Lit with color

[acparsons]

I've been seeing some shots with BW and color mixed. I've tried it out but couldn't get it to turn out. I hope that this image works.

 

[KmH]

Selective color is used to draw a viewers eye to a part of an image you feel is important for the viewer to look at.

Do you think it's important that the viewer's eye be drawn to the hot coal at the end of the cigarette?

 

[korreman]

As far as I can tell, the color area doesn't fully cover the hot coal. That, or the non-covered areas are grey. If first case, try selecting more of the coal manually and making it color. Otherwise, it's unfortunate, color on the coal would look cool.

 

[acparsons]

As far as I can tell, the color area doesn't fully cover the hot coal. That, or the non-covered areas are grey. If first case, try selecting more of the coal manually and making it color. Otherwise, it's unfortunate, color on the coal would look cool.

Real coals mare not fully colored, there is a lot of gray in them.

 

[Bluffkin]

Selective color is used to draw a viewers eye to a part of an image you feel is important for the viewer to look at.

Do you think it's important that the viewer's eye be drawn to the hot coal at the end of the cigarette?

I personally don't FULLY agree with this. I've seen plenty of pictures of toddlers with say a bright red umbrella. The entire shot is B/W apart from the umbrella. I like pictures like that. The point isn't to draw your focus to the umbrella. On the other hand, the same set up with a cat and the eyes are coloured is most certainly there to draw in your attention.

I like this picture. Is the cigarette body coloured too? I would grey scale it if so.

 

[sm4him]

Selective color is used to draw a viewers eye to a part of an image you feel is important for the viewer to look at.

Do you think it's important that the viewer's eye be drawn to the hot coal at the end of the cigarette?

I personally don't FULLY agree with this. I've seen plenty of pictures of toddlers with say a bright red umbrella. The entire shot is B/W apart from the umbrella. I like pictures like that. The point isn't to draw your focus to the umbrella. On the other hand, the same set up with a cat and the eyes are coloured is most certainly there to draw in your attention.

I like this picture. Is the cigarette body coloured too? I would grey scale it if so.

Then what would you say the POINT of a picture like that is?? Because whether a person MEANS for it to, or not, selective color DOES draw the eye to whatever is in color. So, in your example, intentionally or not, the SUBJECT becomes the umbrella and not the toddler. Which is why so much of how people use selective coloring just doesn't produce a strong, effective image.

 

[Bluffkin]

You're exaggerating a lot of points AREN'T you. Shots like that I see as art. When I look at pictures, something may catch my eye, if it was a coloured umbrella, then I would continue to look and see the entire picture. Then I think no more of it, especially not go into a thought of "well that is now the subject, I must focus on that" but as an entire picture. It doesn't ruin the shot, and is therefore acceptable.

 

[tirediron]

Selective color is used to draw a viewers eye to a part of an image you feel is important for the viewer to look at.

Do you think it's important that the viewer's eye be drawn to the hot coal at the end of the cigarette?

I personally don't FULLY agree with this. I've seen plenty of pictures of toddlers with say a bright red umbrella. The entire shot is B/W apart from the umbrella. I like pictures like that. The point isn't to draw your focus to the umbrella. On the other hand, the same set up with a cat and the eyes are coloured is most certainly there to draw in your attention.

I like this picture. Is the cigarette body coloured too? I would grey scale it if so.

You've seen plenty of pictures where selective colour has been used inappropriately. Selective colour is an advertising technique, NOT a photographic one. With the advent of digital photography and easy-to-use home software people suddenly realized that they could do this at home to their own images, and because it generally provides a striking contrast (albeit not often a good one) it was seen as "art". You say that the point of the image with the greyscale child holding the red umbrella is not to draw your eye to the umbrella, but, if you could do a moment-by-moment analysis of your brain seeing that image for the first time, I can virtually guarentee that the umbrella would hold your attention for a greater period of time then would the child's face. Too things attract the human eye: brightness and contrast. It's a fact. A small area of colour on a greyscale image presents an area of high contrast. Ergo...

If you see it as art, and you enjoy it, great. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that it almost never does what the creator intended and there's a 99.9% probability that the reason the artist coloured the umbrella is because it was a high-contrast point to begin with and their eye was naturally drawn to it. Alternatively, because it was easy to mask and colour.