From Clicking to Creating
From Clicking to Creating-Week 10 of 2018
Week 10 in the Dogwood 52 challenge is Selective Color in the category Vision. I was wondering what I would do for this week. The desert is pretty monotonic, especially since there just aren’t the flowers this year like last year. I don’t think this a real “flowery” area anyway. We see brittle brush, but that’s about it.
But this Tamarisk bush, with it’s tiny pink flowers, seemed to be a good subject for selective color.
This is the original image.
Making a selective color image is pretty easy to do in lightroom.
In the develop mode, go to the right hand side where you will see adjustments for hue, saturation, and luminescence. All you have to do is take all the saturation sliders to the far left to take that color away. I left the two sliders, purple and magenta, to keep the colors of the flowers.
You can play around with different color sliders, and get the look you want. Let’s take this image of my niece from last fall.
Here, I left the purple, and magenta sliders and even increased the saturation for those colors.
In this one, I left the magenta, and the red. The red left a little color in her face, especially on the lips.
Selective color can be a fun thing to play around with, and experiment.
This weeks 2 Lil Owls prompt is Fill the Frame. I took this image when we went to the Cloud Museum because I loved all the texture. Shooting it up close, and getting all the detail in the frame makes it more interesting I think.
And I wanted to talk a little about learning, and progressing in your photography. I am in no way, an expert in photography. I am learning all the time, and trying to get better at it all. I read, and research, and most of all, I make a lot of images. The internet has certainly made learning about something easier. Have a question about a setting, or the camera, or even where to go shoot, the internet has the answer, several usually. I have linked to this blog before, but it is such a great resource I need to link again. Otto, at In Flow has such great insight, and ideas into the behind the scenes part of photography. Not the mechanics of it, but how to “become” an artistic photographer. I have been following his blog for a few years, and it’s always great, always something to learn.
I also read an article this week from Scott Kelby. It’s funny, but I think he really hits the nail on the head. Again, the learning never stops, nor should it.
What have you guys created this week?
Photography is a skill that never ends there is always something to learn either with the camera or editing. If you enjoy it, it is a fun never ending hobby.
I like the edited version of both images. Thank you for showing us the techniques. :)
That Scott Kelby article is great! Unfortunately, I’m still at Stage 1, BUT I had already figured out where I needed to start and that agrees with his “level up” for that. Now I just need to find more time to work on it all! I love selective color photos, and now I understand better how to make them, other than using PicMonkey!
Pingback:From Clicking to Creating-Week 10: Selective Color
I’ve been so busy with family stuff since right after New Year’s that the only photos I’ve had time to take are on my iPhone. I was going to install PicMonkey; but I just haven’t had the chance.
Back to your photos, though: I love the way the gray background seems to intensify the colors of the flowers and the colors you kept in the photo of your niece. That’s pretty cool “stuff”! I play with the limited editing capabilities built into my phone – and they come out fairly decent most times – but there’s no comparison to what you can do with a program like Lightroom.
Wow, I didn’t know that technique for selective color. It’s so much easier than what I’ve done in the past. Thank you, Mary (I think that I say that every week). Your tamarisk looks spectacular. It was the perfect subject for this one.
Is that last image a can of motor oil? It looks very cool!
Thanks for the links. I’ll follow them. My keeping up with Dogwood has fallen apart recently. My dad is needing a lot more help, and that makes me feel frantic all the time! I do plan to keep playing along even if I miss one now and then because it’s helping my photography. And your “Clicking to Creating” posts are also helping me tons! Thanks for doing them.
I’m so glad you are finding value in the posts, and learning a thing or two. I’m sorry about your dad, hopefully he will get stronger fast. And yes, that second photo is an oil container. Way bigger than a can though. They were pretty cool, and about 18 inches tall.
I had lots of ideas, but nothing was turning out the way I wanted so I wondered if I would have a submission for this week. Then yesterday, out of the blue, a flock of wild turkeys pays us a visit. I was so stunned my husband had to tell me to grab my camera. All I could think to do was say “Turkey”, over and over. Haha. Most of the photos didn’t turn out, but a few are worth sharing. I liked this one for fill the frame although it doesn’t truly fill the complete frame it is as close as my current equipment would allow. There’s no sneaking up on a fellow keeping as close an eye on you as this guy! Who is looking at whom? https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-52-Week-Photography-Project/i-8D4hQx8/0/627fb4c3/X3/WildTurkeyJake-01-X3.jpg
P.S. Those burro photos are just wonderful. I hope I get an opportunity to see that one day!
My husband has done the same thing with me a time or two. The turkey is great, and I would say it fills the frame because you have it, and a really nice background. And yes, there is no sneaking up on those guys. I’ve tried. Lol