Colour v B&W

dave.turley

Hi,
I rarely post in the forum here unless I've messed up my site playing with CSS etc.
Here are a couple of shots from a trip to Manchester city centre, and I was wondering what your thoughts are regarding colour for these types of photographs or black & white. There's an obvious feeling engendered by B&W that is timeless and evocative, but does colour street photography have the same effect on the viewer. I've never really ventured into 'street' photography in any great way and advice would be appreciated, as would thoughts about when a photograph stops being just a picture of people in a street environment and becomes something of merit. Please take the time if you can, to view the 2 Manchester galleries on my site and suggest if you want, whether colour or B&W work best. Or whether I can mix and match where I please.
Thanks for your time
1. History Teacher Colour



1 History Teacher B&W



2. Street guy Colour



2 Street Guy B&W



Manchester B&W
http://www.dave-turleyphotography.com/Other/Manchester-Black/18324855_45wTQd#1410973737_PG9CZWx

Manchester Colour

http://www.dave-turleyphotography.com/Other/Manchester/18324127_bKcCSR#1410916690_V9DLv2c

That post will probably do me for the rest of the year. Thanks for your time.
DAVE

bdcolen

Black and white. Both. Definitely. There are some images that are color images, and some in which the color is a distraction. To my eye, both of these fall into the latter category, with the color dominating and detracting from the overall image. But that's just my opinion.

bfjr

#1 B&W with deeper Blacks

#2 either way, I like the color version on 1st glance.

Richard

I agree with BD on #1. As it stands, #2 is a bit of a tossup for me. The red shoes and tattoo don't come across at all in B&W, but the street and wall textures are better. I think if you reworked the color shot a bit, it could be better than the B&W. You just need to combine the two versions in PS, using the B&W in luminosity mode on top of the color.

rainbow

bdcolen wrote: »

Black and white. Both. Definitely. There are some images that are color images, and some in which the color is a distraction. To my eye, both of these fall into the latter category, with the color dominating and detracting from the overall image. But that's just my opinion.

In street, it seems as if the default is B&W and that you should have a specific reason for going color.

In your first shot, my eyes and attention first go to the subject's eyes and face, then to the reflected couple, and finally to his hands and recorder. In the color version, it starts with his face, but then jumps to the window behind his head, and next to the chair due to the attention grabbing of the red. The red newstand (?) in the upper right corner also commands my attention.

In the second, the color shot starts with the guy, goes to his shoes, then to your watermark. In the B&W, I look at his expression, and body language, then go to your watermark.

So one more consideration: the watermark becomes an integral part of your image as the printed word will always command a disproportionate piece of attention. Consider whether you are fearing that someone will really want this image for their own use. This likely applies to very few shots that you might post here.

Nmahooch

1st one Color- the red suitcase and the red in the background work well together to give balance to the image.

2nd BnW- I like the contrast. Maybe some Desaturation with just a little color would looks nice. I'm just not a fan of the heavy saturation