Selective Color, Opinions Wanted

ChrisJ

I've never been a big fan of selective color, but this Flamingo shot had a slightly distracting background, so I thought I would try it. I'm looking for opinions (and got no bites on my original Zoo thread).

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Does the selective color work here, or is the background 'go still too distracting? Let me know...

jfriend

ChrisJ wrote:

I've never been a big fan of selective color, but this Flamingo shot had a slightly distracting background, so I thought I would try it. I'm looking for opinions (and got no bites on my original Zoo thread).

Does the selective color work here, or is the background 'go still too distracting? Let me know...

You have to decide whether you want an artisitic shot that has clearly been altered or whether you want to just enhance your original shot, but in a way that it still looks like a real photo.

When you remove all color from an area, it's usually fairly obvious that it has been altered in an artistic way. If that's what you were trying to achieve, this does improve the shot. If I were you, I would probably also darken the background so that the light colored background that's right behind the foreground bird heads is not so light and reduce it's conflict with the foreground even more. You could even fully make that background bird blend into the dark background.

If you want it to still look like a photo, I'd suggest using a combination of 30-60% desaturation (not full desaturation) and 50% darkening. When done right, you can subtlely desaturate and darken a background to separate it from the background, but do it in a way that the viewer doesn't realize the photo has been altered. Since you've already got a mask or selection for the background, this change would be easy to try.

I, myself, prefer the latter option that keeps it looking like a real photo, but still accomplishes reduction of the busy background and less contention with the foreground.

claudermilk

I actually had the same thoughts as John--then read his excellent reply. I would definietly try that--darkend & partly desaturate.

Richard

I think the selective color version is better, but (and I hate to say it) the background is still distracting, especially where the two heads of the birds meet. If you have the patience, you might try cloning the background birds out, while leaving the pic in color. Yeah, it's a lot of work. Maybe try John's suggestion first--perhaps the darkening would do the trick.

Nice shot of the flamingos.

firedancing4life

yeah..the natural background is a little distracting. maybe crop them out on black background...that would be really stunning. out of the two you have here....I like the selective color.