More Chal 37, comments please

ginger_55

This is not my usual thing................... any comments would help.
And I did it in black and white, also. ginger

rahmonster

I definately prefer the black and whte to the colour version. I like the composition, it is very interesting. It makes your eyes wander all over the frame, and I really like that.

Angelo

G - another fantastic shot, congratulations. In this case I prefer the color version. Something about it just grabs me.

ginger_55

Thanks for looking and posting! I agree with both of you. Last night I liked the color shot best, being that it was only two color, basically. I thought that was cool.

Then this AM, now, before coffee, I read the comments, then looked at the photos, backwards, black wand white first. Then I liked the black and white better.

Maybe it is which you see first. I left a note for my husband to look at them, and I told him to comment or die. He e-mailed me that he likes the black and white and gave me the reasons. That was helpful. He said that it brings up the contrast between the old and the new best (then he said pun intended, as that is what we call them here).

Thanks for stopping and helping. Gotta get some coffee. Don't know what time I went to bed. Not sure I should be up. 10 AM here

ginger

Sandy

I think the color adds to the photo. Very nice work as usual.

Flyinggina

You really take the neatest pictures. On first look, I love the color version best -- its like a handpainted black and white.


Virginia

ginger_55

Trying to get rid of the artifacts, or whatever one calls them.
If I choose the black and white, it will be because I think it
empasizes the bridges and not the clouds. Or that is what my daughter said in a very good critique.

g

Lucky Hack

I usually like B&W but the color version pops so well on this one, I've gotta go with the color, great shot!

hoping this message finds you well -Ian

ginger_55

Oh lordy, I would have to work up another color shot. The artifact thing is gone, or not as prominent in the blk and white. I would have to do it in color.

Am so confused. So tired again. Good thing we still have some time. Though, I do have that seminar, the one that was postponed last Sat. I should have a gazillion shots from that, but the emphasis is nature, don't know if I would get any repetitive patterns.

This is Sara's comment in her e-mail:

I like the color one best.
HOWEVER, the color one highlights the contrasts of the clouds as much (if not more sometimes) than the bridge. The black and white take the depths of the clouds away and makes the eye concentrate solely on the bridge.
You can look at the small wires in the background as an example. In the color they are barely noticeable. In the black and white the wires "pop" because they come through so black and so white.
Make sense?
So, for the sake of "what does my eye like?" it is the color because I like the clouds. For the sake of the art and the contest it is the black and white.
Great shots!!!!
love,
Sara


If anyone reads this again, what do you think about what Sara said.

ginger (she is from Charleston, and I think the black and white with the bridge emphasis may be a Charleston thing as we have a very sentimental feeling about these bridges)

Flyinggina

Ginger, I understand what Sara is saying, but I don't react to the color photo the same way she does. To me, the bridge is even more dramatic set against the sky and clouds in the color version. Either way, though, it is a great photo.

DoctorIt

You asked for it...

1. BW vs. Color... I'm neutral on this as this is not what troubles me with this image.

2. What the heck are those X's??? Are those the artifacts I see discussed above? One bigger one near the sun and the other one down below, looks reflected. I just don't get it. It distracts me from the patters in the bridge which is what I'm assuming you are emphasizing.


3. In your color shot, I'll $20 you used the shadow/highlight tool? It has the dreamy fake look. Sorry, not a fan. I get mad at myself for overusing S/H to do this to images.

4. You asked about the print too. Eh, you know where Rutt and I stand on that. Frames? who needs 'em.

5. This is after all a challenge shot, and by rough approx, 80% of the frame is sky. No pattern. Sure, the repetition is in the bridge, but unfortunately that's not even on the top 3 things I notice in this image (see above for those).

Don't take these comments the wrong way though, they are coming in the direction of the challenge. I think the image itself is cool, and would agree that a print of the BW version would be great. I may disagree on the old/new thing as the new bridge is really small and I'd have a hard time figuring it out without the print there (one reason I don't like print, gives it away).

