Selective color

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A popular selective color technique in contemporary wedding photography is to leave the flowers in full or partial color and render the remaining image in B&W.

A flower girl from a wedding in 2004.

Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color. This is usually achieved by using layers and masks in photo editing software (The GIMP or Photoshop, for example).

A common application for selective color is portraiture, to keep the eyes and sometimes the lips in color, against an otherwise black and white photograph. Small bits of color in an otherwise monochrome image immediately draw the viewer's eye.

Landscape photography is another common application for this technique. Colorful leaves in an otherwise drab scene can breathe life into a photo. Of course the technique can be applied to any genre, but portraits and landscapes are the usual beneficiaries.

[edit] How-to

One starts with a color photograph, copies certain elements to a second layer, and then converts the background to black and white. The technique can be time consuming, but it's not difficult; the most challenging part of the entire process is building a selection around the elements that are to remain in color.

While this is clearly associated with digital photography, the same effect could be achieved with film scanned into the computer. Selective color is a product of the digital darkroom rather than digital cameras themselves.