Selective .. something

[ChrisLumix]

Inspired by Derek's church mosaic, I had a go at a selective colour conversion of a really old print.

 

Technically it's awful, I know : started as a 70s slide and a print taken shortly after, then a scan done of the ancient print, which is why it looks .. scrappy.

 

Anyway, I extracted the figure without difficulty, then converted to mono. The end result was a bit odd (though beforehand I'd thought it an ideal candidate for selective work), so I reduced the opacity of the background layer to add a bit of colour back, and it does seem to improve it.

 

What do you think? 

 

[NannyFerret]

I  haven't got a steady hand at all, so I think you did well with this one.

[ChrisLumix]

Thanks Tina. I used magnetic lasso which takes a lot of the hard graft and guesswork out of it.

[ChrisLumix]

Any other views, positive or negative? Or should I repost this in Nostalgia?

[KateW]

I don't usually like selective colour, but this one appeals to me a lot.

[ChrisLumix]

I don't usually like selective colour, but this one appeals to me a lot.

 

Aww thanks. I had the same feeling (about selective colour) when I dug out the scan of the print of the slide. Do you agree that adding back a little colour to the background works?

[Heather]

works for me  

[BlackFox]

Inspired by Derek's church mosaic

 

Hi Chris, sorry for the delay, saw this the other day but been rather busy with work. I feel obliged to comment now!

 

I think you've done a good job on it. Personally I've never done selective colouring with layers like this (and I guess how most people do it), but use Silver Efex Pro 2 instead for the shots I've already shown you. I might give it a go though. I think pictures like this look best when either the colouring is more subtle/subdued, or when the contrast between the 'colourised item' and the background is more subtle, as you've managed here. What I don't generally like are where there's a weak looking mono background and a very bold, almost too 'pushy' object in colour. These often look stuck on in my opinion if not done very carefully.

 

So to cut a long story short; I like it 

 

Derek

[ChrisLumix]

Well, thank you Derek. It actually dates from the year I first started taking 35mm photographs - but the background on the print either always was too green or had become so over the years. So it seemed a natural candidate for improvement.