I love the atmosphere and feel that black and white can give to a photo. I never seem to be able to achieve that in my edits.
This is a shot taken in Dublin a couple of weeks ago which I decided to edit into B&W. I am not sure if it is an improvement or not.
Tough one - although I feel that both photos aren't 100% at their full potential yet!
Black and white - would love to see this with more contrast. The swan appears a bit grey on my monitor - I'd love to see it whitened, and the water with more contrast around it.
Colour - I'd love to see the tones of the water lifted, made more blue, more striking. Again, a bit more contrast would help I think.
Even trying to imagine it with those changes though, I am having trouble deciding! They are both quite good and have different merits of their own :)
Although if you twisted my arm, I would go with the black and white. There is strength in the composition of the photo, and black and white photos (in my opinion) rely more on composition than do colour photos - because by eliminating 900,000 colours, there is less going on optically, and the brain looks for non-colour-related things to focus on (e.g. composition, perspective).
I like the colour version but agree with Teresa as I would be interested to see some different processing options. I am a fan of B&W as it removes unnecessary distractions but this photo doesn't have many and I think the blue enhances it
on this shot colour definitely, I dont think there is enough stand out contrast in shape for it to really work with black and white, whereas the blended colour tones in that water are lovely
I agree with Teresa.....if you haven't used GIMP (free) you might try testing a tweak in the contrast and brightness (both can be done with one easy drop box). The color has more contrast, but I think your b&w can be remarkable with a little help......I was a late comer to post-processing, but I now see the difference between good and better. @jdonnelly
I like the black and white. On my monitor, it doesn't look like it needs more contrast. There is a lot of pure white in the swan and I don't think you would want more black in the water. There might be other ways to adjust the tone curves, but overall the contrast looks good to me.
In the color version, the water is beautiful, but I notice the swan's yellow neck and the orange beak in the reflection. these colors distract me from the elegant ripples and shape of the bird on the water. They are both beautiful photos and I had to view them large and think about it a bit to decide!.
These are both great pictures, well processed. I would normally tell you BW as I favor BW. But they both have strong qualities so either would stand on its own
Thanks you all for the replays.
It would seem the colour version is the most popular. This just goes to prove what I thought anyway about my B&W attempts.
But I will keep on trying.
@jdonnelly I find that the photos I have most success with in B&W are the ones with high contrasts or a main subject that I want to stand out from a busy background. In this photo the blue makes the swan stand out which is why the colour works for me - hope this makes sense lol
I like B&W more. Just like Annie said^ The contrast is very important on the photos and in your photo -B&W version is more exciting. On the normal version, all the colors of blue looks cool too, but I prefer the first one.
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Black and white - would love to see this with more contrast. The swan appears a bit grey on my monitor - I'd love to see it whitened, and the water with more contrast around it.
Colour - I'd love to see the tones of the water lifted, made more blue, more striking. Again, a bit more contrast would help I think.
Even trying to imagine it with those changes though, I am having trouble deciding! They are both quite good and have different merits of their own :)
Although if you twisted my arm, I would go with the black and white. There is strength in the composition of the photo, and black and white photos (in my opinion) rely more on composition than do colour photos - because by eliminating 900,000 colours, there is less going on optically, and the brain looks for non-colour-related things to focus on (e.g. composition, perspective).
But enough of my rambling!
@jdonnelly
In the color version, the water is beautiful, but I notice the swan's yellow neck and the orange beak in the reflection. these colors distract me from the elegant ripples and shape of the bird on the water. They are both beautiful photos and I had to view them large and think about it a bit to decide!.
Thanks you all for the replays.
It would seem the colour version is the most popular. This just goes to prove what I thought anyway about my B&W attempts.
But I will keep on trying.
Thanks again.