My girlfriend and I (Prom)

Red Bull · May 21, 2007

So prom #1 was last night (my girlfriend goes to a different school so I have 2 proms to go to!) Of course my parents and her parents were taking pictures of us. Here is the original image.

Now I thought I would be a bit creative and do some selective coloring. I got this.

Not bad, but I decided to get a little more creative. I wanted a little less depth of field, so I played around and got my final image.

Comments and criticism welcome. I've never really done people pictures like this before (especially ones with me in them), so I decided to give it a shot.

And yes, I had a lot of fun at prom! My prom is in 2 weeks.

Cantfeelmyfingers · May 21, 2007

I've got to say I like reducing the depth of field.. BUT.. I'm not a huge fan of the selective colouring. I feel its more for children type portraiture.
If you are wanting to go the selective colouring route, I would say tone it down a bit, so it's less noticeable? Oh I also really like how you changed the crop. Is that how you say that? I like how you two aren't completely straight up and down.. lol I sound dumb sorry. Anyway other than the colouring being a little to strong for my taste, good work! -Jamie

Scott_Quier · May 21, 2007

- I really like the way you reduced the DOF and the tilted crop. Some tilt the image a bit much for my taste - this one fits nicely. The selective colorization, on the other hand, would be much better executed, IMO, if it were restricted to the flowers, with the rest of the shot being B&W. The B&W might have a little more punch if your whites were whiter - a little more contrast - but that's a matter of taste.

Nice job!

rundadar · May 21, 2007

not to be harsh or anything, but frankly, I'd rather just take the original, make it B&W and be done with that - it's fine as it is.

The selective colouring thingy? Phleeese! (take it away). The creative 'tilt' - no, thank you. All it needs (does not!) is a 'glow' thing for a full house of cheesy effects. Which brings me to my point:

What WAS wrong with the original, in the first place?

[all meant in the friendlies spirit, by the way]

Seneca · May 21, 2007

Great pictures...but the color selection doesn't do it for me in those pictures. Usually color selection is a small portion of the whole picture (in your case it was the whole dress), which to me, doesn't work. JMHO

Red Bull · May 21, 2007

Thanks for all the feedback. Next time I'll tone things down a bit and do less. This was just sort of a fun thing to play around with.

SimonTALM · May 22, 2007

Just like Scott, I definately like the reduced DOF and I think the tilt improves things (the original feels a bit angled to me - possibly due to the column on the wall in the back and the horizontal boards) but agree the selective colour on the dress is a touch too much. What does it look like with just the flowers in colour or significantly less pink? Also what happens if you reduce the tilt so that the column in the background is actually vertical?

Couple of suggestions