'The Lost Princess'...my first selective color

Ilovemycam · Jul 29, 2013

The London photog inspired me to learn more about selective color. I don't know how to use Photoshop (Elements) other than to print museum quality prints with it. And the only reason I use it to print is because I need wide white borders. But...I was able to do a half-ass selective color with LR. (My eyes are poor, so selective color with LR is tough for me to do.)

ArtSlant - The Lost Princess

A couple weeks ago I was shooting some kids at a Catholic Church block party fundraiser. I was there in the afternoon for 15 min testing out a Widelux. They started to hassle me then. I came back in the PM and within 5 min they told me if I don't leave they will call the police. I love shooting kids, but every time you point your cam at them your a pedophile.

Edit: I replaced the original version #14 with version #21. I Reworked the color saturation and the BW tonality. Still a work in progress!

Edit 2: I finished and updated version #30. Everyone I show it to is crazy about it. I printed it up on Fine Art Baryta. I'm very happy with it. Thanks for all the postive support!

Sw1tchFX · Jul 29, 2013

Stranger who nobody knows shows up and starts to photograph children whom he doesn't know either? Especially when the folks don't know what they're going to be used for, yeah, it comes off as creepy.

iBump · Jul 29, 2013

comes off as guilty until proven innocent

DarkShadow · Jul 29, 2013

As a parent of three children its always best to introduce your self and ask a parent or parents for permission first and what your intentions are. If you just start randomly taking pictures of peoples kids with out permission, then it comes off as a creepy persons with a camera. There is photographers and then there is sleezebags with a camera.

sashbar · Jul 30, 2013

A properly schizophrenic image. A like it. I am not sure about her balloon - should it be b&w ? She has an interesting ageless primeval face.I would have desaturated her a bit.

tirediron · Jul 30, 2013

Okay folks, let's not start this. The OP doesn't appear to have done anything illegal, so let's not allow personal feelings on certain subjects to turn this into a train wreck okay?

Thanks!

tirediron · Jul 30, 2013

OP: Okay, you've found selective colour, you've tried selective colour, now let's just hope it's out of your system for good and never go to that dark place again!

amolitor · Jul 30, 2013

It looks ok to me. It gets at a bit of that dreamlike quality. It makes a picture that I feel like I've seen before, but it's not a bad one.

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

Sw1tchFX said:
Stranger who nobody knows shows up and starts to photograph children whom he doesn't know either? Especially when the folks don't know what they're going to be used for, yeah, it comes off as creepy.

Well, it was private property so I had to leave.

If your a street photog not creepy at all...it is what we do. But I can see the parents concern and P.O.V. as well.

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

iBump said:
comes off as guilty until proven innocent

Yes, that is how it is.

Do you ladies get hassled when shooting street kids?

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

DarkShadow said:
As a parent of three children its always best to introduce your self and ask a parent or parents for permission first and what your intentions are. If you just start randomly taking pictures of peoples kids with out permission, then it comes off as a creepy persons with a camera. There is photographers and then there is sleezebags with a camera.

That is usually not possible. Sometimes I ask. But for the most part, street photography is candid not posed.

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

sashbar said:
A properly schizophrenic image. A like it. I am not sure about her balloon - should it be b&w ? She has an interesting ageless primeval face.I would have desaturated her a bit.

Ballon is blue. I was trying to showcase the little girl.

Yes, I need to fine tune it. I will make the shoes in the front brighter possibly. Lighten / brighten her up maybe. I did about 14 versions of it. I spent 40 min on it last night. (I could have done it faster if I knew what I was doing.)

From my limited understanding of PS Elements. I think the proper way to do it was to do a layer to perfect the BW. Then do the color layer and marry them. But I don't know if that is right, I'm only guessing. I made a color adjusted BW with LR and it has better tonal range than the select color BW version. But I don't know how to use the color adjusted BW LR version and color her. That was why I called it a half-ass version!

I think being a good artist / painter is helpful with this sort of work. (I have very little art / painting skills.) So studying painting and art can be helpful for the photographer.

I have 400+ images to look through that I shot in 2-1/2 days. I never have much time to devote to any one image. Sometimes I am still refining an image a year later. The tough part for me is my eyes. I have trouble even reading file names. It is a love-hate relationship with having to stare at the computer to do the work. All you guys or gals that can see well...be very grateful.

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

tirediron said:
OP: Okay, you've found selective colour, you've tried selective colour, now let's just hope it's out of your system for good and never go to that dark place again!

Don't know. But you start looking at every photo op that comes down the road thinking 'selective color this...selective color that.'

It can make you crazy!

Ilovemycam · Jul 30, 2013

nitra said:
I like the photo, and i don't want to know the story behind it. Pic is good

As with most of my street stuff...there is no story. It is just a street shot. It is a moment in time frozen, maybe 2 or 3 blinks of the eye and it is gone.

If you look at the interior photos of people I have at Artslant...those have more of a story.

I was discussing one of my photos at another forum. I couldn't believe all the things people imagined about that photo. From that lesson I learned how people can see the same photo in all sort of different ways.