Wedding Cake

[crazyfoo]

I know most people don't like selective color, but the cake was already black and white and I really like how these two turned out :-) I just snapped a few pictures at a friends wedding a while back.

let me know what you think.

[rusty_tripod]

Does not work for me.

[T. Adam Martin]

You're right. Most people do not like selective color. It's not anything against the technique: it's the abuse of the technique that people don't like.

You mentioned the fact that it's a black and white cake. Great! Very high contrast: deep rich blacks, juxtaposed against an elegant, dreamy white. But the contrast is decimated by the stark, almost glowing red from the petals. It hurts my eyes.

You don't want to hurt your audience's eyes. The whole principle of selective color is to provide a splash of color on an otherwise monochromatic landscape: the eye will dance to the splash because it's a part of the story you are trying to tell.

In this case, the technique is only used for the "cool" factor, but it doesn't add anything to the story being told.

It doesn't work for me either. The images are sharp, the diagonal composition lines are active: enhance the image from there, don't confound it.

[ggeen]

I am not a big fan of selective color. It just needs to be done well. Like HDR. I do, however, like #2. I think that it is nicely done. It looks like it should be that way, not contrived, almost natural.