Shooting for Selective Color photos

I should first say that I'm definitely not a fan of selective color images. The bride whose wedding I'll be shooting on the weekend, however, asked me to grab a half dozen, including some of her train, which has red velvetty portions; and I''ll happily oblige.

I'm just curious if anyone who actually does selective color, does anything different on the scene or if they just shoot normally and select the images and worry about which ones to process later. In other words, are certain kinds of scenes better for selective color ? I find shots with people in them to be particularly strange with selective color elements, e.g.

Any thoughts ?

Keeping the bouquet in color and the rest b&w often works. Like yourself I only do this if asked and then I dont consciously shoot for selective color but rather identify potentials in pp.

^good idea. I'll probably grab a few extra with the bouquet in mind just for that. thanks.

Another thought occurred to me: note what the color scheme of the day is, if there is one.

The reason selective color is bad is because photographers use it to highlight unimportant parts of the image. Flowers are generally unimportant, yet are constantly highlighted. Work out what's important in an image (people, usually) and make that full color, fade everything else, either part or all of the way to B&W.

btw the eighties called, they want their fad back

tim wrote in post #14448708
The reason selective color is bad is because photographers use it to highlight unimportant parts of the image. Flowers are generally unimportant, yet are constantly highlighted.

btw the eighties called, they want their fad back

Flowers unimportant - Ugh??

Yes - the 80s are more than welcome to have their fad back!!

I'm not a fan of SC but like you will include some upon request. I wouldn't say that the bouquet is unimportant, but selective color on the flowers has been done so many times, it's about as cliche as SC itself (and I'm guilty of that too, once again, upon request).

But you have the right idea; selective color should have a purpose like the red velvet in her train.

This bride asked to include a few SC shots. She also made a big deal over how she asked everyone in her bridal party to wear different shoes and that they should be wild. So I did a shot of the shoes with SC in mind. It's not art, but it made her very happy:

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Wait, the flowers aren't important?!?
I was under the impression that if the bride says it's important, then it's important!

I think Tim stuck his foot in his mouth by accident there

Listen, i don't understand why so many of you guys have hang ups about selective coloring, white Vignetting, ect ect ect. I still get asked by many girls to do this. Many love it so even though its " so eighty's" who the heck cares. If the client likes it then that's all that matters.

To the OP......lightroom is your best friend for these looks. You desaturated with a brush and brush your colors back in, add some vignette and split tone your highlights and shadows and you have a very cool up to date eighties look ( sorry tim had to go there) in about 5 minutes. Drop it in Topaz and you have something very unique in about 10 minutes.

Bottom line-- Make your clients happy even if it includes selective coloring

As much as photographers hate selective color, people still love it and I get requests for it.

We don't show any samples of selective color or do anything to promote it, but we do get the occasional bride that has seen it eslewhere and specifically askes for it. That is generally discussed and determined ahead of time what "setups" that she envisions. We do not shoot any different for the selective color, but we do process per the bride's request.

Whenever I choose images for selective color (a 'fad' that I get requests for every single time a bride sees an SC image in one of my promotional slideshows), I try and pick warm colors; they tend to stand out more against the B&W part of the image. This can include flowers, champagne, cake trim or whatever; I don't do more than a handful for each wedding and I don't have a set formula or list for them.

Finally, when shooting for SC, I always make sure I'm wearing my parachute pants and have a new pack of clove cigarettes ready, next to the tape deck.

scorpio_e wrote in post #14450365
As much as photographers hate selective color, people still love it and I get requests for it.

If someone asks me to do selective colour my answer is always very simple... "no". I don't advertise doing selective colour, I have no portfolio shots of selective colour, I don't do it... period.

umphotography wrote in post #14450295
I think Tim stuck his foot in his mouth by accident there

I don't think so.