Special Effects in Your Wedding Album

Although everyone has at least a camera in their cell phone nowadays, and even simple image editing software (e.g. iPhoto) contains special effects options, the special effects available to a skilled user of Photoshop are considerably more subtle and expressive, and it would be good for brides shopping around to know what's available.

First of all, what is the purpose of special effects or f/x? Sometimes it's merely to provide variations on a theme, or, in the case of graying out a background photo, less visual confusion on the page. But why render a color photo in black and white? Why render it in sepia, or any of the nearly infinite variations in between, such as subtle sepia, or "soft" black and white? Why use another tone, such as rust (slight reddish brown) or moss (a slight green), or "platinum" (subtle silver-brown-purple).

First of all, it's important to understand the basic distinction between full color and any monochromatic variation.

The eye loves color; it is drawn to color. Color is like sugar or salt: it gives immediate gratification. This means that when something rather subtle is going on in a photo—like an emotion or the suggestion of an emotion, the eye may be distracted by the color and not immediately see the emotion. But almost magically, when you remove the color, any monochromatic variant will reveal the emotion much more clearly. Sometimes it even jumps out at you, whereas in the color version, it was just a feature, or maybe even not noticed.

So then why add toning—sepia, soft black, rust, moss or whatever? Well, once you've enabled the emotion to jump out, you can then condition the viewer's reaction to the emotion, to bring out the particular character of the emotion—it comes out to the same thing. So if you're showing warmth, love, tenderness, or dedication, you would use a warmer "black," namely a brownish or reddish black, which should be very subtle. When you go all the way over to sepia, the photo takes on a vintage or old-timey quality, since sepia toning was very popular 100 years ago.

On the other hand, if the emotion is humor or anger, you might favor a cold black, even one that's ever-so-slightly tinged with blue. Again, if you go too far with a blue tone, you arrive at cyan, which references the period of the 1880s and 1890s, when the cyanotype was in vogue.

Here is a color photograph taken during the bride's preparations:

Soft focus is another special effect than can be very effective, especially combined with toning. It produces a dreamy quality. When I apply it to photos of the bride getting prepared, surrounded by her bridesmaids, first putting on her gown etc., I'm trying to convey a sense of dreams about to come true. This can also be very effective with moss toning, which the viewer doesn't see as green, normally an unfavorable color for skin, but rather as "past," a flavor of dreamy.



Here is the same photograph in "soft" (that is, slightly brownish) black and white, and with soft focus:

Now, you'll have to try to ignore the color version, which automatically gratifies the eye with the bridesmaid's blue dress and other color details. But without that color the bride's feeling of excitement and anticipation is actually clearer in the image.


(To Be Continued)

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