Hello! This week, I’d like to switch gears and discuss a travel photo that I shot domestically in Los Angeles, California. “Grand Central Market” was taken in March 2012 with an aperture of f/5.3 and a shutter speed of 1/10, at ISO 640. I digitally converted the image to black and white using Photoshop and then added the color of the lettering on the wall back into the image using a process called selective coloring.
Grand Central Market is located in colorful and eclectic downtown LA. As the oldest public market in the city, the walkways and stalls of Grand Central Market exude a sense of history. I expect that the market itself looks very similar to the way that it did when it was built it the early 1900s, as varying merchants and customers have ebbed and flowed through its halls over the past century. Grand Central Market has a much different feel than some of the other public markets of Los Angeles. It has a grittiness and edge about it, and yet feels extremely welcoming. Visiting the market felt like visiting a piece of history and tapping into a strong sense of place. From the produce vender to the chow mein cafe to the panaderia, the daily grind of the market lifestyle seems to unite everyone who works there, regardless of where they come from.
When I sat down to review the images that I shot at the market, I decided to convert the image to black and white because I found the wide variety of colors to be a little overwhelming. The image is meant to quietly capture the usage of the market in a way that market goers were unaware that they were being recorded. I felt like a black and white conversion allowed the scene to appear much more calm and ordinary. However, I still wanted a pop of color to reflect the colorful radiance that I experienced when visiting. I decided to use a process called selective coloring which essentially pulls a selection of color back into a black and white image. There are multiple ways in which to achieve this effect, all of which are very user friendly. One very simple way to perform this process is to first convert the image to black and white. Then on the black and white layer, use the eraser tool to erase the layer in order to reveal whatever color is behind it. White this particular approach can be a little on the tedious side it is extremely precise and worked well for an image such as this which required only a small area of color selection.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog! See you next week!
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