Selective coloring....

[Linkovicha]

I've always admired pictures with selective coloring, but how do you do this? Are there any video tutorials or step by step pictures to show how this is achieved?

 

[Sisco]

I've always admired pictures with selective coloring, but how do you do this? Are there any video tutorials or step by step pictures to show how this is achieved?

It is not one of those things that appeal to many seasoned photographers, lol, you will find alot more dislike than like I am afraid. It has a place for sure, but it has to be used to enhance a subject, not just used because it can be. Do a search, I am sure you will find loads of info.

 

[StillGotIt]

youtube.

 

[Sisco]

It also depends on what editing program you own

 

[gsgary]

selective coloringis something i have always hated

 

[o hey tyler]

Paint everything in the scene you want to be colorless, gray, and then leave the area that you want in color alone. Actuate the shutter once all the paint has dried to minimize reflectivity on the paint. Import the photo to your computer, and there you have it. Selective coloring!

 

[Linkovicha]

selective coloringis something i have always hated

Lol, maybe so...perhaps half of the appeal is the fact that everyone seems to do it, and I don't have a clue! Along the lines of the forbidden object is more tempting....

Youtube is a great idea! I actually only learned what it was properly called this morning...typing in "making a picture gray but leaving part of it in color" wouldn't have produced much I don't think.

 

[SrBiscuit]

what software you gots?

 

[Linkovicha]

Adobe photoshop CS3

 

[RSPhotography]

like most people have said.. it's quite clichéd.

but an easy way to do it in photoshop, it to create a hue/saturation layer and reduce saturation to 0. the on the layer mask, paint in black on the colour you want to keep.

I've always wondered how they do it with film - whether they paint each frame or if there's some process for doing it more effectively...?

 

[skieur]

Both overused and clichéd, there needs to be a visual, compositional reason for colourizing a subject in a black and white shot and that reason must be communicated to the viewer through the photo.

If the viewer cannot see the reason for selectively colouring something in the scene, then the photographer's "method" is a failure and it is a poor shot.

skieur

 

[Geaux]

A Selective Colored HDR photo would be epic .....

 

[Zrock]

here is a good tutorial for Gimp should give you a good idea how to do it with what you have
GIMP - Selective Colorization

 

[davisphotos]

Agreed with the others that it tends to look very amateur, even when done well. I do have a few photos where I partially desaturated the photo, then painted in super saturation for some details, a la Sin City, and I like those quite a bit. As has been mentioned, there are a lot of ways to do it-I typically create a new layer, desaturate it using the channel mixer, then erase the parts I want to keep the color on.