# black and white with the use of selective colors



## Quasimodo (Feb 16, 2012)

Hi.

I recently learned to do this in photoshop, and I think it is a cool effect if one does not overuse it. I am posting a few of mine here, and I would love to see others too. My experience is that it can be hard when the shots are with long exposure and shallow depth of field, because in both cases it becomes hard to find where the borders should be drawn for colors.


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## mr.ranger (Mar 7, 2012)

i like this how did you accomplish this?


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## Quasimodo (Mar 7, 2012)

Hi.

I used photoshop CS5 extended version (my first photoshop, and I believe that the steps are the same for previous versions).

I open the raw image in PS, then I duplicate a layer. Then I go to layer and make a new adjustment layer (black and white). Now your picture looks black and white, then you use the brush tool, then set the desired size for the brush tool, and start to bring the color back to where you want it. Before you do this, look at your vertical bar on the left side of your screen.... at the very bottom, you have an icon of a camera. Right above this you have an icon where there is a black square on top of a white square (it is called Set foreground color). You have to remember to have the black on top of the white, otherwise it will not work. However, If you overdo it, or paint back the original color where you do not want it after all, you switch the white to lay over the black, and then you paint the black-white back on it. just remember to switch back to have the black on top of the white again, then go back to brush tool and start extracting the color out again.

Good luck, and I hope this explanation was good enough, and I would love to see your results

Adding another picture here, where I used shallow depth of field, and then you can see how hard it becomes when the borders are not totally clear. I am also posting another picture where the same border becomes a problem because of long exposure creating motion blur.


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## Quasimodo (Mar 7, 2012)

I am adding one more, appropriate for this forum Here it was easier, since there are clear borders.


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## wickidwombat (Mar 7, 2012)

here is a really good step by step tutorial
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/quick-selection-tool/


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## samueljay (Mar 10, 2012)

There's a much easier way, if there's just one colour that you want to be prominent throughout the whole b&w photo, if you're using photoshop, you can just go select>colour range and then use a dropper to select the colour you want. Then you can adjust the parameters in a window to how much of it you want selected. Then you invert that selection and go adjustments > convert to greyscale! Et Voila! 

Here's a quick example, like the OP, I think it's best if it's only used minimally!


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## Axilrod (Mar 10, 2012)

I think this technique can be effective, but only if the photo is excellent in all other respects. It's just really played out, I see girls on Facebook doing this all the time that have no idea what they're doing, I think there are web apps that make it easy to do and some people go crazy with it. But I like your shots for the most part.


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## GND (Mar 10, 2012)

When I first saw this effect it was when Coppola's Rumble Fish hit the screen, the scene with the fishtank. The "layers" then were actually two different actual takes, one B&W take without the fishtank, then another in color with the fishtank alone and the previous B&W take running in the background. In the end you got the impression of color fish moving around in a B&W movie. Now we simply got PS 5. Ain't life sweet?!


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## dr croubie (Mar 10, 2012)

Here's one I did a while ago, taken at xmas last year.
Nothing automatic for me, I use DPP on Wine and then GIMP, I can't afford adobe and don't have windows anyway to run it on.

DPP processed from RAW to get the best colours of the toy.
Then opened in GIMP, select all, and deselect the doll gradually using 'Fuzzy Select'. Took a few iterations, at some points the doll was the same colour as the clothes so I went back and forth until I'd selected everything but the toy.
Then just desaturate, play with levels, maybe a bit of gaussian-blur to bring more attention to the centre.
No added vignetting in pp, but I had a softbox on the flash and the shade of the clothes kind of made it naturally vignette.


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## Terry Rogers (Mar 10, 2012)

One of my own fav with this technique. I just reduced the saturation of all colors but red in LR.


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## picturesbyme (Mar 11, 2012)

http://atlanticpicture.com/


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## DJL329 (Mar 11, 2012)

"Over-exposed" :






Came across this roll of film while hiking last March.


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## Ben (Mar 11, 2012)

Nice technique, here's mine:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bentolosa/6825675024/#in/photostream/lightbox/


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## samueljay (Mar 11, 2012)

DJL329 said:


> "Over-exposed" :
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Great shot! The technique works really well there!  Probably the best use of it I've ever seen!


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## Ben (Mar 11, 2012)

BTW, I just made 2 groups in Flickr if you guys wish to join 

Black & White & 1 Color

http://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/

Black & White & 2 Colors

http://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/

Have a great day folks!!


