013

OP, if you aspire to be a commercial photog, then you must know various techniques to please your client. If you went into the lengthy discourse as to why selective color is crap, as was mentioned in this thread, what would your client think?

They pay the bills, you just do the grunt work. You must give the client what they want.

People put down my hyper-real HDR color work all the time. I love it and I have put many of them in museums and prestigious rare book libraries. So I don't care if others hate them. As long as I am happy with my work that is all that counts.

Check out a couple of my hyper-real shots with a Google image search.

'Pole dancer Ross County Ohio'

'Carla and babydoll'

Where would I be if I listened to the HDR haters? Both of these and a bunch more are in public collections in the US and U.K. OK, maybe my old BW from the 70's opened the door. But still, HDR street is what I am about now and it has to stand on its own.

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." – Cecil Beaton

A lot of the photogs on the forums seem to think that just because they devoid a photo of all color and make it BW or freak it out with grunge HDR that makes it great. The shot has to be good to start with, then you fine tune it to improve. But you have to start with something and then perfect it.

Sure, my work is not for all comers. But we can only offer what is in us to give. We can build upon it and try new things to see how it works out.

"When I was on trips I used to put Polaroid’s in a container with sea water, sand and pebbles. I’d swirl it all around to get scratches. It’s this random element that I call ‘the drip’. It’s the drip which might splash onto the other side of the canvas when you’re working on a painting and make you think ‘that is good’, possibly leading you to explore other things. My whole life is spent in search of the drip; it can change everything. " – David Bailey

When I get around to it I will learn how to do selective color. Nothing may come out of it, but it looks fun. If we quit before we start, we will get nowhere. As Winogrand tell us...the more I do, the more i do. So even if I get no 'keepers' from selective color it may help in some unknown area.

"I just take pictures and hope something comes out of it."- Elliott Erwitt

If I was you OP, I would do lots more selective color until you know it inside and out and have had your fill.

“Never give up, don’t listen to the haters. Don’t try to be an artist unless you can work and live in isolation, without any thanks. Bleak advice, but needed until you get to the much lauded place. “ - Scape Martinez - Impact interview March 23, 2009

manaheim · Jul 18, 2013

"hyper-real" HDR? Real is sort of binary. It either is or isn't. In my experience, very few people complain about the more "real" looking HDRs. They complain about the crazy over-the-top highly-saturated ones. Which category are you in, really?

And I'd like to point out that in one sentence you said, "They pay the bills, you just do the grunt work. You must give the client what they want." and then you said "People put down my hyper-real HDR color work all the time. I love it and I have put many of them in museums and prestigious rare book libraries. So I don't care if others hate them. As long as I am happy with my work that is all that counts."

So which is it? If your clients didn't like your "hyper-real" style, would you put your opinions aside and give them what they want, or do what you're happy with?

I dunno. You just seem sort of all over the map, and you're sort of puffing out your chest with the thing about you being in museums and... rare book libraries???

BanditPhotographyNW · Jul 18, 2013

I think what Ilovemycam meant by those statements was completely separate of each other. The first statement was about paid work the other about passion. I agree paid work should be all about the customer but personal work should only matter to you. I happen to not be a very unbiased person and can find good in just about anything even if its a widely hated subject. I like both of those HDRs by the way though the stripper is kind of disturbing lol

JacaRanda · Jul 18, 2013

Derrel said:
Selective color is the mullet hairstyle of the photo world. Selective color is the wife-beater and a 16-ounce can of Hamms beer of the underclass. Selective color is the hitch-hiking to see your girlfriend at the womens prison of white trash society. Selective color is the ________________ of ______________.

Love the Hamms beer reference. Takes me back to the good old days when I developed the taste for beer at the ripe young age of (way too young)! I have not seen a can since moving from the Midwest in the 70's. I miss the commercials. :cry: