Mixing colour with B&W

[andyt]

David Fleetham has some interesting shots on his web site, where he has mixed colour with B&W. I am not normally a fan of images that have had exessive editing - but I was rather taken with this idea, so I thought I would give it a try.

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[sorvju-f]

David Fleetham has some interesting shots on his web site, where he has mixed colour with B&W. I am not normally a fan of images that have had exessive editing - but I was rather taken with this idea, so I thought I would give it a try.



Different! How you do it?

Jukka

[andyt]

Different! How you do it?

Jukka

It's actually very easy with photoshop. I started with a colour image and used the magentic lasso tool to isolate each element that I wanted to keep coloured. Each coloured element was then copied to the clipboard and pasted into a new layer. The coloured layers were combined using "merge down" and finally the background layer was desaturated. Photoshop experts would probably have a better solution, but this seems to work quiet well.

I don't normally like to do too much in photoshop, because it feels like cheating - but these images are so obviously modified that I find it acceptable.

Andy

[solisti]

I think the first one works quite well, don't like the second though... And this is not cheating, its art! :)

[McCloud]

I like the feeling the pictures give, kind of a sad feeling though with a splash of happiness by the colours of the fish.
In my opinion, in the second picture, if you had kept the colour in both of the small fish the picture would be more balanced.

Think I will have a try in Photoshop on some of my pictures.

Thx for sharing

Allan

[Jonathan Bird]

A very interesting artistic style. I agree that because it is so obviously not real, there is nothing wrong with it from an ethical standpoint. I like the first one better as well.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Bird]

I diddled with one on the plane on the way home from St. Vincent. What do you think of this one?

Jonathan

[sorvju-f]

I diddled with one on the plane on the way home from St. Vincent. What do you think of this one?

Jonathan

I just love this.

I think also that it looks " art " and might be selling well. If you are making book some day this style might be " different " and that way hole in the market!

Jukka

[Andrew]

Thats a great picture Jonathan and works well in a mix of colour and B&W.

Andrew

[Jonathan Bird]

Thanks Andrew. I don't think most images work in this style, but some do, and this one kinda jumped out at me. I don't think it is going to become something I do a lot, but it's kinda neat.

Interestingly, this was very easy to do in Lightroom....just go to the selective saturation controls and desaturate the greens and blues, leaving the reds and oranges alone. No laborious Photoshop work having to select items carefully.

Jonathan

[andyt]

Excellent image. As you say with many pictures the technique would not work, but with this one it is very effective.

Andy

[sorvju-f]

I dont know do I prefer the original more!

Give your comments!

http://sorvjuf.1g.fi/kuvat/Egypt+2007/Haaremikalat+B%26W.jpg/full

Jukka

[Andrew]

Hi Jukka,

It certainly is different and the rays of light from the surface and greyscales of the corals are nice (I think the background looks like a moonscape!). Can you post the original as well... it would be good to see both next to each other?

Andrew

[sorvju-f]

Hi Jukka,
It certainly is different and the rays of light from the surface and greyscales of the corals are nice (I think the background looks like a moonscape!). Can you post the original as well... it would be good to see both next to each other?
Andrew

Here is the original

http://sorvjuf.1g.fi/kuvat/Egypt+2007/Haaremikalat.jpg/full

Jukka

[tarczy]

Jukka-

Just my humble opinion . . . I love the first shot with the color & B&W mix. NICE!!! :D

[Jonathan Bird]

They are both nice shots, but the B&W/color is more interesting as a piece of art.

Jonathan

[Andrew]

Thanks for posting both Jukka. like the B&W one more, the colour one is nice, but the B&W is more interesting and makes you look at it for longer. Just my opinion.:D

Andrew

[solisti]

I have to disagree with you guys, I like the full colour version a lot more than the partial B&W. But hey, I've always been the weird one... :D

[sorvju-f]

I have to disagree with you guys, I like the full colour version a lot more than the partial B&W. But hey, I've always been the weird one... :D

If we all would have the same taste...life would be extremely booring:rolleyes:

Jukka

[andyt]

I dont know do I prefer the original more!

Jukka

I like them both, but I prefer the one that mixes color with B&W.

Andy

[solisti]

I think I like the color version better because it has more depth in it. The B&W version seems to be a little flat, which is a shame because there is so much depth in the original version which is "wasted".

The technique works very well on some photos, but I just think that this was too good a photo to start with. :)

[solisti]

Resurrection of an old thread. I quickly tried with GIMP:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg27/solisti/vv19070901_02.jpg

[Andrew]

That's a nice mix Solisti, it does not jump out at you that it is a mix of colour and B&W. What is GIMP?

Here is one that I was working on a while back...

[solisti]

GIMP is a free image manipulation program. A poor mans photoshop!

I also use RawTherapee for RAW conversions. :D

[Andrew]

Is it any good?

[solisti]

Well, I find it a bit confusing. But I havent used Photoshop so I cant compare. I used to have Paint Shop Pro and that was more logical to use (at least for me).

But I convinced the people at work that I need PS on my work laptop... ;)

[Jonathan Bird]

Solisti, that is super cool! Andrew, yours too!

[sorvju-f]

We really have some picture artists here!

Jukka