I <3 selective coloring!

Alright, well pretty much every time I see someone post a "selective coloring" style picture, they are quickly scolded for it and are asked why they would even think it would be okay, my question is, to put it quite clearly, why the **** not?

Clients LOVE selective coloring, I'm sure anyone who's shot their fair share of weddings will have been asked at one point or another to throw some in, because to the general public, it looks great, and guess what? It looks great to me too! There's no better way to put focus on a subject and give it a great "POP" than to quite literally isolate it from it's surroundings, and sometimes we cant always keep everything in the shot that we want while keeping the focus point on one thing, this is a great tool for that. Why in the world would some one not process a photo in a way that is sure to get a "wow!" from a bride/senior etc. ?

A lot of times I see the argument that it's "overdone"..well why do you think it's overdone? Could it be that everyone loves it so people keep doing it? That's like saying chocolate milk is overdone.

Just my $0.02.

SnapShot Photos wrote in post #11419025
That's like saying chocolate milk is overdone.

lol,

I think it has it's place but people shouldn't just toss it around. I did one for a christmas shoot the other day because, to me, all babies pretty much look the same (aside from race of course) and the best way for me to tell if it's a boy or a girl is by a bow in the hair. here's the shot. I didn't do it for the parents and like the pic in either B&W or full color but wanted to throw something to stand out and make sense. As long as it adds to the photo without being too distracting then I say go for it. Here's the shot:

It's often used inappropriately, drawing attention to an irrelevant object rather than toward the main subject or focal point of a photo. For example drawing the eye toward flowers, rather than toward the bride and groom in the image.

SnapShot Photos wrote in post #11419025
Alright, well pretty much every time I see someone post a "selective coloring" style picture, they are quickly scolded for it and are asked why they would even think it would be okay, my question is, to put it quite clearly, why the **** not?

Because 95% of the time it looks like crap, but that's just my .02. I can probably count on one hand the number of selective color images that I thought was done well and looked good. Again just my .02.

OP I think that most clients like Selective coloring mainly because it is something that they do not know how to do. Kinda like a magician. If they ever know how easy it was to do its luster would be gone.

tim wrote in post #11419148
It's often used inappropriately, drawing attention to an irrelevant object rather than toward the main subject or focal point of a photo. For example drawing the eye toward flowers, rather than toward the bride and groom in the image.

True,
I like it when is it done well but that is very rare

midnight_rider wrote in post #11419164
OP I think that most clients like Selective coloring mainly because it is something that they do not know how to do. Kinda like a magician. If they ever know how easy it was to do its luster would be gone.

True,
I like it when is it done well but that is very rare

Cool, so make sure you work some magic and they'll throw some $$ your way.

SnapShot Photos wrote in post #11419171
Cool, so make sure you work some magic and they'll throw some $$ your way.

Just never let them see CS5 and the secret is safe

They can see CS5 all they want as long as they see the price tag that goes with it and don't know about the other ways to get it.

I have to agree with SnapShot, the general public does seem to love it. Like all photographic fads that I see, I'm bored with it, and don't do it unless a gun is put to my head, but people really do love it, it can turn a shot into a money shot. Tragic really, but it is all about giving the people what they want and if it can pry some GREEN $$$$ out of their B&W, tight fingers...why not? I feel the same way about maternity shots where people want to do the kid kissing the belly, ARGGGGGGGGHHHH! or the fingers making a heart. I've seen it over and over and over and would never suggest doing it, but every now and then, someone makes me do it and they buy it. I suffer for my craft.

I've never seen selective color look good. Its like that phase we all go through when we're just starting out that we later look back on in embarrassment and wonder wth we were thinking. lol The fact that the general public still seems drawn to it is quite unfortunate.

I think its more of a case of a few professional photographers hated the idea and announced it to the world and now everyone who considers themselves a professional photographer follows suit just to fit in and not take the criticism. I personally love it for children photography, my brother in law who is professional photographer hates it everytime I color splash his kids but his wife loves it. He says I'll get over it and who knows mayber I will, I know I don't do it as often just because everyone seems to bash it. It's just funny how some will say there are no rules in photography and then you see someone post a picture that they probably worked hard on and are extremely proud of it get there world crushed by the criticism of others for instance my biggest criticism is I over saturate, but you know that's the look that I like and I know opions will very but you can't make everything a rule just to be considered a professional photographer.

It's not a rule, or someone following what someone else thinks, I think it's that professionals have been around a while and are sick of the fads and special effects. Also, like I said, inappropriate use happens quite often.

Excessive contrast is also something I don't like. I partially desaturate an image, leaving something with more color than the rest, but the stark contrast of total B&W with full on color's too much. In albums I rarely put color and B&W images on the same page, let alone in the same image.

I've seen nice effects from selective coloring and don't see anything "wrong" with using it when it does create a nice image. But I do see the point of those who see way too much of it. My personal style doesn't go that way and I'm not "in the business" so it doesn't concern me much either way.

But I would say that for those posting shots on the interwebs for C&C, well, it's a big wide world with people of diverse opinions, and those who dislike either the effect or the overuse of the effect will speak up. Oh well, such is Web life! Most people look without saying anything unless they have an actual opinion either positive or negative -- you get a bit of bot.

I agree with what Tony has to say about this subject. I have maybe 4 of these on my computer, it is something that I just don't like but that is the great thing about this medium, its very subjective and who is to say what is right or wrong. Being chastised for posting one of these is someone just displaying their dislike for it and in many cases it could be said more delicately.

I've had several brides ask for this and oddly enough most of them have asked for their flowers to be the only color objects in the image. This goes against what many here are saying but I am not going to tell the customer they taste is wrong.

I think those that are learning how to do selections or layer masks for the first times are bound to try this. It is easy to see your results and accomplishing something in the behemoth called Photoshop is gratifying for the beginner.