Opinions Needed ASAP!

[JMBriggs]

Doing a personal photography project called "A World at 1.4". The title pretty much explains it all; a collection of images shot at f1.4 complete with shallow DOF and slightly soft. I took the following image and it will be in the collection but I'm having a difficult time choosing which edit to use. Please let me know which you all think is the best of the three. The first is full color, second selective color (which I usually can't stand but in this instance I'm a bit partial to) and last is a full black and white (with slight sepia tones.)

 

[AlanKlein]

The 1st is the best. But I think you can cut off the right third of the frame.

 

[Derrel]

The 1st is the best. But I think you can cut off the right third of the frame.

I agree wholeheartedly on both counts. Lose the right hand side of the frame.

 

[JMBriggs]

So this?

 

[AlanKlein]

Cut off another third of the last shot and make it a vertical format.

 

[AlanKlein]

Just curious. What do you think is the best and why? what attracts you to it? What can you do to improve it?

 

[JMBriggs]

Just curious. What do you think is the best and why? what attracts you to it? What can you do to improve it?

I honestly prefer the black and white I think... It's very close between them though. The look of my project is a more dreamy/romantic look though and I feel like the color is almost to realistic and mainstream I guess.... Like I said its not an easy choice for me though.

 

[JimMcClain]

...its not an easy choice for me though.

But it's a choice you, as an artist, have to make, not someone else. That's just my opinion, of course, but I believe it is one of the few things the photographer can't ask for critique on (I accept that many feel they can recommend though). I realize that many members here have asked for help deciding, some far better at this craft than I, but it seems to be one of the basic decisions a photographer must make at or near the beginning of the artistic process.

Most of my own B&W decisions are made when I look at the scene before I bring the camera up to my eye. Sometimes I see it when I am doing my initial sort, after importing the images from my camera. And although I do a lot of the processing of the picture in color, I fully intend from the start to make this a B&W image. I may even find another picture I made from the same scene or series should be a color image.

When I offer a photo up for critique, I am hoping other photographers will give their opinion on format, composition, cropping and most of the processing options. I expect to be critiqued on focus, angle, f-stop and other basic camera settings. But seeing a color or B&W scene or subject is my choice and one that is made very early on. To me, asking whether a picture should be in color or B&W is almost like asking if I should take the picture at all.

Every photographer should have, at least, the self-confidence to make a picture and to know whether the picture in their mind is color, partly color or shades of black and white. And then ask for help in making it the best color or b&w it can be.

Sorry for the diatribe. I've been wanting to express that opinion for a while now. I know others may not agree, but I think we all have to decide where our artistic expression begins and at what point we can ask others to help develop that expression. When I look at your photography, I see artistry at work. It takes me aback, though, when you say you can't make one of the very first decisions an artist has to make. I have confidence in you. Why don't you?

Best R'gards,

Jim

 

[sm4him]

Just curious. What do you think is the best and why? what attracts you to it? What can you do to improve it?

I honestly prefer the black and white I think... It's very close between them though. The look of my project is a more dreamy/romantic look though and I feel like the color is almost to realistic and mainstream I guess.... Like I said its not an easy choice for me though.

1. I like it the way you cropped it in post #4--personally, I wouldn't change this to portrait orientation. I like that it has a little dead space on the right, it just had way too much before.

2. If your project is to have a "dreamy, romantic" look, then I don't think any of the 3 choices really works. They are all too dark and contrasty--I like them, don't get me wrong, I just don't think they fit a dreamy, romantic look.

I'd take the full-color one, bump up the curves level to brighten it, reduce the contrast just a touch, and then reduce the saturation--not so it's selectively colored like the second version, but so that the colors are less stark and dramatic.

 

[petrochemist]

Sorry for the diatribe. I've been wanting to express that opinion for a while now. I know others may not agree, but I think we all have to decide where our artistic expression begins and at what point we can ask others to help develop that expression. When I look at your photography, I see artistry at work. It takes me aback, though, when you say you can't make one of the very first decisions an artist has to make.