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## Quasimodo (Mar 11, 2012)

samueljay said:


> DJL329 said:
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I agree! That was something that I was aiming for with my kodak shot. I think the effect is cool when you get a symbolic result.


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## DJL329 (Mar 11, 2012)

Quasimodo said:


> samueljay said:
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Thanks guys! I'll have to post it over in Ben's flickr forum.


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## bklein61 (Mar 12, 2012)

I thought I would add the first oneI have done.


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## Quasimodo (Mar 12, 2012)

bklein61 said:


> I thought I would add the first oneI have done.



Very cool + 1. I like, as in the filmcarthridge one, when it it is used on rustic elements


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## Ben (Mar 13, 2012)

DJL329 said:


> Quasimodo said:
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> > samueljay said:
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That is wonderful DJL329!! Thanks very much for sharing


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## Ben (Mar 13, 2012)

scrappydog said:


> Below are two tests I conducted with my old Canon P&S about 9 years ago.  I desaturated the colors and then hand painted sections in Photoshop, and added a lot of noise to make them look like old crusty photos.



Nice look, you should make a plug-in it looks very realistic like a very old photo


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## Mariya (Mar 14, 2012)

Hi guys,
I am new here and also a great fan of B&W with selective colors. 
Just for you to know, there is special group on Facebook (www.facebook.com/colorsplashstudioapp), devoted to selective coloring, some inspiring stuff might be found there.


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## smirkypants (Mar 14, 2012)

Polo chicas in Argentina


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## knkedlaya (Mar 14, 2012)

*Leaf*

This is was the only leaf that was not completely dried among the others. So tried to depict it.


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## Quasimodo (Mar 20, 2012)

I made one for my eldest son (he is 3 1/2 years old) and has an avid fascination with firetrucks and ambulances.


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## Nassen0f (Mar 22, 2012)

Nice one i got yesterday


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## CanonCameraFan (Mar 22, 2012)

Nice pics. Good to see other people's work. Thanks for posting. Colour popping can be used too much, but then so can HDR and other effects. It can look really nice. 

This is one of mine. It's taken using picture styles (skd picture style, can't remeber if it was Ruby or Perl, they both desaturate green). I was going to crop but I quite like it as it is as it provides a sense of scale.


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## otsink (Mar 22, 2012)

Nice shots. I've been interested in trying this approach. Can you outline the basic process for doing this? Thks


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## otsink (Mar 22, 2012)

My Bad; Late to the party. I guess I started on page 3 instead of page 1 :-X


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## Quasimodo (Mar 22, 2012)

CanonCameraFan said:


> Nice pics. Good to see other people's work. Thanks for posting. Colour popping can be used too much, but then so can HDR and other effects. It can look really nice.
> 
> This is one of mine. It's taken using picture styles (skd picture style, can't remeber if it was Ruby or Perl, they both desaturate green). I was going to crop but I quite like it as it is as it provides a sense of scale.



Very nice!
I think it is fun to explore this approach. However, sa I am very new to photoshop, I have not yet learned to use mask tool yet, so when I try to make the black white part rougher, it affects the part with the colors too....


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## otsink (Mar 23, 2012)

I'm on CS3, I'll do some experimenting. Thanks much.


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## CanonCameraFan (Mar 23, 2012)

My method for the ladybird picture was even simpler. The picture was taken in RAW using the neutral picture style. In the conversion I changed the picture style - I have three that preserve red in the photo (_Ruby_, _Perl_ and _Only Red_). These all give different effects. _Ruby_ and _Perl_ desaturate green but keep the other colours, _Only Red_ keeps only the red. I played around with the additional picture styles on the Canon website before searching for more. I found the downloadable SKD picture styles on Cinescopophilia and a few elsewhere now have loads. I've also fiddled about making one or two of my own using the picture style editor.

I didn't have to do anything except swap the picture style, apply sharpening and tweak the contrast and shadows before converting to JPEG. Job done. Admittedly this method is a bit of a cheat and I already had the picture style file but it was fairly instant.


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## bycostello (Mar 23, 2012)

hate to say, spot colour a bit 1980s...


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## MazV-L (Mar 24, 2012)

bycostello said:


> hate to say, spot colour a bit 1980s...



Oh well, I think it's more to do with the story you're trying to convey through the picture and your own style (or what a client wants) than what trends attempt to dictate. 

