That medieval feeling...

sarasphotos

Just got back from a trip to Burgundy which is full of picturesque towns and villages stocked with Romanesque and Gothic churches and cathedrals. This is the town of Autun, walking up towards the well-known cathedral.

C&C welcome, naturally.

Richard

Nice shot, Sara. Looks like a lovely place--reminds me of a number of Spanish villages. I'm not too sure about the processing though. There's just a hint of color (tinting?) in a few spots, but the overall effect seems kind of flat. I suspect you could bring out more detail by using normal color or a higher contrast straight black and white with the shadows opened up a bit. Just a suggestion.

sarasphotos

Thanks for the tip, Richard -I'll try a couple of different versions.

sarasphotos

Finally had a chance to do some editing. Here are a couple of different versions:

1) BW, very slightly different crop

2) original color, another slight crop variation

black mamba

I love the scene. I don't get to be in such environments nearly as often as I'd like. I prefer the B&W version over the first post. I might like to see a slightly " lighter " approach to the overall luminance. However, it appears that the day is quite overcast and, due to the building array present, sunlight has a hard time getting to street level. Good shot. My favorite of all, though, is the color shot. It is a little brighter but, more importantly, it accentuates the people present. They're only a small visual presence but the road leads right to them and their role is important here.

Nice work,

Tom

sarasphotos

@black mamba Thanks for commenting, Tom. It's interesting what you say about the people in the scene. I was actually waiting for them to get out of the way but they insisted on lingering... But as you say they add a nice point of visual interest.

Richard

The color one is my favorite.

sarasphotos

@Richard Thanks for the feedback! Just goes to show you that sometimes it's best not to try to be too artistic.

pathfinder

Interesting street scene - I'm with Tom here - I favor the colored version and for the same reason he gave - the people are apparent in the color version and just disappear to my eye in the B&W image.

If it was my image, I would try to select for the sky and lower the blue luminosity to increase the contrast in the sky - I think I see clouds there, but they are so pale in the color image the sky borders on being white. When I read the pixel data in the clouds I see a lot of 255,255,255 - totally fried white clouds without any image detail. I might try to retain some cloud detail if I could. And I still would try to lighten the street brightness as well, if the raw file allows it.

Nice image with even more potential I think

sarasphotos

@pathfinder Thanks so much for taking the time to make such detailed comments! Here is another attempt with hopefully a bit more sky detail and more street lightness. ...or is it just beginning to look overwrought??? Thanks especially for the tip about lowering blue luminosity. That indeed made a difference.

Here's the newest version:

pathfinder

I think each image/iteration in this thread continues to improve.

More importantly, what do you think, Sara?

I like that the red flowers have more impact at both spots on the left side of the street, that's for sure.

I do find dropping the luminosity in the blue hues can really help a sky in LR. This MAY be a sky that needs a trip to PS, though, where the sky can be properly selected and have its own curve steepened, separate from any effect on the street.

I do like this image, and I think the most recent one is the most effective to my eye.

ziggy53

I like the latest color version best, and I agree that the people in the image helps to give the "raison d'être" (reason for being) to the image. Given that the steeples are what I find most architecturally interesting, I suggest a portrait crop and then corner vignette, both darkening and softer focus in the corners, to further accentuate both the people and the steeples.

A 9:16, portrait crop with less sky and the streetlight near center seems best to my eyes. (Yes, that's a major crop.)

Juano

Great rework Sara, I also like the last version the best, I love when this sort of thing happens in the forum.

I think we have lost some of the "raison d'être" of the forum due to the thematic threads that have emerged.

sarasphotos

@ziggy53 and @Juano
Ziggy and Cristobal thank you both so much for your comments. Ziggy, unfortunately I haven't had much time for photo editing this past month so I haven't been able to try out your last suggestion.
Christobal, although I like and participate in the theme threads I really treasure this kind of feedback. There is much to learn from one another!

cosmicreality

I like the color shot better also. People really add to the scene in this one.

[Deleted User]

It's a lovely capture. To me the major problem with the first B&W is the sky. It's rather easy to mark it separately in Lightroom with the Adjustment Brush and then reduce the highlights (in the sky only). Afterwards I normally get a fine result by minor adjustments on blacks, shadows and contrast (on the whole picture).

sarasphotos

@cosmicreality & @Jørgen_Bjerring Thank you both for commenting!

Jørgen: the Lightroom adjustment brush is something I definitely need to spend more time playing with in my upcoming retirement (only 8 more weeks!!!)

[Deleted User]

@sarasphotos said:
...
Jørgen: the Lightroom adjustment brush is something I definitely need to spend more time playing with in my upcoming retirement (only 8 more weeks!!!)

Congratulations. Retirement is great