Selective colouring?

kirif1

kirif1

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Name
Chris
Edit My Images
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Hi guys :wave:

I sometimes get mixed feedback on the pictures I use selective colouring on and it's made me wonder....is this a big no no in the pro world? cheesy and a cheap way of making a pic stand out. Or is it a case like...HDR for example, when done right it's great?

What do you think?
 
It's all down to a personal preference, a lot of people dislike selective colouring and at the same time a lot of people like it...

Photography is a form or art so at the end of the day if you like the image you haev achieved then does it really matter, it's nice to get advise on where to improve techincally but it's what makes you happy with an image that's important, unless it's for a paying customer when it's what makes the customer that's important :D
 
I don't dislike selective colouring, but I do think that it's easy to do it badly or on a bad choice of picture.

It can make a shot, or it can break a shot. Choose carefully :)
 
Yeah I guess that's how i look at it. Alot of my customer's in the past have requested selective colouring and sometimes I do think the image would be boring without it. But then i post it and I often get a 'not selective colouring again' vibe. So was wondering if it was a preference thing or...like i said...a bit of a no no!
 
I think it depends on the subject in question and the amount of colour used but as others have said if you/customer likes it that is what matters
 
Yeah I certainly think, amount of colour used is a big influence on spoiling or making a selective colour shot.

pro's usually prefer not to do it but customers like it so they do it to sell images.
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This is what I thought, especially in wedding photography it seems.
 
As has been said above my view is that it is a personal preference thing. If you sell images doing it, go for it:thumbs:

I see photography within the spectrum of art and whilst some appeals to me others don't. I have a strong dislike of pale watercolour landscapes, would never buy one, but I can appreciate the level skill it has taken to produce it and I realise a lot of folk love them :shrug: If we all liked and did the same things...might as well paint the world whit and give up ;)
 
selective colouring is cack, its really that simple..:cool:
 
joxby said:
selective colouring is cack, its really that simple..:cool:
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Seconded, yuck yuck yuck.

Looks so incredibly tacky always :shrug:

That said, if you're a pro and if a customer wants it.. i guess you have to balance their wants vs what on earth you're putting your name to? :shrug:
 
kirif1 said:
Yeah I guess that's how i look at it. Alot of my customer's in the past have requested selective colouring and sometimes I do think the image would be boring without it. But then i post it and I often get a 'not selective colouring again' vibe. So was wondering if it was a preference thing or...like i said...a bit of a no no!
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Photography is art which is very subjective.. There is no such thing as a no no...if it appeals to you (or your customer) it is what it is. If not, there you go. Just because someone or even most people say it's ****, if you like it it's fine.
 
Selecting colouring is handy if you want the eye to be diverted from the normal subject point or even enhance the main subject point if the image/composition is not strong enough.
 
ok.
nice shot of bride in white dress,plain ish background,nice expresion, with colourfull boquet.
ok shot.
same shot monchrome, apart from colourfull boquet.
bride loves it.
sold.
band shot thats ok, but nothing particualrly special.maybe even too much colour.
loads of light in a beam across a guitarist , say.
same shot in mono with the RED beam of light picked out.
sale.
depends on personal preference and individual shot.
if clients like the shot, job done.
i like to tweak the odd one, but usualy something i feel will work with it, not just for the sake of it.
 
It depends on the image. ;)


As with most photographic effects, they come in and out of fashion, but some images can rise above the fashion of the time.

Some people will always dismiss certain effects no matter what, without even looking at an image. :shrug: I wish I was so sure what I did and didn't like. ;)
 
I personally dont like using it unless theres a need. the whole point is to draw focus to particular point. but if its something not very interesting it ends up looking naff. its also any good if its one colour. champagne glasses look terrible.because they reflect colours from around them. so if your thinking of doing that. just dont.

go watch sincity. very clever selective colour use.
 
not a fan of it at all ,but it sells
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hmmm this seems to be the general idea. I think it really depends on the person looking at the picture. From the photographer's side of view...have you ever taken a picture with the intention of selective colour? I did yesterday...not a cracking shot, but I don't think it would work without it.
 