There, how's that?

ginger_55

Thank you, Eric. Yes, I used the shadow hi/light tool. In the last blk and white I toned it way down, I mean I started from the beginning and barely touched one of them. But I did not make a color as I was leaning towards black and white.


Now my question is, If I took off the frame.......didn't use the highlight/shadow, no type..........went back to color.......uh, the color of the sky is weird and not pretty weird, kind of turquoise naturally, so with the sat tool, I nudged it to more blue............. and tossed the filter that makes those lines.............anyway...........would all that do good, or should I scrap it?

I don't understand the part about 80% of the frame being sky. Are the clouds not also pattern? That I don't understand and can't do much about. The rest, well, I will be back, and I will PM you, please look again after I redo.

I do have other bridge shots, but they have less pattern.

Thanks for looking an commenting, Eric,

ginger

DoctorIt

Definitely noticed less S/H tool in the BW version - for that reason I like it better. You don't have that Halo around the non-blown out bridge structure towards the top.

One thing you might try: go extreme! Crop it tighter and up the heck out of the contrast. You'll lose all sub-detail in the bridge and be left with only the patters on top of the sky (which you can cast as you please).

lr1811

color
nice shot!! i like the color the best

imax

Hey Ginger, thanks for the opinions in the earlier thead. As far as this shot I prefer the color one. The thing that bothers me is the wires running across the picture. Perhaps if you cropped them out, I tried it earlier and It was more to my liking, but you are the one that has to like the final result. Try it and see what you think. Hope you feel better.......



Joe

ChrisJ

I really like the color version, I think the blue adds a nice contrast to the grey bridge. I agree that the lines (or whatever they are) detract from the shot as a whole.

As a challenge entry, I'm not so sure. Maybe a tighter crop of the bridge(s) emphasizing the crosspieces? I see the patterns and some repetition, but it's just no cohesive enough to me.

Still a cool shot, though!

Chris

wxwax

I like the first B&W, Ginger. But I don't like the stuff I see on the right of the image. I may be wrong, but I don't think it's flare - it looks more like a dirty lens, revealed by the sunlight.

The second B&W is too wishy-washy for my tastes.

The type's fine, don't worry about that unhappy lady's comments.

ginger_55

I couldn't even tell what junk you were talking about. I thought it was clouds, or I would have tried to clean it up. I suppose it could have come from Bill's windshield, but he is kind of anal about his van as it is a work vehicle.

Anyway, I finally figured out, OH, that is what they are talking about, and on which thread. I finally got too many threads going, just like times in the past.

I am telling you all. I had my first meal at 5:45. I was shooting eggs when I ran out of room on my Cf card. It was not going well.

Maybe it is because I am supposed to be on medication that I am supposed to take in the morning, but I have been on here since I woke up............or shooting eggs. But I can't take it anymore.

That photo, for better or worse, it would be good for a game at a party just to get differences of opinion, but I don't want any more of it, so it is out.

Hopefully I can just forget the whole thing. I cannot do challenges like I did in the past and do the other things I am involved in. Since this challenge started, I have been involved in almost every thread on the Shots forum. Every time I go out to shoot a challenge photo, I find something else. That may be good for me, but I am going to have to buy another hard drive if this keeps up. And I am talking about in addition to the external one I bought a while back.

I want to get a photo that EVERYONE just loves for this challenge. I want to do it right as Imax defined it and spend time on it. As I told someone else today, to do that everywhere on dgrin, I am going to have to hire an assistant.

For now I am through, and for here and ever after the bridge is through on this challenge.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I asked for it and you all were kind enough to give it to me.

I really do appreciate that. But now I need to go take my Xanax and my Wellbutrin and my blood pressure medicine. And the others that are important to like my bones, but it is the Xanax I am really after.

Thanks, I do appreciate it,
ginger