Selective colour: Opinions

[mc_nebula]

I have been messing about with this on some photographs I took recently:

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After:



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So, any constructive criticism, comments and anything similar you have done would be appreciated!

mc_nebula

[Radders]

Cool, i really like the grass one.

I think there is too much colour in the first for it to work (at least for me), though i do not know how you could improve it...

[mc_nebula]

yea, it was a tough one, because of the short focal range, there were out of focus leaves over the rose... This ment I had to color them or it would have looked more retared...it was the first one I did.

[Aulius]

I like the purple one. On the first one in my opionion only the red should be showing

[Radders]

but the leaves in front would obsure it and it will look wierd

[Aulius]

Hmmm maybe. I don't know, would have to be done to get a decent opinion.

[Ceri]

Oooh, pretty! I love this selective colour stuff, and you've done it wonderfully!

*thumbs up* ;D

[mc_nebula]

cool!
If you have a picture you want it done to... I will do my best on it..

And I have to say, my faveourite is the bricks with the grass...

[Kerry S]

I like....the contast between the negative black and white (or greyscale) and the bright colours!
Yeh interesting...did u do it in photoshop? I'm gona try it!!

[mc_nebula]

No, I am too poor (and honest) to use photoshop, I used a "borrowed" copy of paint shop pro 7 (a bit of a relic...)

Good luck!

[adzi]

The grass on the paving slabs is awesome. Sort of...emotive?!!

[mc_nebula]

the thing I love is the way the greyscale brings out the color... You wouldnt believe it, but I have not fiddled with the colors in any of those pictures (other than to make the grey...duh)

yea, the grass is my personal fave...
I was expecting it to look like ass, what with all the thin bits of grass to pick out, but no, I went and surprised my self!

[adzi]

Nice !! Just reading through photoshop to see what I can try...I painted a panda once...which turned out like poo!

[mc_nebula]

Ill tell you how I did it:

Realy simple:
Step 1: Open your image.
Step 2: Duplicate the background layer
Step 3: Make the copy of background black and white
Step 4: Make sure the B&WQ layer is on top, then, using the erase tool, erase the areas on the black and white layer where you want colour. As long as you erase to transparent, you end up with the colour showing through. Simple.

[jenn0]

Ok, here's a few attempts i had at doing it, pretty similar thing i used your photos as i don't really have any of my own that are of a good enough quality.

There's 2 methods i used here, for the first picture i made a duplicate of the photo and then played with the brightness and contrast settings until most of the colour i wanted remained and the rest was black. The i made a duplicate of the original colour layer and desaturated it moving the coloured layer to the front, using the contrast layer i made a selection of the black area then using this as a mask i deleted the same area of the colour layer. Lastly i removed any coloured bits i didn't want, blurred the layer by a factor of 2 pixels to remove rough edges and set it to colour. This works best if your trying to single out areas of more than one colour.

On the other two i just duplicated the original layer and set it to grayscale, then i used the "colour select" tool to pick the range of colour i wanted saving from the colour layer, i duplicated my selection and placed this over the grayscale layer.

1st method


2nd method




Thanks for the pics Ali, I'm not sure if you can do the methods Ive described in PSP, but they certainly are quicker and less tedious. Im goign to see if i can find any pics worth doign this to that i have now.

EDIT: Heres a couple of my own, they dont really lend themselves to it, but their the best photos i have.

[Radders]

Really like the first one...
The grass one has not lost enough colour in this...
The flower is ok, a bit obscured, but that was the photo...

I love the toxic sludge down the road.

[jenn0]

Toxic Sludge , well, i suppose it was bubbling out of the sewers in some places.

[mc_nebula]

They look good, I like the first one, with the flowers...
The one with the silos looks realy nice although I dont like the fire one.

where are the last two pictures taken?

[jenn0]

Chatham Historic Dockyards.

[Ceri]

Cool, Mark, I like the water one

[dragonmaster]

there all really cool! umm with close ups ali in future just make sure your subject matter isnt being obscured by leaves ect. but there all cool.

mark i recon the one with the silo you could add a bit more color to edges of the buildings almost to giv it a really depressing beat down look. just an idea =D

[StellaNero]

I like the firs tof Mark's alternatives.
I think the first of Ali's [first post] just didn't work for me either.
The rest are cool though ^-^

And I likes Marks water one. xD
Btws, anyone else on here got a DeviantArt account?

[jenn0]

No i dont, it's sometihng i should set up though. I just dont do enough work that i could show to people too make it worth it really.

[StellaNero]

I know people who've only put up a few things... it doesn't really matter, and there's always the 'Scraps' section on the accounts for that sort of stuff.
Check mine to see what I mean:
klarnatt.deviantart.com

And if you look hard enough in my watchers bit you'll find Ben [Chloroform Kisses]
[And the reason he doesn't have much up would be my fault for not sending him all that stuff I've got scanned on my PC of his xD]

[Get an account dangggg it ^-^]

[dragonmaster]

yea i have an account already i havent got much loaded on to it as i havent had much time recently ill send u a link some time ^^

[StellaNero]

Ha colos, remember to.