Street scene: color or B&W?

Richard

The color symmetry between the phones and the street sweeper attracted my eye when I grabbed the shot, but I am also happy with the B&W version.





What do you think?

pathfinder

Not only on the right and left, Richard, but small elements of light green connect the two sides as well. I do like it in B&W as well.

Selective color, maybe?





:hide

schmoo

Richard, that's indeed a tough one. I too love the color-coordination there, as well as the man's look to the left. Great timing on that one!

The B/W version draws my eye to the corrugated poster-thing which isn't quite the object of focus, IMO. So I suppose for me, color is the Win. Is there a way to maybe bring down the exposure of the tunnel (bg) a touch to pull attention away from it?

Richard

pathfinder wrote:

Selective color, maybe?

Nah, don't think so.

Richard

schmoo wrote:

The B/W version draws my eye to the corrugated poster-thing which isn't quite the object of focus, IMO. So I suppose for me, color is the Win. Is there a way to maybe bring down the exposure of the tunnel (bg) a touch to pull attention away from it?

Everyone I have showed this to has preferred the color version. The thing that attracts me about the B&W is that the geometry of the scene seems clearer. Can you tell I've watched some interviews with Cartier-Bresson recently? . The corrugated poster thing is actually a wall around a construction area that has a very old photo of the area on it. It's pretty cool, but you're right that it may be attracting more attention than I wanted. Guess I'll have to play around with it a bit more.

kitvan

a tough one indeed- I love the mood and the pattern of the phones (or whatever those are) in the B&W... but I think the blues and greens are interesting and prominent enough to justify sticking with color.

one man's opinion


...also I think the reason why most people (assuming they're americans) are attracted to the color version may be because it has a more documentarian feel, and provides more insight than artistry into what the place feels like... who knows

Richard

Thanks for commenting, kitvan. I also have the feeling that only photographers (and a few other weirdos) really like B&W these days. On my SmugMug site, the B&Ws get far fewer views than the color shots.

crow

Im not a big fan of selective color as others have suggested, I would have to say color all the way here, theres a nice parallel between the worker and the booths

What do you think?[/quote]

Richard

Thanks, Crow.

I reworked it a little bit. How's this?

Awais Yaqub

I prefer the color version ! looks even greater without car

Richard

Awais Yaqub wrote:

I prefer the color version ! looks even greater without car

Thanks, Awais. I like this last version best, too.

Qarik

I have always thought street captures work best in BW..almost with out exception. I am not sure why. It is the same in this case.

Richard

Qarik wrote:

I have always thought street captures work best in BW..almost with out exception. I am not sure why. It is the same in this case.

There's one in every crowd...:bash

Seriously, I still like the B&W a lot. Thanks for commenting.

NeilL

While you were reworking the car drove away! Mistake, I think, should've hung around:D

The only solution is reshoot, Richard! Risk is the street cleaner will either think you are interested, or stalking her and call the police.

I think there is only room for one of the color sets, the foreground one, blues, greens and grays. The background, salmon and beige, one has to gooooo! Along with the incoherent blue on the receding figure which my devious eye wants to spend most time looking at.

The background should be anonymous urban clutter, very background and very anonymous, the car was useful clutter. Do a duotone on it (you already have duotone in the awning and entrance of the building R, and the pavement in front of it), then bring back a suggestion of the other colors.

All of which I suspect will be the furthest from your intention!

Richard

NeilL wrote:

All of which I suspect will be the furthest from your intention!

Actually, the blue band bothered me, too, and I even tried changing it to a green to match the street sweeper's uniform, but it seemed unnecessary and even contrived. As for removing the car, I plan to offer my services to the municipal government...I'm sure I can do it cheaper than their tow trucks.

The bigger problem is, of course, the background colors. I did desaturate them some in the second version. After your comments, I tried pushing it further, but found myself in selective color land, which just looked gimmicky to me. Guess I'll play with it a bit more and see if something clicks.

Thanks for your observations. You always make me work harder than I like, but I guess that's supposed to be a good thing.

NeilL

Had a bit if a quick go at it, Richard. It's an idea.

Richard

NeilL wrote:

Had a bit if a quick go at it, Richard. It's an idea.

Cheers, Neil. That's similar to what I was working on, though I am less enamored of the car than you. I agree that getting rid of the blue on the guy in the background is a good idea. Stay tuned.

Kilo

Richard wrote:

Thanks, Crow.

I reworked it a little bit. How's this?

How did you get that van out of the picture and finish adding the rest of the wall and asphault? When I try to remove something, it either clones somewhere else or it smears and just messes up my pictures.

I do see though that it is lighter now than it was when the van was there. Can that small area alone be darkened to match the original?

As for which we prefer... I like the colored one `cos of the two shades of green on that person matching the two shades of green on the phonebooths; but I like black & white for certain pictures, and this picture has look for black & white, (to me of course). :-)

dlplumer

I actually like Pathfinder's suggestion (selective color)

Richard

Kilo wrote:

How did you get that van out of the picture and finish adding the rest of the wall and asphault? When I try to remove something, it either clones somewhere else or it smears and just messes up my pictures.

