The next gallery show our photo club will be participating in at the community college will be in conjunction with the National Endowment of the Humanities. This year's theme is "Flying Free: Birds and the Human Spirit". It is a study on how humans and birds interact. There's no time limit on when your photo was taken so I immediately thought of this picture I took in 2015 when visiting Niagara Falls.
Of course I can't make up my mind whether to go with the color shot (because I like the way the Cardinal pops against the green background) or the black and white (because I like how it somewhat evens out the shadows on her face and brings out the texture of her hair). You folks did so well in guiding me with the Scavenger Hunt photos I thought I'd see what you thought about this one! The club will vote on which photos get submitted to the show in August, so I'm putting my entries together now.
colour emphasises the bird is 'flyng free' but choosing to sit on the hand. the hair stands out better in the B&W but I don't think it should be the focus of attention. Can you convert to B&W with the orange going lighter colour rather than a mid-grey? then the attention would be on the bird & the face?? (just my thoughts but noy sure what your judges would be looking for)
what i'm interested in is how you managed to change the background so seamlessly? that's awesome! i'd go with colour because to me it is more "alive". i know that most times, the b/w makes the details stand out more, but in this case, the facial expression and the bird are more alive in colour.
The light in the b/w really emphasises the hand being separate from the bird and shows how it's just resting not held. However in this shot I do also think that the colour does bring the shot more alive. A difficult choice. Good luck.
@ltodd Thanks for the comment Lyn. I could probably try what you suggested in black and white, but the response to how alive the color version seemed to everyone struck a chord with me. I appreciated that comment about the hair because it drove home what the subject matter was to be- not the woman but the interaction between her and the bird. Great insight!
@summerfield I didn't change the background at all. It's the trolley parked behind her. The original shot was a little further back, so I cropped in more tightly- actually taking out the cartoon characters on her shirt and most of her arm. It worked better that way.
So what happens now is I will print it and then the photo club will vote on 10 pieces to appear in the exhibit. Depending on what the other entries look like this will either be chosen or not. It's hard to tell what people are going to like but I think they will find this appealing since it is not too often you see a Cardinal perched on someone's hand. My other submission will be the eagle with the swallow in the background so we'll see. Thanks for all the input! It really helps.
I've decided to go with the color one, but Lyn did give me some great advice and then did a demo for me as well. It looked great in black in white her way. But so many responded to how "lively" the color looked that I think the photo club folks would respond in a similar fashion.
July 5th, 2016
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Looking forward to what you chose and your results
Thank you everyone- color it is!
@ltodd Thanks for the comment Lyn. I could probably try what you suggested in black and white, but the response to how alive the color version seemed to everyone struck a chord with me. I appreciated that comment about the hair because it drove home what the subject matter was to be- not the woman but the interaction between her and the bird. Great insight!
@summerfield I didn't change the background at all. It's the trolley parked behind her. The original shot was a little further back, so I cropped in more tightly- actually taking out the cartoon characters on her shirt and most of her arm. It worked better that way.
So what happens now is I will print it and then the photo club will vote on 10 pieces to appear in the exhibit. Depending on what the other entries look like this will either be chosen or not. It's hard to tell what people are going to like but I think they will find this appealing since it is not too often you see a Cardinal perched on someone's hand. My other submission will be the eagle with the swallow in the background so we'll see. Thanks for all the input! It really helps.
Thank you Sally!
Thank you Kathy!
I've decided to go with the color one, but Lyn did give me some great advice and then did a demo for me as well. It looked great in black in white her way. But so many responded to how "lively" the color looked that I think the photo club folks would respond in a similar fashion.