Frio River - C&C

redleash

Here are a couple more shots of the Frio River in the TX Hill Country. C&C appreciated.

#1 was processed in LAB; #2 is the BW version. I am not sure if this image works or not so I would appreciate your comments. I like the curve of the river and the clouds but I wonder if the river gets lost too much in the trees. This may be one of those shots that I wanted to work but didn't quite make it. Your thoughts?

Thanks, Lauren

#1. Color


#2 BW version

Crokey

I think it's a much stronger composition in BnW, the color doesn't do anything for me really, there's a bit too much blue in the underside of the clouds for reality. And in the color version, with the exception of the sky there really is only one color:green! So, it's practically monochromatic anyway. By the way, there seems to be a bit of sensor dust in the top right that you could get rid of pretty easily in lightroom.

redleash

Thanks, Colin. That spot is on the lens and I can't seem to get rid of it. It is easy to remove in post but is very annoying! I agree with you about the BW being the better choice. I like the colors of the river in the colored version but I don't think they are enough to overcome all the green.

Crokey

redleash wrote: »

Thanks, Colin. That spot is on the lens and I can't seem to get rid of it. It is easy to remove in post but is very annoying! I agree with you about the BW being the better choice. I like the colors of the river in the colored version but I don't think they are enough to overcome all the green.

Yeah, an overly green photo some how looks sickly...not sure why. I remember reading that although our eyes are most sensitive to green-yellows our brain normalizes the vast array of perceived greens when they are in close contact, so we aren't great at discerning slightly varying shades of green when they are next to each other the end result being that overly green scenes look flat!

redleash

Interesting info. Thanks for the color lesson, Colin. It's helpful.

black mamba

Interesting shot, Lauren, because I see the river as being green on the right side of the image and muddy-brown on the left side. Something has apparently disturbed the water flow.

For my money, I'll go with the color version. There may be some faults with the colors ( in the sky, primarily ) but I find the B&W version lacking in defining the various elements.

I don't agree with Colin on one point. He feels the composition is stronger in the B&W version. I believe that the composition is exactly the same in both shots. There are obviously differences between the two versions, but the composition of the elements is constant.

I could sure stand a dose of the Hill Country right about now.

Tom

Crokey

black mamba wrote: »

Interesting shot, Lauren, because I see the river as being green on the right side of the image and muddy-brown on the left side. Something has apparently disturbed the water flow.

For my money, I'll go with the color version. There may be some faults with the colors ( in the sky, primarily ) but I find the B&W version lacking in defining the various elements.

I don't agree with Colin on one point. He feels the composition is stronger in the B&W version. I believe that the composition is exactly the same in both shots. There are obviously differences between the two versions, but the composition of the elements is constant.

I could sure stand a dose of the Hill Country right about now.

Tom

Tom's right on the composition point, I think composition is defined as the placement and arrangement of elements in a scene, or something to that effect. But of course, if you were to do a duo tone version with florescent pink instead of BnW I think the composition would "Feel" very different! In the colour version, could you tone down the blue in the clouds a bit? I think it would be less distracting and make the sky less distracting.

redleash

I will work on the sky. I wasn't too happy with it in the first place but was more interested in what the composition looked like. I will go back and redo the color version and repost. Thanks.

Lauren

hawkeye978

I like the B&W best Lauren. I think #1 suffers from some oversaturation, possibly due to pulling the curves in LAB processing. I'm assuming you are steepening the A and B curves to increase the contrast. If I remember properly, if you don't keep both symmetric about the center point of the curve then you will get some color shifts. It's also possible to adjust color the same way, to get rid of a cast.

With the B&W I think perhaps you could add additional contrast. You can put some more drama in the sky by decreasing the luminosity of the blues in the sky, that would darken those parts compared to the clouds. And the green in the center of the bend don't give you much contrast so perhaps some selective drop in the luminosity of some specific colors may help to put in some contrast there also.

redleash

I know the laptop is not best for PP but sometimes I have to do that. Here is a re-processed color version. Also 2 new BW versions--pls let me know which one you prefer. Both BWs were done in PS using Silver Efex Pro.

Thanks,
Lauren

3. New color version (blended sky and ground, then used LAB color)


4. BW version of #3


5. BW version with darker foreground


hawkeye - I did use the curves adjustment in LAB and pulled both A and B curves to same point on either side. For the reprocessed version, I did the same thing but did not pull the curves as far inward; still were all the same amount. I've had good luck with LAB color in several images but I think I've decided that it isn't always necessary or the best choice.

Thanks, all!