What’s Black and White with a Touch of Red?
When I first started using Pinterest, this was one of the first photos that caught my eye. On Friday afternoon, as we were preparing for the Friends and Family Showcase, the conditions seemed right to give it a try:
- The afternoon light was ideally streaming through the living room windows.
- My middle daughter — the one who had long-ago agreed to be the guinea pig for this shot — had just applied her make-up for the dance event.
- And, I’d recently, finally purchased Photoshop Elements to allow me to do more than Picasa allows to my photographs.
I wanted to capture my daughter’s thick, blonde hair and beautiful face in a slightly less sultry pose than the photo from Pinterest. After all, she’s only just about to turn 12. At the same time, i did want to try to get the deep color of her dance team lipstick to pop as it does in the Pinterest image. It took a few tries to get a pose that I liked and to have her smile a little less than she usually does for any camera.
The original image of Caroline
Once I had an image I wanted to play with, I had to get busy installing and learning how to use Photoshop Essentials. Let me just say that, as someone who does not typically work with Photoshop, it’s not the most intuitive piece of software I’ve ever had to learn.
A few online tutorials and attemps later, I was able to produce this image.
Caroline in black and white with select color
The image does what I set out to do, but it doesn’t deliver the same impact as the image from Pinterest. I think I will try it again using a pose more like the one from Pinterest because I believe the angle and shape of the model’s lips does make a big impact on the overall outcome of this photograph.
When all is said and done, I prefer this sepia version of the photograph.
Caroline in sepia
What do you think? Which of these images is your favorite? Any tips on what I should do differently next time I try this shot?
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Great shot! I like both the first and third photos the best.
Thanks for your feedback!
I have no idea what to do to get the real effect you want, but I must say I love your shot of your daughter, and I find that actually the original one has the right focus on the lips as well as balancing it off with her hair. She’s beautiful.
Thank you so much, Inga. I think she’s pretty amazing, too. 🙂
I like your “talk-through” of your attempts.
Thanks, Mona. I hope to try this again soon and get closer to my goal!