Not all photos lend themselves to this style anyway.


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## RLPhoto (Apr 8, 2012)

Here was a good Use for this technique on a commercial client.


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## Quasimodo (Apr 9, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> Here was a good Use for this technique on a commercial client.



This is nice, and quite tough too if you use the same method of brushing the colors forward as I do (given the straws and all

80's or not... Photography in itself is also pretty old


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## mjardeen (Apr 10, 2012)

This is not a technique I use very often, but it seemed to be the right thing to do with this image.




Signs, signs, everywhere signs by mjardeen, on Flickr


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## !Xabbu (Apr 10, 2012)

I don't do this a lot, but I liked the effect on this one...


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## unruled (Apr 10, 2012)

DJL329 said:


> "Over-exposed" :
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only shot ive ever seen where I like the effect. probably the implied irony.


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## kasperj (Apr 11, 2012)

Here I used the effect on the blood trickling out from the skin to make a more dramatic picture. I used Nic Silver Efex pro, which I can strongly recommend. It is by far my favorite add-on to Lightroom.


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## DJL329 (Apr 11, 2012)

unruled said:


> DJL329 said:
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Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. 

The moment I saw it lying on the ground, I knew it would make a great subject.


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## Quasimodo (Apr 11, 2012)

DJL329 said:


> unruled said:
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I agree that it is great also for the overall rugged style of the picture.


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## Quasimodo (Apr 11, 2012)

kasperj said:


> Here I used the effect on the blood trickling out from the skin to make a more dramatic picture. I used Nic Silver Efex pro, which I can strongly recommend. It is by far my favorite add-on to Lightroom.



Kasper. This is brilliant and I agree that the use of selective brings a new dimension to this shot.


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## Quasimodo (Apr 13, 2012)

I used this technique on a photo from a shoot today of a 'colorful' lecturer, as a fun portrait.


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## Narcolepsy (Apr 14, 2012)

This technique appears so often in the "Youarenotaphotographer" blog that I am both fascinated by and scared of it....
The idea was "killer eyes" - so I made the eyes colour slightly colder than on the original
Done in Nik Silver Efex Pro
Any pointers to improve and avoid ending up a 'Fauxtographer' welcome!


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## Jettatore (Apr 24, 2012)

Scrappy that's an awesome picture, takes courage to pull that off.


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## wockawocka (Apr 24, 2012)

scrappydog said:


> Nabbed this shot in Washington, DC. The back pack begs the viewer's attention. Canon 60D, Canon 50mm f/1.4.



Perhaps leaving it as colour and cropping it 50% would of been better?
Just that I can see the girl holding the guys hand and thus it makes sense as to why he's wearing it.

If you cropped in so the girl isn't there but the broad to his right is (as if she's giving him a weird look it might have more impact).


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## Quasimodo (Apr 24, 2012)

I think it is brilliant, and I would have called it new masculinities. This is how I would have cropped it. I added a bit contrast and brightness.

Gerhard


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## jtee (Apr 28, 2012)




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## Quasimodo (Apr 28, 2012)

jtee said:


>



These were way cool.


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## !Xabbu (Apr 28, 2012)

jtee said:


>



How did you shoot these (what kind of lens and how did you get so close)? They are really cool!


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## jtee (Apr 28, 2012)

Quasimodo said:


> These were way cool.



Thank you much. Great images in this thread


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## jtee (Apr 28, 2012)

!Xabbu said:


> How did you shoot these (what kind of lens and how did you get so close)? They are really cool!



Thank you kindly, The first one was shot near dusk as the F-15 was banking away from me . The second was taken on a hill just outside of the airport on which it took off it flew right over me and banked off to the right. I use the Canon 500MM F 4


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## picturesbyme (Jun 2, 2012)

http://atlanticpicture.com/


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## Quasimodo (Jun 2, 2012)

picturesbyme said:


> http://atlanticpicture.com/



In addition to being an awsome picture in itself, I think this really works here. I did use this technique for a webillustration I (something like; where is your place? to the students).


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## picturesbyme (Jun 2, 2012)

That's a very cool photo, I like the chair idea... now where can i find here a bunch of chairs...?


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## jtee (Jun 3, 2012)




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## Scott (Jun 3, 2012)

We've all done it at some point. No regrets! 




Want. by Scott_Henry, on Flickr




Sushi Monday [074/365] by Scott_Henry, on Flickr


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## prakashanand (Jun 3, 2012)

Here is my Lavender Girl.. I thought it came nice..


