Selective color

[mattopia]

I was shooting in a cemetery near where I have a geocache hidden and I really liked the composition of this shot...



I just didn't like how nothing really jumped out. I usually don't do a lot of post processing other than minor adjustments, but I decided to try something a little extreme:



The second one is the Flickr version. Sorry no EXIF -- Aperture keeps loosing my EXIF for some reason... :\

Anyway, my first thought was that I wanted to eliminate most but not all color. I duplicated the image into a layer, ran desaturate on the layer, then bumped the opacity down a bit so that some of the color showed through - maybe 85% or so opacity. Then, I decided I wanted the flowers to really pop. Duplicated the original layer again, cranked the blue channel up in curves, and masked the flower petals. I hate masking!

Hope everyone enjoys - this is only my second attempt at selective coloring, primarly because I hate masking!

[mattopia]

I know it's not the critique section, but I'd love to know how I did since it's one of my first PP jobs. I'll take the good and the bad!

[sandman935]

I think you've done well with it. I like how you've darkened the background. It's a better crop and the shift to blue instead of green is a nice touch.

[private]

I really like the blue - if the blue were desaturated a bit more, I may like it evem more.

[corry]

well done....i like the composition, i think i'm with pat though in that i would prefer the flowers a bit softer shade.....but it is very nice this way.

[mattopia]

Thank you, this is the kind of feedback I was looking for. Saturation on the petals was something I played with quite a bit. They looked darker originally - it could be the auto-brightness feature of my Macbook Pro messing with me...

The crop was primarily to get rid of the burnt out sunlight in the upper right of the original, but I think it works better for other reasons. I feel a bit was lost with cropping out the text on the gravestone though.

[private]

I would keep the original size and the desaturate the flowers a bit more - Old grave yards are really cool - not as spooky as the modern ones for some reason...