One possible twist to the usual alternatives of colour or black and white is the use of selective colour. This can look quite gimmicky, so I prefer to keep the colours muted to tone in better with the grey shades.
For Cee’s Black and White challenge theme of Matching Things I’ve trawled my archives for some images of pairs: flowers, birds, animals, people and various inanimate objects. And because Cee allows selective colour I decided to play around with them a bit, just for a change.
All these images were edited in Silver Efex Pro using control points to gradually reintroduce colour. I added a fading vignette at the same time, and a narrow frame back in Photoshop.
Bougainvillea at the Royal Palace in Luang Prabang, Laos
Desert Rose growing near Salalah in southern Oman
Demoiselles Cranes at Khichan, Rajasthan
Bubuls in Ranthambore NP, India
Spotted in a tea plantation village in Munnar, Kerala
In a window near Les Halles, Paris
Musicians at Nizwa Fort in Oman
Two guides at Wahiba Sands, Oman, at sunset
Bake-Jizō in Kanmangafuchi Abyss, Nikko, Japan
Lamp post in Lyme Regis, Dorset
Offerings at the Royal Palace in Luang Prabang, Laos
Daisies at Runnymede
Evening drinks by the Seine, Paris
25 Comments
lily
So nice!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Lily 🙂
Andrea R Huelsenbeck
Wonderful pairs!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Andrea 😊
Cee Neuner
Congratulations! I have featured you this week in CBWC.
I hope your week has been fantastic.
https://ceenphotography.com/2021/12/16/cbwc-things-that-are-bumpy-or-lumpy/
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Cee, I really appreciate that 😀
Forestwood
These look subtle to me.Sarah. You have enhanced the photos beautifully. I just can’t pick a favourite. They are all worthy!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Amanda – no need to pick a favourite if you’d rather not 😆
rkrontheroad
These are great, an interesting concept! The bougainvillea is so lovely, it looks almost like a Chinese or Japanese brush painting.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you so much Ruth 😊 The original image of that bougainvillea is one of my favourite shots so I was hesitant to play around with it but I have to say I was quite pleased with the result!
giacomoasinello
Beautiful effect. Very classy.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much for that compliment 😊
wetanddustyroads
Ah, I like these a lot! How amazing is that picture of the bougainvillea and another stunning one is of the two guides in Oman. I think this is a wonderful technique and certainly do justice to the photo’s 😊.
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you enjoyed this, and thank you for picking out some favourites. I’m always interested to hear which photos particularly appeal to people 🙂
margaret21
You’ve avoided Gimmicky here. Your use of muted colour is evocative and pleasing.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Margaret – evocative is just what I was aiming for so I really appreciate you finding them so 🙂
Alison
I love these Sarah, how clever you found so many and the selective colours are fantastic
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Alison – I actually found more than this but managed to be a bit self-disciplined and weeded a few out 😆
the eternal traveller
The Wahiba Sands are amazing.
Susanne Swanson
Wonderful matching photos!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you both for those kind words!
Cee Neuner
Oh Sarah, I like you playing with selective color. You showed off some wonderful matching photos. 😀
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Cee – it’s not something I do often but I saw you mention it in the challenge ‘rules’ and thought it would be fun to play around with it this time 🙂
Paul
The photo editing is outstanding. Well done.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much for that lovely compliment Paul 😊