Selective coloring. Done right?

Here's a shot that I took of a friend's band. The conditions were horrible and if you look at the exif you can see the shutter speed was at 1/20th. I couldn't use a flash and the highest I managed to hit all night without terribly under exposing is about 1/50. Plus with the high ISO it turned out really grainy...so I did the only thing you can in a situation like that. I converted it to black and white. It made it look a lot better. Then I was messing around with it a few nights after the event and decided to add a little color back in with the guitar. It's subtle and doesn't really detract from the photo.

A lot of people don't really like selective coloring and others do, so it's always a toss up when showing photos like this to other people. No real C&C is needed. I know it's technically no great and given the situation and equipment there's not much I could do about it, but here it is...

Exif:
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Not the greatest application of selective coloring, but it's not bad...

I think it's terrific. The situation that would have caused many photogrphers to dismiss it turned a sow's ear into a silk purse.

You broke all the "rules." Never take a hand-held shot at less than a 60th, certainly never less than a 30th — and a 15th and under is pure madness, especially when the subject is moving.

Never shoot at the widest aperture. The short depth of field will kill you, especially if the subject is moving.

Don't use selective colour — as though black and white isn't just as unrepresentative of reality. After 200 years, we're just used to it. Yours turns the ordinary into attention-grabbing.

Always seek a better vantage point — but I doubt you could, so you made do with what you had.

You broke every rule in the book and you pulled a very fat rabbit out of a very skinny hat.

heh, see....love it or hate it...

I'm not a big fan of that technique. Occassionally, it's done well, but it can easily look cliched and corny. I don't think it really adds anything here.

As for the technique - with your selection, I would have switched to quick mask to allow blurring of the mask around the hand. There is movement and blurring there, yet the selection is pixel sharp. I actually think it's too sharp. Might have been better to feather the selection ever so slightly.

Having said that, I think it's a great shot. ISO at 1600 though, wow. From what I've seen and heard, Canons perform very well even at higher ISO settings like that. I think other brands at that ISO would display a lot more grain.

I would experiment with a different color for the guitar.

johntalin said:

I would experiment with a different color for the guitar.

Click to expand...

that is the actual color of the guitar though...

Have you tried all sepia for the remaining of the photo?

You picked a difficult shot to do selective coloring. It is a dark shot and you can't see many of the gray tones which would add more interest.

johntalin said:

You picked a difficult shot to do selective coloring. It is a dark shot and you can't see many of the gray tones which would add more interest.

Click to expand...

look at the EXIF. That's pretty much the best I could do.

Just a suggestion.