I don't see that B&W or colour is one of the early choices in photography at all. I've sometimes shown a picture to have someone suggest I try it in B&W. Often the result is good, sometimes even an improvement on my original - but there are other times when I don't like the B&W version, even if others do. In some cases the B&W image can have a completely different feel to the colour one, but in most cases it's a more subtle change in emphasis. Even if the finished image no longer gives the message the photographer intended on framing the image in the viewfinder the new message may be to their liking giving 2 for the price of one.

With digital theres no data missing for doing the conversion later - in film days B&W prints from colour negs didn't have the same feel but even then it was a fairly minor difference.

Of the three versions shown here, all seem reasonable to me (I'd also go for a more heavily cropped portrait version though) I feel the full colour image has more impact with the colour contrast between the flowers & the leaves working well.

 

[Designer]

So you shoot a flower, then convert it to B&W. What does that conversion have to do with your project?

 

[limr]

Just curious. What do you think is the best and why? what attracts you to it? What can you do to improve it?

I honestly prefer the black and white I think... It's very close between them though. The look of my project is a more dreamy/romantic look though and I feel like the color is almost to realistic and mainstream I guess.... Like I said its not an easy choice for me though.

1. I like it the way you cropped it in post #4--personally, I wouldn't change this to portrait orientation. I like that it has a little dead space on the right, it just had way too much before.

2. If your project is to have a "dreamy, romantic" look, then I don't think any of the 3 choices really works. They are all too dark and contrasty--I like them, don't get me wrong, I just don't think they fit a dreamy, romantic look.

I'd take the full-color one, bump up the curves level to brighten it, reduce the contrast just a touch, and then reduce the saturation--not so it's selectively colored like the second version, but so that the colors are less stark and dramatic.

+1 on all counts. I'm actually a bit partial to the black and white, but that too seems a bit too stark to have a 'dreamy' effect.

 

[KenC]

I like the B&W, but that's really your call. My second choice would be the partially desaturated color that Sharon described.

I might darken it a bit.

 

[JMBriggs]

...its not an easy choice for me though.

But it's a choice you, as an artist, have to make, not someone else. That's just my opinion, of course, but I believe it is one of the few things the photographer can't ask for critique on (I accept that many feel they can recommend though). I realize that many members here have asked for help deciding, some far better at this craft than I, but it seems to be one of the basic decisions a photographer must make at or near the beginning of the artistic process.

Most of my own B&W decisions are made when I look at the scene before I bring the camera up to my eye. Sometimes I see it when I am doing my initial sort, after importing the images from my camera. And although I do a lot of the processing of the picture in color, I fully intend from the start to make this a B&W image. I may even find another picture I made from the same scene or series should be a color image.

When I offer a photo up for critique, I am hoping other photographers will give their opinion on format, composition, cropping and most of the processing options. I expect to be critiqued on focus, angle, f-stop and other basic camera settings. But seeing a color or B&W scene or subject is my choice and one that is made very early on. To me, asking whether a picture should be in color or B&W is almost like asking if I should take the picture at all.

Every photographer should have, at least, the self-confidence to make a picture and to know whether the picture in their mind is color, partly color or shades of black and white. And then ask for help in making it the best color or b&w it can be.

Sorry for the diatribe. I've been wanting to express that opinion for a while now. I know others may not agree, but I think we all have to decide where our artistic expression begins and at what point we can ask others to help develop that expression. When I look at your photography, I see artistry at work. It takes me aback, though, when you say you can't make one of the very first decisions an artist has to make. I have confidence in you. Why don't you?

Best R'gards,

Jim

Thank you everyone for your input and opinions! I think Jim made an excellent point though and I'm going to go with my own preference for this. I shot with the intention of a black and white edit and so that's what I'll use for my project. It is after all an expression of my art so it should reflect my own preferences and style.

Again thank you all!

 

[Designer]

I'm going to go with my own preference for this.

Of course you will.

I would have been surprised if you had accepted the results of the poll.

Next time you ask for opinions, we should know that the question is superfluous and the results are irrelevant.