A couple of pics

Nice! I like the use of selective colour, it's very effective. I'd be tempted to colour the flowers as well to highlight the "Rememberence" of the second shot, but it would probably be over kill.

I tried doing that but it just didnt look right, so I decided just to leave it at the grafitti

How you doing with you assignment Laddley

Boz, would you mind if i made a suggestion?

Fantastic. How do you do different colours?

I'd love to know how you do colour sections on a B&W photo too please?

I've got Photoshop but find Fireworks easier to use. Is it something that can be done with this tool?

You create a new layer. turn that layer bw. then use the erase tool to get rid of the bw so you can see the colour underneath, then you flatten it. there are a number of ways to do it actually.

if writing is involved like graffiti, you create your new layer, then use the r g b channels to see which highlights hte letters the most. then you stay on that channel, and use calculations to bring it out more, usually multiply or overlay. choose "selection" then hit the apple key and mous click at the same time. or the ctrl key on a pc. that isolates the writing. then you do your bw conversion (use a colour layer, choose black, then make the blending method colour) then you do your erase, and no mayyer how slapdash you are with your brush, it ll only affect the writing.

please dont ever use grayscale or desaturate, it totally chances the tones of your image, and is not the right way to do it. nor is lab colour.

tbh though, its going to be a very hackneyed look in the not too distant future, if not now. it says " i know how to use photoshop!" but in fact, it rarely adds anything to the image.

Just been looking on the web for some tutorials/examples of ways to do it, but yours sounds a lot simpler... will give it a go tonight, thanks.

I know what you mean about the look starting to become 'overdone'. I think that's the same with any technique really. Once it becomes popular, it stops being as impressive. For me, that's what's happened (in my opinion only though) with those Venture style photos... every other studio does the bright white background photos now. And usually for half the price.

It's not at the moment. Had a busy weekend so didn't get any nature photos.

I do have a model for my second assignment though.

Thanks for asking, I'm not about much at the minute, but someone told me you'd posted for me.

Hi Nick

Sorry only just managed to get on

Please do make a suggestion, any feedback good or bad is welcome

Ok, i m not being critical, after all this is subjective.

for me, youre doing a project, this one is a prisoner on day release. so its semi-documentary. the selective colour intereferes with the mood (significantly) and takes away from the point. it reduces a dccumentary image to a "look! i can use photoshop!" moment and i think it spoils the theme too. i would either have it in full colour, quite contrasty, or full bw, again with lots of contrast. if youre not sure how to add contrast the correct way (ie NOT with the contrast tool, and NOT using a curve) i can tell you how to do that and you can then play about with it.

Thank you

To be honest now I have all 12 images done, the selective colour stands out like a sore thumb so for the final portfolio, the colour will go (although I am keeping a copy of it like that for my personal files)

I f you could tell me how to bring the contrast down in a new way( we have only covered layers and curves) I will be very grateful

I will add the other images when I have finished the final editing,

Thanks again

you guru x

Ok, heres what you do.

take your original image, and look at the layers. you ll see RGB, then red, green, and blue channels underneath.

click on the green channel, the image will go bw based on the green. leave your cursor on the green channel, and press ctrl left click (if on a pc) or apple key/click if on a mac. you ll see a mask appear on the image. click rgb again. then staying on the layers area, click the button at the bottom which looks like a split cirlce, for a new layer, then choose curves. this is the curve thats controlling the highlight areas of the image, so put your cursor in the middle, and lift it straight up or straight down, up for more, down for less. dont be too bothered about getting it the way you want, you ll be moving it in a minute anyway.

you ll see the new layer in the box, so click and drag that layer down and right to the little square with a corner box, which will duplicate the layer. dont panic at this point, your image will double what you ve already done before in the curve but ignore that. stayin on the new layer, press ctrl i or apple key i on the pc, that makes the layer a negative, which in this case is giving you a curve which only controls the shadows. so lower the curve for more shadow, raise it for less.

this gives you complete control of both the highlights and the shadows and you can use them to lift or lower contrast. it also means that when you move each curve, the colour of the image will not be affected, as youre only working with highlights and shadows. if you just take your whole image and go curves, and drop the left side, raise the right, you ll see an instant colour shift in the image, which you dont want. if youre working on other bits of the image, when youre happy with your contrast, click the wing menu at the top of the layers box (top right) and pick "new group from layers" then just drag your other layer in there so theyre all in one group.

if you want to take that a step further for a correct bw conversion, stay within the group on the top layer, then click the half circle again and choose "solid colour". your image will go black, or whatever colour you last had in the pallette. make sure the check box on the colour box is tiked to say "only web colours" and choose black if it isnt in black already. then go to the blending option at the top and click colour. what this does is give you an exact tonal match of your colour image, but in bw. then you can again play with your highlight a nd shadow curves to get a higher contrast to make a decent bw. this is really the only effective and 100% accurate way of converting digi images to bw.

if youre not sure about any of the above i ll put up a screen grab but i wont be able to do it until friday.