The image started out in color (just above) but I kept "seeing" it in black and white. I still can't decide which one works for me...
Photographed with a G9 and the 40-150mm f2.8 Olympus Pro lens.
Added Friday afternoon: A fix by Mr. Judd:
3.04.2021
Black and White or Color? Which would you choose?
The image started out in color (just above) but I kept "seeing" it in black and white. I still can't decide which one works for me...
27 comments:
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I vote color. Seems to me the colors of the jacket, skin tones and hair all combine rather well in the color version. Kind of has an earthy type feel (if that's correct way of describing it).
ReplyDeleteI think the colour might win especially if you can tone down the red thing behind her head.
ReplyDeleteB&W photos are to me as landscape photos are to you. I just can't understand why any rational, fully sighted human being would give away all that lovely color.
ReplyDeleteIs that Santa Claus in the background? ;-) I vote B&W.
ReplyDeleteB/W and that Oly lens for the win!
ReplyDeleteFor me the background looks better in black and white but just concentrating on the woman it would be a toss up.
ReplyDeleteColor. It's a study in browns. The color tones go missing in B&W (of course), which in this image, robs it of appeal. (I am not B&W-averse. I have one camera set more or less permanently to B&W.)
ReplyDeleteAnother No vote for Santa…my eyes go to her face in the BW, not so in color.
ReplyDeleteB&W . . . less distraction
ReplyDeleteLoving Ray's answer for now.
ReplyDeleteThe color version is pleasing enough. Artistically, I would select the B&W.
ReplyDeleteBlack and white... in color the background is distracting.
ReplyDeleteI usually prefer the color versions of what you post, but here I have to go w/ b/w because of that red thing behind her head - it keeps pulling my eye away when I try to study the portrait.
ReplyDeleteKen
The woman is so striking (beautiful) and she has such wonderful skin tones that I'd definitely go with color. The red thing doesn't bother me -- my eyes aren't pulled to it because, frankly, I'm powerfully pulled to images of beautiful women. I think color may work better with people who are younger...black and white sort of emphasizes experience, rather than beauty. So, color.
ReplyDeleteAbout landscapes...Moonrise, probably Adams' most famous image, has a strong human dimension to it, with the illuminated grave yard in the foreground. That's a different kind of landscape, and one that I really like. But, you know, trees? Blagh.
Regarding Ray's reply, since when is photography rational? Not to criticize or necessarily disagree, but seems to me it's far more subjective and discretionary than rational. I like em' both, but in the context of this composition I prefer B&W.
ReplyDeleteI'm for the b/w version, mostly for the previously given reasons. But also because I just like the tonal simplicity of b/w. Cheers, Keith M
ReplyDeleteB&W for me, even after discounting the red distraction.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a basic rule that a red path near the edge is a no-no.
similarly the white patch in the B&W.
Both could have been edited out for my taste.
But my images are not in same league.
The black and white one is better. On the color version the red stuff in background is too distracting.
ReplyDeleteHugo
For me the colours go well together to make an attractive ‘picture’ but the mono is a better ‘portrait’.
ReplyDeleteAlways color!
ReplyDeleteComputer screens are not good at reproducing delicate shades of grey; real black and white prints from the darkroom do much better. And a real colour printer cannot make good black and white prints, you need a printer that works with different grey pigments, black and white is difficult in the digital world.
Frank.
Sorry, but I find the picture unsharp and grainy. And not even a hint of contact with the viewer/photographer.
ReplyDeleteI have to second the suggestion that toning down the red distraction would make the color version the winner. Be it Lightroom or Photoshop that might take 30 seconds. The result could be a marvelous, harmonic display of colors. A mellow, satisfying chord...to torture a metaphor. As long as it’s not something absurd and obvious - say, turning a red Coca-Cola sign blue - that kind of thing does no disservice to a photo.
ReplyDeleteI vote B&W. The red color behind her head distracts from her face. Just MHO.
ReplyDeleteBut for the red behind her head I like the color version better. If it were my shot it could be an interesting exercise to tone down that red.
ReplyDeleteColor. I’m with Mike R. - the “study in browns” hit me right away. I might even change that little patch of blue to match better. Her skin, jacket, the bits of red in the background just make a wonderful visual stew.
ReplyDeleteColor for me. I love B&W pictures when they are spectacular. I have come to realize that what makes me like B&W is when there is a full tonal range and very good macro and micro contrast - think using the full zone system a la Ansel Adams/Minor White. Anything else makes me feel like something is missing and, when I subsequently see it in color, I breathe a sigh of relief.
ReplyDeleteYour B&W picture looked lovely to me at first, especially the difference in textures between the skin of the face, the hair and the jacket. But when I saw the color version it felt "better" somehow. Your edits, warming and saturating the figure and de-saturating the background, are "just right" for me.
Lovely portrait in all versions.
Having been doing a fair bit of sorting and editing recently(!), I've found myself asking that question quite a bit! What I have come to realise is that as well as those photos which clearly to my eyes work better in either black and white or colour, there are some photos that work equally well in both and you don't have to decide on one or the other.
ReplyDeleteFor me, of the original two shots, I prefer the black and white, but it's a much closer thing with the second colour version....it's "crisper" and avoids what I might call "messy colour."