I know, I know. I'm usually the opinionated one here.
But I have a photography related question and I know that my readers are both smart and savvy. And many of you have an aesthetic that is not to be beat!
So I'll cut right to the heart of the matter.
I spend a fair amount of time looking at websites where amateurs with varying degrees of talent and experience post their photos.
There are some amazingly gifted photographers out there.
And...there are some amazingly gifted photoshoppers out there.
I tend to wince a little when I see photos that are lovely but are WAY post processed. It seems to be "the thing" these days to massively post process photos. So much so that I think we as photographers are losing the skill of setting up the shot on the camera.
When I mention this to fellow student photographers, everyone looks at me with a condescending smile, as though I'm the Village Idiot.
I don’t mind doing a little touch up work, a little color correction, things like that.
But the full scale photoshopping...well. I don't know, it's a thing for me.
But I sort of digress.
There is one particular photo treatment that bugs me. And yet intrigues me.
It is basically a photo in black and white where one color is pulled out.
Here, better to show you what I mean. This is my first attempt. I did this photo using the Colorsplash app on my iPhone and touched it up a bit using Photoshop Elements.
It's not the finest example of the technique, but you'll get what I mean.
Behold, my bowl of oranges, moments before they were juiced. Delicious!
I've seen some really well done versions of this technique, and it can create quite an emotion.
But I can't help looking at a black and white with one color photo, especially my own, and thinking it is something akin to the old fashioned photo-in-a-brandy-snifter as far as classy effects.
Then again...it creates laser focus to one part of the photograph which can make all the difference in the viewing experience.
Perhaps I tend to lean a little too much toward conventional.
So I'm curious if I should spend some more time perfecting this effect in Photoshop (and thus may learn to love it more) or if I should move on to other lessons?
Thoughts on both sides of the argument are really, really helpful. Feel free to Google "black and white photo with one color" to look at other examples before you render a decision.
Just curious. All thoughts are useful!
Thanks in advance!
