Selective Color
Selective color is a process where a majority of the image is turned to either black & white or sepia, and 1 color, or an object, or even the whole person remain in color. This is a dramatic way to make something stand out, and looks great in larger prints. For the most part, Sepia coloring works best when it's 1 object (such as eyes, or a shirt) that are in color. Black & white typically turns out the best for selective coloring.
Eyes
Eyes are always a good choice, but not all eye colors will pop the same way against black and white. Blue and green work best, while gray, hazel, and brown fade out just a bit.
Tia with blue eyes
Bethany with brown eyes- the color in the eyes is almost unnoticeable
Mettie & Faith in Sepia with blue eyes
Object Color
With this, you pick one item to focus on- a hat, a pair of sunglasses, a shirt, shoes, flowers in the background, or a specific color, such as all the pink items, all the blue items, etc. The result is a nice effect to the overall portrait.
Person Coloring
In Person Coloring (for lack of a better term), I make sure the person remains in color, while fading the background to black & white or sepia. Some backgrounds that are more of a monotone color, such as rocks, do not look as dramatic with this effect, because they are already mostly black & white to begin with.
Josh with a rocky background
While Josh does pop quite a bit, it isn't as dramatic as when you know there should be colors present.
While Josh does pop quite a bit, it isn't as dramatic as when you know there should be colors present.