I could never see a reason where I'd do it, but to the general public, they've never seen it before and think it's brilliant which is a confusing situation! I like it when it happens naturally, like someone standing against some grey rock in bright clothes but I'd never artificially recreate it.
 
Hmm there has only ever been one picture where, i attempted to do colour selection...and it didn't change the picture at all!

4794179300_c3061ec2c4.jpg


This is the one I took yesterday with the intention of leaving the tie in colour and turning the rest mono

4866963468_6d1977ed44.jpg
 
I was in a camera shop today and a young lad came in with a laptop/notebook with some of his pictures on to show the guy behind the counter. Pretty much every shot was in mono with a selective coloured focus point. Before I got into photography I would probably have been impressed with them (especially from such a young lad), but now I just think it's often used to try and make a very average shot look good. Full marks to the young lad though for enthusiasm. :)
 
You can get an iphone app to do it now, so it must be (is) total pants.... :D
 
kirif1 said:
hmmm this seems to be the general idea. I think it really depends on the person looking at the picture. From the photographer's side of view...have you ever taken a picture with the intention of selective colour? I did yesterday...not a cracking shot, but I don't think it would work without it.
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never, i only do it if asked by the paying customer.

a lot of photographers refuse to do it but its also about money.

i would never do one that did not look right no mater what the customer wanted .
 
Cheesy way to try to rescue a poor shot (IMO). However, people seem to buy postcards and the like that have been butchered by it (and HDR) so there's obviously a market for it.
 
Selective colouring is good when used properly for creative purposes but nowadays it's a very automated process, when people got cack images they turned it to black and white and voilà! it would make a bad image good and that's what people do now when they get a bad image they just selective colour and item and it seems to sort it out.

For me it's a no no unless its for creativity.
 
If there is something that I think is utterly VILE and tacky, it is selective colouring. It is truly the work of Satan. If a client asks for me to do it (which thankfully is extremely rare), I will refuse to do it. It does not affect sales when I say no.

Selective colouring first raised its horrid, ugly head in yoof TV vids in the late 80's/early 90's. It was horrible then and looks even worse now. It looks sooo dated in shots.

*takes deep breath*
 
Metal God said:
If there is something that I think is utterly VILE and tacky, it is selective colouring. It is truly the work of Satan. If a client asks for me to do it (which thankfully is extremely rare), I will refuse to do it. It does not affect sales when I say no.

Selective colouring first raised its horrid, ugly head in yoof TV vids in the late 80's/early 90's. It was horrible then and looks even worse now. It looks sooo dated in shots.

*takes deep breath*
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you're not a fan then? :D
 
Barclays Bank's latest advertising material is full of it, so even though I don't like it, it does seem to have it's place.
 
You can get an iphone app to do it now, so it must be (is) total pants....
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*giggles*

If there is something that I think is utterly VILE and tacky, it is selective colouring. It is truly the work of Satan. If a client asks for me to do it (which thankfully is extremely rare), I will refuse to do it. It does not affect sales when I say no.

Selective colouring first raised its horrid, ugly head in yoof TV vids in the late 80's/early 90's. It was horrible then and looks even worse now. It looks sooo dated in shots.

*takes deep breath*
Click to expand...

See this is the opinion i feel most pro's have. And i can see why! I have so many mates who go to uni and the first thing they learn is how to leave bits of the image in colour....and so...they do it with everything, right down to night out pics on FB. It looks horrible and ruins what could be a good way (in certain cases) to make a picture pop.

I think NigelPaul is right though, it certainly does have it's place somewhere! So it's good if used well and not used often :D
 
I think it's not liked by most pro togs because it's done quite often but the average person doesn't see it too much (or atleast doesn't pay attention too much to it) and it appeals to them. Same with HDR.
I sometimes get annoyed with typical wedding pictures as I've gone through so many in magazines, other people's albums, online, and tend to see a lot of poses repeated...and even more so when it's the same tog doing different weddings. Just going through a list.
 
Using the "photography is art and art is subjective" line is no justification for using selective colouring.

Even in art you get bad art and what we call "kitsch" art. Selective colouring is kitsch. It falls into that "man without a shirt holding a baby/playing a sax" style which should only be on teenager girls' walls.
 
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