Colour vs B&W shot

Scott Mac · Feb 11, 2011

I caught this street shot on a walk downtown.

Nunquam Obliviscar: Run In To

But I cannot decide on the colour vs b&w here. Usually, I don't have this problem, but I think in this case they both have their merits.

Can you all give me some feedback?

jaymitch · Feb 12, 2011

Nice shot Scott, I think I like the color version better.

jic designs · Feb 13, 2011

I like the black and white shot more. But honestly, both really nice.

Brenda Lee · Feb 15, 2011

I prefer the black and white. It allows you to focus more on their interaction.

Bridget Greenwood · Feb 15, 2011

I vote for the color, great shot

darrenP · Feb 16, 2011

The B&W version for me.

KenC · Feb 16, 2011

The bw makes you look at their faces first instead of her hat, which is what you want here.

Skaperen · Feb 16, 2011

Scott Mac said:
I caught this street shot on a walk downtown.

Nunquam Obliviscar: Run In To

But I cannot decide on the colour vs b&w here. Usually, I don't have this problem, but I think in this case they both have their merits.

Can you all give me some feedback?

I would like B&W, but I think it needs some work. Maybe some more detail in the faces? If you were doing B&W film work, you might be using color filters like #58 (green) or #61 (deep green) to enhance the skin tone. I accomplished this digitally by taking just the green channel of the image and making that monochrome. I then did some sharpening. I just did it with your JPEG originals, but ultimately such manipulation in the digital realm should start with the original RAW image so the demosaicing of the camera's Bayer pattern, and compression artifacts in file storage, don't influence the processing (then compress the final result where needed).