Image Just Asking for Selective Coloring...

[Shadowman]

...but I couldn't do it.

This is a fireboat that patrols the Niagara River in WNY. I plan to make a series of images of this vessel. Comments and critique welcome.

[Mike Buckley]

Your series would be especially enjoyable to children who are fascinated with tug boats, perhaps partly because there is or at least used to be an educational television series that personifies a tugboat. I realize that this is a fire boat rather than a tugboat, but children will still be very attracted to your series.

[IzzieK]

Why not John? I bet you had done it but you didn't like it...why not let us be the jury of your creativeness...I know...some people don't like selective colouring, but that is their problem, they don't like it...but I do. I think there are a lot of shots/images that deserves that treatment, especially if you are using it for emphasis for instance...

Great colours on this image, John...

[Shadowman]

Your series would be especially enjoyable to children who are fascinated with tug boats, perhaps partly because there is or at least to be an educational television series that personifies a tugboat. I realize that this is a fire boat rather than a tugboat, but children will still be very attracted to your series.

Mike,

Thanks for the comments, maybe I can include some tugboats in the series.

[Shadowman]

Why not John? I bet you had done it but you didn't like it...why not let us be the jury of your creativeness...I know...some people don't like selective colouring, but that is their problem, they don't like it...but I do. I think there are a lot of shots/images that deserves that treatment, especially if you are using it for emphasis for instance...

Great colours on this image, John...

Hi Izzie,

I didn't try it yet but did consider it. I may give it a try. Thanks for commenting.

[chauncey]

There's too much background competition here...wait until it's out on patrol.

[Shadowman]

There's too much background competition here...wait until it's out on patrol.

Hi William,

I feel the same way, I tried a few different crops but wasn't happy with the results. Thanks for commenting.

[lukaswerth]

John,

do you use photoshop? If yes, use the color selection within a pre-selected area (by the lasso tool or similar to roughly select the target). In this way it should be easy enough to select the ship for coloring to your heart's desire.

Lukas

[IzzieK]

Lukas, look at his EXIF. He does use Photoshop and he has done selective colouring before which I had like very much...that I can still remember it...

John,

do you use photoshop? If yes, use the color selection within a pre-selected area (by the lasso tool or similar to roughly select the target). In this way it should be easy enough to select the ship for coloring to your heart's desire.

Lukas

[lukaswerth]

Lukas, look at his EXIF. He does use Photoshop and he has done selective colouring before which I had like very much...that I can still remember it...

So what's the problem?

Lukas

[Shadowman]

John,

do you use photoshop? If yes, use the color selection within a pre-selected area (by the lasso tool or similar to roughly select the target). In this way it should be easy enough to select the ship for coloring to your heart's desire.

Lukas

Lukas,

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have access to Photoshop, I'll give it a try.

[Inkanyezi]

I think that it might work best in fog, but actually without selective colour. (And I am one of those not fond of selective colour.)

I came to think of a product shot I once made to illustrate the final form of Carrick Bend, a knot that is often misunderstood. I took it in the light from a window against the plain white background of the door to my balcony, and the two ropes are very different, one of them very old, the other brand new. The whipping on the new rope has not yet taken any wear, and it is made with a blue yarn, while the other rope was one I saved in the trashbin when I worked as rigger at Benn's. Its whipping of waxed floss has been in use for about twenty years.

It is a colour image, no desaturation or enhancement.

[xpatUSA]

There's too much background competition here...wait until it's out on patrol.

That was my first though too. An excellent subject parked in the wrong place.

If the boat can be selected in post, perhaps the background above the waterline can be toned down somehow . . .

. . . or replaced by fog?

[arith]

That is so knotty; I used to drive trucks and learned some knots, I've forgotten them now but was amazed how to tie a knot in the middle of the rope and tighten so tight it almost caught fire.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

That is a stunning boat, but agree with others that the background is competing with it severely. I am not convinced about applying a selective colouring treatment to it, but would like to see you try it.

One of things is that everything is brightly lit. This brightens the colours and adds all those sharp, distracting shadows, including in the background. Shooting on a cloudy or overcast day would dull all that down and, as the boat is such a vivid colour in itself, it might survive that better than the background and so stand out more.

Other than that, shooting it when it is out to sea would isolate it well, but then you would lose that contextual stuff, which I quite like.

Overall, it is a pleasant image. I like it. And I like it enough to think it would be worth persevering with to see if a better shot can be achieved.

[Shadowman]

That is a stunning boat, but agree with others that the background is competing with it severely. I am not convinced about applying a selective colouring treatment to it, but would like to see you try it.

One of things is that everything is brightly lit. This brightens the colours and adds all those sharp, distracting shadows, including in the background. Shooting on a cloudy or overcast day would dull all that down and, as the boat is such a vivid colour in itself, it might survive that better than the background and so stand out more.

Other than that, shooting it when it is out to sea would isolate it well, but then you would lose that contextual stuff, which I quite like.

Overall, it is a pleasant image. I like it. And I like it enough to think it would be worth persevering with to see if a better shot can be achieved.

Hi Max,

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.