Selective Coloring Soft Edges

[ayreonaut]

Hey, guys. I'm new to photography and very new to this forum. Nice to meet you all.

Here's my first attempt at selective coloring with soft edges. I worked out a technique in GIMP using a smudged mask. What do you think?

Lydia
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[isis24]

Welcome to the forum :).

It's a really cute picture, but to be honest, I'm not a fan of selective coloring. I like it in some shots where it serves a purpose, but I think it makes this picture look a bit dull. I'd love to see the original.

[::Lisa::]

The selective colouring technique looks good. No harsh edges.

Lisa

[ajbalazic]

Nicely done. Did you add grain (in the background)? It's pretty noisy.

[ayreonaut]

I'm not a huge fan of selective coloring either. This was an experiment that turned into a good learning experience. Feathering the color along out-of-focus edges was a bit of a challenge, but I figured it out.

This was shot at ISO 1600 and no noise reduction has been applied yet. Its interesting to me that the colored part appears to have less noise than the monochorme part. It is something to keep in mind for futre reference, as it could be viewed as a distraction, or an interesting contrast.

Here is the original, the background is pretty weak. That's kind of why I picked it for this experiment. Which version do you think is a better portrait?

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