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## Quasimodo (Jun 3, 2012)

prakashanand said:


> Here is my Lavender Girl.. I thought it came nice..



Nice


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## Waterdonkey (Jun 3, 2012)

Colin Hay at Folk Fest 2010. Edited with Aperture 3.


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## sootzzs (Jul 8, 2012)

Hi there! This is my contribution. Done using Lightroom color editing. 
60D,18-55 IS II @ 55mm, ISO 800, F-5.6, 1/100.


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## blaydese (Jul 9, 2012)

I like these type shots, really cool stuff! 

I wish I knew how to do that, : maybe one day.

Peace! 8)


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## Quasimodo (Jul 9, 2012)

blaydese said:


> I like these type shots, really cool stuff!
> 
> I wish I knew how to do that, : maybe one day.
> 
> Peace! 8)



You can find the steps in page 1 and 3 in this thread. Otherwise you'll find many good videos on youtube under selective colors.


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## Kamera Obscura (Jul 10, 2012)

wer.

dario


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## Kamera Obscura (Jul 26, 2012)

Sun rise.

dario.


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## dbuono1865 (Jun 5, 2013)

I saw this topic after looking through all the galleries. This is a hard area, but it can work in some circumstances. Here is my favorite from all my selective color shots.


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## Quasimodo (Jun 5, 2013)

dbuono1865 said:


> I saw this topic after looking through all the galleries. This is a hard area, but it can work in some circumstances. Here is my favorite from all my selective color shots.



I like this! Great shot overall


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## bchernicoff (Jun 5, 2013)

Cat!


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## Krob78 (Jun 5, 2013)

I agree with some of the others. I think it's most tasteful when done with a minimalist approach...  

Here I think I could have gone just a tad more with the red on the roof but I didn't want to lose the old, nostalgic feeling I was trying to achieve. The flag I think I'm okay with, maybe a tad more there too...


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## Krob78 (Jun 5, 2013)

bchernicoff said:


> Cat!


Yep, that's pretty cool!


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## Krob78 (Jun 5, 2013)

Quasimodo said:


> picturesbyme said:
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++1 on the chairs!


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## bchernicoff (Jun 5, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> bchernicoff said:
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I think the B&W with selective thing tends to get overused. The only reason I think it works in my shot of the cat is due to the way the sun beams fell across her eyes already.


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## TeenTog (Jun 5, 2013)

The first image was made at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and the second in a sunflower field near my house.


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## Quasimodo (Jun 5, 2013)

TeenTog said:


> The first image was made at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and the second in a sunflower field near my house.



Several cool shots popping up here! 

I like the sunflower, but you have not been precise enough  you see color on the side and other placea in the image


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## Quasimodo (Jun 5, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> Quasimodo said:
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Thanks!


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## Quasimodo (Jun 5, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> I agree with some of the others. I think it's most tasteful when done with a minimalist approach...
> 
> Here I think I could have gone just a tad more with the red on the roof but I didn't want to lose the old, nostalgic feeling I was trying to achieve. The flag I think I'm okay with, maybe a tad more there too...



I like this picture alot! I think this technique is a bit either or... I agree on the old feel, but a bit stronger so people are not guessing.


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## andersde (Jun 5, 2013)

Some great shots on this thread. I'm a big fan of the more subtle ones. In particular, the guy with the cigar, the jets & the role of film are all excellent.

Here's one of my own favourites. 




Baby Gorilla, Dublin Zoo by andersde, on Flickr


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## TeenTog (Jun 5, 2013)

> you have not been precise enough  you see color on the side and other placea in the image




Thanks! For some odd reason I didn't notice that.........


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## Krob78 (Jun 6, 2013)

Quasimodo said:


> Krob78 said:
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> > I agree with some of the others. I think it's most tasteful when done with a minimalist approach...
> ...


Agreed, it will be going back into post for just a tad more color... just a little... Thanks!


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## petach (Sep 17, 2013)

Not so much b&w with isolated colour, but a punch to the red to make it really stand out in the rest of the colour.




The Red Bag by petach123 (Peter Tachauer), on Flickr


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## Quasimodo (Sep 18, 2013)

petach said:


> Not so much b&w with isolated colour, but a punch to the red to make it really stand out in the rest of the colour.
> 
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I like this, and it fits well with the street photography style


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