b/w or color?

saltydog

This shot was taken a while back, and I just discovered that this very cool wall of graffiti has been painted over. So I want to preserve a shot of it and I can't make up my mind - does it look better in black & white, or maybe in color??? What do you guys think? That stop sign was indeed that washed out, not much PP here. (And btw, that hot little red Mazda on the left was mine - loved that car, but after 15 years, it finally had to go the way of the trash compactor :dunno).

B/W:





And in color:

dkoyanagi

BW, although it think it could use a bit more contrast.

Speedie

I think the colour of the two cars is a bit too distracting from the main subject, so another vote for the B&W. Agree about the contrast. If you allow image editing in your profile I'll have a go.

saltydog

Speedie wrote:

I think the colour of the two cars is a bit too distracting from the main subject, so another vote for the B&W. Agree about the contrast. If you allow image editing in your profile I'll have a go.

By all means, have a a go at it. I agree about the contrast and I didn't play around much when I converted it to b/w, just took care not to blow out that stop sign or sink the top into complete blackness. I'll give it another try as well and will post the results later. I think I have another angle somewhere as well, let me see if I can dig that up somewhere.

Greetings,
Jana

Speedie

Here's my attempt at beefing up the B&W version:

jpl

B&W for sure

Eia

Speedie wrote:

Here's my attempt at beefing up the B&W version:

Now this gives it ATTITUDE! Black and white for sure with the contrast!

saltydog

Speedie, I LOVE what you've done with it. Would you mind sharing what and with which software you did it? Your version reminds me very much of how I used to print b/w photos taken on pushed Kodak Tri-X film, but I haven't yet figured out how to translate those characteristics into the digital world and would be thrilled to get some input from you.

Thanks,
Jana

Speedie

I have Paint Shop Pro, all I did was use the "clarify" command a couple of times which does a sort of localised contrast enhancement.

InsuredDisaster

Maybe crop out the stop sign? Awesome BW.

You can download Alien Skin's Exposure 2 plugin trial which lasts for 30 days. They've got all sorts of film imitations. Some I hear are quite good. Since I barely got started in photography when digital exploded, I can't say if the imitations are good or not myself. Some look cool.


HOWEVER, the program is something like $250 US and seems to be really expensive unless you are making money or think the imitations are really good. Too much for "oh, that looks cool." Sure, if you love the look of a film type you used to shoot on, $250 might seem really cheap to be able to "shoot" an endless supply of Velvia 50 or TriX400.

What it did do for me is make me think more about how to convert photos into BW and be much more agressive with the conversions. So the trial didn't get me to buy the product but it did help me a lot. You could look into it perhaps.

I love your conversion.

saltydog

Speedie wrote:

I have Paint Shop Pro, all I did was use the "clarify" command a couple of times which does a sort of localised contrast enhancement.

Wow, that is a cool effect. I normally use Photoshop but also have Corel Photo Paint, a somewhat beefed up version of Paint Shop Pro. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the "clarify" command on it, so I downloaded the PSP trial version. I've been sitting here all morning playing around with other b/w shots of mine. I am also trying to figure out how to reproduce this effect in Photoshop, but it involves endless steps of filters and tweaking. I almost think it's worth buying PSP instead. Thanks so much for introducing me to this .

Oh, and if somebody finds a simpler way to repeat this in PS, let's hear it .

Greetings,
Jana

[Deleted User]

While I like the b&w and particularly speeides conversion, if you are wanting to preserve the wall as you see it, then surely it should be in colour photo as that is what the wall is??

Tim

saltydog

draggin wrote:

While I like the b&w and particularly speeides conversion, if you are wanting to preserve the wall as you see it, then surely it should be in colour photo as that is what the wall is??

Tim

While I generally see nothing wrong with preserving something in b&w (after all that's how it has been done for many decades before color film became easily available), I have to say that I always save a copy of the original when converting anything to black and white. Usually I keep one Photoshop file with the original as the underlying layer and Channel Mixer as well as any other adjustment layers on top. Whenever I want to print or post the file online, I simply duplicate it, flatten the layers and save as copy if needed.

You do however have a point here, I think documentation of artwork should definitely be preserved in the original color version when possible, after all, the color is part of someone elses work and effort. Thanks for pointing that out.

Skippy

saltydog wrote:

This shot was taken a while back, and I just discovered that this very cool wall of graffiti has been painted over. So I want to preserve a shot of it and I can't make up my mind - does it look better in black & white, or maybe in color??? What do you guys think? That stop sign was indeed that washed out, not much PP here. (And btw, that hot little red Mazda on the left was mine - loved that car, but after 15 years, it finally had to go the way of the trash compactor ).

B/W:
And in color:

The problem in both shots is the sky is blown out.
I think it looks better in B&W, especially the image on the wall.

You could probably do some serious cropping of the image and still have a good shot. .... Skippy
.