The Chameleon query

[dimitrz]

Originally Posted by subrataofkris

Since the colours of the subject almost merges with the rocks, you might try to dramatize the shot by selective desaturation. I would like to to keep the rocks and sky B&W and keep the reptile in colour or even push up the color saturation. This can be an experiment.

How do you do that ? I was always curious about that --- never got around to ask it though ?

[subrataofkris]

Originally Posted by dimitrz

How do you do that ? I was always curious about that --- never got around to ask it though ?

Here's how I did it
I opened your shot in photoshop
Copied it in two new layers - subject and background

I took the subject layer
1) Selected the reptile.
There are many ways you can do it, I prefer using the pen tool to draw around the subject (lasso etc can be used), then I created a selection with feather value 1 and saved it with a name.
2) I did an inverse selection (all except the reptile) and deleted it and removed the selection.
3) I increased the saturation of the colours of the main subject.

In the background layer
1) I desaturated and made it darker

I kept the subject layer on top and now I had the coloured reptile on b&w background.

I did a few other minor adjustmets like rotating the shot, cropping, smudging the edges of background layer.

.. And the result is

[dimitrz]

Wow That was simply amazing...it gives a new dimension to the shot.

Hey thanks for the tips buddy