Brother - selective coloring

[lns_731]

Hi,
what do you think of this photo, composition in particular. i did some selective coloring that i think came out nice. i'd appreciate any opinions or critiques.
Thanks!

Camera: Sony DSC-W50
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 6.3 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Fired, Red-eye reduction, Return detected

[cphoniball]

Selective coloring does not work here.

By coloring just the balls and your brother's shirt, you're saying "Hey, you, viewer. I want you to look at the pool balls his shirt. His face? Who cares?"

It's a portrait. Focus on drawing attention to the subject.

[irishmuth]

Originally Posted by cphoniball

Selective coloring does not work here.

By coloring just the balls and your brother's shirt, you're saying "Hey, you, viewer. I want you to look at the pool balls his shirt. His face? Who cares?"

It's a portrait. Focus on drawing attention to the subject.

Could not agree more. You're telling the viewer what's important in this photo and if it's a portrait the answer is always the person/people. This selective coloring just takes the focus away from the person.

[lns_731]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I just have one question (i'm new, so please bear with me)... for example in wedding portraits a lot of the time they use selective coloring to only color the bride's bouquet, is this wrong? What is the correct use of selective coloring?

[irishmuth]

Originally Posted by lns_731

Ok, thanks for the advice. I just have one question (i'm new, so please bear with me)... for example in wedding portraits a lot of the time they use selective coloring to only color the bride's bouquet, is this wrong? What is the correct use of selective coloring?

I might have gotten a little high and mighty with my response. I don't know that there is a right and wrong way to use selective coloring. I just think that selective coloring should be done for a purpose, not just because it can be done. In your image, I don't think the yellow shirt is of any particular importance. However, if it's his lucky shirt that he always wears when playing pool or something like that, then maybe the selective coloring of the shirt and the billiard balls makes sense.

In your example about the bride's bouquet, the colors and flowers that a bride chooses are definitely very important to her, so that seems to fit my (admittedly made up) criteria. Another example is a recent photo I took of my newborn daughter stacked on a pile of white towels. I loved the way the photos looked in black and white, but like many newborns, gender is pretty much a guess unless they're dressed in pink or blue, so I used selective coloring on the pink ribbon I had used to keep the towels together so that the viewer knew definitively that it was a girl.

Hope that helps and came across more respectful (I re-read my comment and realized it sounded kinda arrogant).

Mike

[lns_731]

Thanks so much for your response irishmuth. I really, really appreciate you responding! I am still learning and sometimes feel like people in these forums are just a little high and mighty...but oh well, thanks for helping me out! Would u mind looking at this other picture I did of my (step) granddaughter...does it take away too much focus from her in your opinion? In regards to the previous picture of my brother, I did just do the selective coloring because I could, lol... I thought it looked cool and really liked to original, so decided to experiment a little bit. Practice makes perfect, so i'll keep trying!

Thanks again!

Lauren

[irishmuth]

The selective coloring seems to draw you into the subject more with your granddaughter...although I like the original quite a bit, too. I would use a tighter crop, though - so that the pink doesn't look out of place in a large sea of gray.

The most important thing is that you love your pics and we continue to try to improve. I am new to photography but have a small background in post-processing. It can definitely be a challenge to really improve without spending thousands on lighting, remote triggers, etc. My purchase of a dSLR was my expensive jump into photography and was hard enough to justify on its own before even thinking about spending more. But when I look at my pictures now vs. my old point and shoot, I am more than happy that I spent that money and I can appreciate my pics even if they're missing the perfect lighting set up.

Mike

[lns_731]

I'll definitely take your advice with the crop, i'll try it out tonight! Again, thanks for taking your time to explain a few things to me. Have a great night!

Lauren

[daddyoproductions]

The general consensus is that selective colouring is one of those things that either works really well or well, you know the rest. In this case it makes the balls look like they're floating. I think your shot is fine without; I like the contrast of bw you have going there.