A little bit at a time. Try working at high magnification with a smaller brush and use shorter brush strokes. What you are seeing is because the clone source reference point has moved to the area you are in the process of changing, but as far as PS is concerned, it doesn't change till you complete the stroke. I sometimes use the spot healing brush at a small radius to touch up the boundary between strokes. Another solution can be to uncheck the aligned box, depending on the image.

Kilo wrote:

I do see though that it is lighter now than it was when the van was there. Can that small area alone be darkened to match the original?

Actually, in my second color version I brightened that entire area, in addition to desaturating it. It looks like Neil may have darkened it. I don't want the Man In Black to become less prominent, because several lines converge there. Maybe just a tad more desaturation and a tad less lightening?

Richard

dlplumer wrote:

I actually like Pathfinder's suggestion (selective color)

Thanks for the suggestion Dan (and Jim), but I am pretty solidly among the group that hates selective color. I did a quick and dirty version just to see:



My feeling is that it insults the viewer--the subtext is that the viewer needs help to notice the color parallel. That may be putting it a little too strongly, but it just seems heavy handed to me.

Richard

OK, if anyone still cares, here's the final color version:



Thanks to all who commented.

NeilL

Yes, this is fine, certainly much better to my eyes than the original. I wasn't keen on the b&w and I definitely don't like the straight literal sel col.

I still think there's too much of a draw of the eye on the far wall to the bypassing of the main theme, supposing I got it, which creates confusion about the purpose of the photo to no great benefit - is it a playful duet between The Three Tenorphones and Limpieza? Or even a phurious Wagnerian struggle of the phille and the phates? But where's the carus?!?! Or is the third man gonna be gunned any sec da dadaa dada...rofl Will Limpieza at last have the biggest cleanup of her career???!!! In the bin he's dumped, legs sticking up incongruously giving the V for victory???!!!

Do you love surreal, R? I think SOdeal Well you are in the right placedeal The SURREAL in SPAIN stays mainly in the STRE-ET dadada daa aa...rofl

Oh boy! But seriously and rather NOT surreally the graham green of the leaves in the alley L might be a little more REAL, ie less unsaturated and more contrasty.

Maybe the white corrugated ? needs popping FFIIIiiizzzzz!!!!

And there it is! As Franz Josef ended Mozart's audience.

Now, who wants a coffee and chocolate!:D

Richard

NeilL wrote:

Now, who wants a coffee and chocolate!:D

I think maybe you've had enough coffee for now, Neil. :whew

Interesting that you thought of the MIB being gunned down...someone was shot and killed a few months ago just around the corner from where this guy was standing. That hadn't crossed my mind till now, though.

As for the rest, I appreciate your suggestions but I'm just going to let it be. The streets are indeed full of fascinating photo ops if you have the luck to stumble upon them. Rather than tweak this one more, I'm going to look for something new.

Cheers,

NeilL

Richard wrote:

I think maybe you've had enough coffee for now, Neil. :whew

Interesting that you thought of the MIB being gunned down...someone was shot and killed a few months ago just around the corner from where this guy was standing. That hadn't crossed my mind till now, though.

As for the rest, I appreciate your suggestions but I'm just going to let it be. The streets are indeed full of fascinating photo ops if you have the luck to stumble upon them. Rather than tweak this one more, I'm going to look for something new.

Cheers,

Well, Blowup is among my favorite movies, if you want to give it that kind of twist - you randomly snap the murderer at the scene, blow up the shot and spot the weapon in Limpieza's bin, deduce that he and she were working together, she scouting for him, and afterwards spiriting the evidence away in her cart along with the victim's body (it's not the MIB's body afterall) which is lying in a pool of blood (how Limpieza's street cleaner's thumbs are tingling) in the bottom of the end phone cubby... she is just heading for it, see?.... BUT GASP!! The getaway car has fiché le camp, the driver saw the hero Polizie turn into the street!... Great plot! A romance which ends sweetly for Limpieza and her hero Polizie (turns out she is a white slave sold by the Family, which the MIB is of course a member of, and which Polizie takes on in a final cataclysmic street battle)

Happy hunting, R. I look forward to the appearance of "Madrid Safari".

NeilL

What happens to the photographer who started the whole shebangbang, I hear you ask. He marries Estilista who works in the salon at the end of the alley! Nice?!:D

NeilL

The End :buttkiss

Richard

NeilL wrote:

The End :buttkiss

After their first child is born, the photographer notices a gun in an enlargement of one of the baby pics. On closer inspection, the gun turns out to be a dust bunny, easily removed with the Copperhill method. The photographer, Estilista, Polizie and Limpieza all go play tennis doubles without a ball. Antonioni's scream of "merda" echoes from his grave.

NeilL

Richard wrote:

After their first child is born, the photographer notices a gun in an enlargement of one of the baby pics. On closer inspection, the gun turns out to be a dust bunny, easily removed with the Copperhill method. The photographer, Estilista, Polizie and Limpieza all go play tennis doubles without a ball. Antonioni's scream of "merda" echoes from his grave.

A SEQUEL!! roflbarb