Hmm...everything is in B&W and the boy is in color! Either you did one of the best erase jobs or you have to give me your secret!!!! I like this though.
My apologies, I know the subject's reflection's head will be cut off by your start bar if used as a desktop.
I don't normally do this kind of thing, but the black and white expresses lonliness (similar to "Management", where lonliness is in a crowd) only to be doubled by the fact that the subject has no where to go. Usually photographs have the subject either facing the other way or in the opposite corner in order to give a sense of progress and the motion of one striving towards goals. Because it is meant to impress the opposite, I flipped it.
As for how I did it, I thought Andy would be the one telling me! Often times, these kind of pictures have just enough color to kill the contrasty look and not enough to look dazzeling. I decided to go for the first route, so I converted the image to monochrome. I thought it would be fun to have the subject be in color, partly to make it obvious he is the subject, partly to include the fact that it was the only obvious color even in the original. My main photo editing program doesn't really do partial images of any type, rather whole images, so I needed to make a cutaway. I tried the color selection tool, but if I got too clsoe to the edges (shadows), it would include most of the photo with it (such poor color distinction), but on the other hand, when I kept a modest distance, the patched in boy would appear to have really think lines (think Lucas's dillema in "Empire Strikes Back", battle of Hoth scene). I ended up using an edge finder by manually placing intricate lines and letting it chose the pest path through those rectangles by choosing places where the contrast changes greatly. When I patched it in and adjusted the brightness and contrast to get the effective mood I wanted, the blues on the shirt were way overblown while some shadows were nearly black. I ended up darkening the backdrop before I placed the subject in and cutting back the saturation on the subject before I flattened it. This allows the image above to be possible. It really sounds more complex than it is. It took me an hour, but mostly because I am not experienced in nit-picking (before yesterday, I had remained a solid fan of entire-image filters).
I also love how you did this, with the black and white, and the colour. But I need to say yu should try always to get horizon line straight..its very distracting this way. People have pointed it out to me before too, I live near the Ocean...so I guess I always notice that..But other than that its a gorgeous photo. Very much feeling comes from the boy..and the waves and I especially LOVE the reflection of him in the wet sand..that just makes the photo all the more beautiful!!
Great editing Luke. I really like the way you did this. Your image does need to be rotated several degrees to the right, or did you intend for it to be tilted for impact? With the rotation, the boys shadow will probably not be cut off by the start bar! The others in the water in B&W makes this a stunning image. Thank you :)
Thanks for all the advice. As for the horizon, that is about a third of the emotional effect I was going for. Maybe I really should enter this into the rule-breaking contest...