Christian Photographers Community

I recently took this image of a mailbox, but the background was too distracting so I converted it too black & white and brought back the just the red in the image.

Comments, anyone?  I would like to hear what you think of this one. 

Perhaps I should have put it in the landscape thread?

It seems the contrast due to the b/w conversion, makes it even a bit more busy.  My eyes went right into the thicket, wondering what to do about it, before reading your explanation.

On top of that, I am not a fan of selective coloring.  Just seems too unnatural.  When you get that new 70-200 f2.8L, go shoot it again.  At 2.8, the bokeh will be wonderful.

Gripped,
Kevin

Quote from: mybcjazz on January 29, 2009, 03:42:16 PM
It seems the contrast due to the b/w conversion, makes it even a bit more busy.  My eyes went right into the thicket, wondering what to do about, before reading your explanation.

On top of that, I am not a fan of selective coloring.  Just seems too unnatural.  When you get that new 70-200 f2.8L, go shoot it again.  At 2.8, the bokeh will be wonderful.

Gripped,
Kevin

Hmmm...that's interesting.  Lots to think about.  Something has been bothering me about it, too.  Perhaps the same thing.  I will shoot it again with better bokeh, for sure, because I like the mailbox.  As I recall, I didn't really think about bokeh when I took it because we were freezing and my hubby was already at the car ready to leave.  I could have done better at the moment of capture since I did have my 75-300mm zoom on at the time, just not enough time. 

One's eye is normally drawn to red in a photo.  Maybe I should have darkened the background or added a vignette or something or saturated the red more or maybe all of the above.  I personally like the selective coloring and this was my first attempt at doing one.  It's like a lot of things, you either like it or you don't. 

Thank you so much for you comments.  They have helped.  Oh how I wish I had my new lens...

I'll have to agree with Kevin on this one, the background is just too busy for me. You did good with the conversion and the selective coloring.

Don

Perhaps when you re-take the picture you could try a different angle.  That thicket is bothersome..

I like your experiments, you are teaching me a lot as you learn.

Thanks for all of your help, guys!  I agree, I don't like the backgound either and now, I am sure that's what I didn't like about it, too.  Sometimes, when it's my own images...I know I don't like something about it, but not sure exactly what it is.  Glad you can learn along with me.  That's partly why we're all here, right?  To learn from and teach each other.  I love that!

I took a copy and blurred the background, which I think is what works best.   I really like the muted red with the B&W.   It's a "quick and dirty" edit, but I think you get the idea.

I like that one better.  IT causes you to focus on the mailbox rather than the background.

Yes I like to better too.

I had actually done that background blurring in PS, too, to about the degree you have done.  I didn't/don't like it.  Maybe it's because I knew I'd blurred it in post-processing, but I just thought it looked to photoshopped.  It drives me crazy when it's obvious in other people's work, too.  I like to do it correctly in the field.  I guess I'm a purist, unless I'm going for the totally unreal, like in my artistic galleries. (my fauxtography)  So, I will do a re-shoot and do it right.

  thanks for your thoughts.