Young Woman at the market - Southern Ethiopia

[Manfred M]

This is aother shot I took of a young woman wandering around one of the markets we visited in Southern Ethiopia. The reason for the B&W conversion is that there was someone wearing bright blue to the camera right side that totally clashess with the magenta head scarf she is wearing. Going monochrome is a great way of covering up this type of photographic faux-pas...

[MarieV]

Such a pity that the blue would spoil this image in colour as I feel the magenta scarf could frame this young women's face beautifully!

[Manfred M]

Agreed Marie, but the problem with street photography is that you are not shooting in an environment where you can control some of those variables. This is the colour version of the shot, with the offending blue

[MarieV]

I think this colour version is beautiful Manfred and I'm sure some work can be done to remove the blue with some PP software (unfortunately I am very much a beginner in that regard). Either way, I still love it.

[FootLoose]

I prefer the colour version without the grain. Why not just select the blue garment and orange hat and change the colours with a hue/saturation layer mask. Seems easy enough to match the background on the left of the subject, Manfred.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[IzzieK]

I love the colour version too, Manfred. You have done justice to do this shot...selective colour selection in ACR with Hue/Saturation/Luminance will remove most of the blue and orange from the background. I'd slide it down the left side totally.

[John 2]

That is a beautiful portrait of a young woman. IMHO, the mono version doesn't do her justice. The colour version is just gorgeous but I can see your problem with the BG colours. I could even see her against a black BG. That would remove some of the context but the portrait is worth it on its own merit. - IMHO of course.

(Dare I post what I have in mind?)

[Manfred M]

That is a beautiful portrait of a young woman. IMHO, the mono version doesn't do her justice. The colour version is just gorgeous but I can see your problem with the BG colours. I could even see her against a black BG. That would remove some of the context but the portrait is worth it on its own merit. - IMHO of course.

(Dare I post what I have in mind?)

Sure, go ahead!

[Manfred M]

To everyone who suggested reworking the background to tone down the bright blue, the main reason I didn't do that is that I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Thanks for the encouragement; I'll take a crack at it when I have some time (hopefully tonight). You are quite right Izzy; it's really just a matter of selecting the offending colours, desaturating them and applying the same tones as on the left side of the image.

[Shadowman]

Now that I see the color version, I like it equally if not more. Both are very striking on their own so I would continue working both, obviously spend more time on the one you prefer.

[bnnrcn]

My vote goes to colour too

[John 2]

This is what I had in mind. Totally different concept (and a bit rough and ready) but she is such a striking subject and you have caught her so well.

[Brownbear]

Gorgeous image in colour not only because of the beautiful colours but also because the colour version gives me a feeling of being right there in real life.

[bnnrcn]

Hi John This is a nice edit but IMO it looks like a studio shot this way. I think a blurred but not distracting BG is needed for this image in order to emphasize that she was out at the market.

This is what I had in mind. Totally different concept (and a bit rough and ready) but she is such a striking subject and you have caught her so well.

[Manfred M]

My turn - selected the offending blue and orange areas using the pen tool; applied a 5 px feather, converted to B&W and applied a tint that is based on the colours on the left side of the image.

[Mark von Kanel]

perfect Manfred, worth all the work!

[John 2]

Excellent. That is an enviable image.

[Manfred M]

perfect Manfred, worth all the work!

All the work? End-to-end about 2 minutes. I should have done this in the first place, but was so intent on doing a B&W conversion, I missed the obvious (again).

[MarieV]

Well Manfred, I said it was beautiful before the editing, now it is sublime......well done.