Which one do you like best?

Is one better than the other or are they both good/bad? Are they worth adding to my portfolio? Any critiques welcome. Thank you.

I much prefer the second one – but then i like colour!

I think the top one looks flat and lifeless, but i do like the bottom one. I’m not sure about that crop though. Is that the finished article?

Also, i think i might like it better if the camera angle was tilted down a little (i.e., less sky and more boards). That’s just a guess, though – it’s hard to say for sure looking at it in this size and with rest of the clutter around the page.

I think the image’s definitely got something – although i’m not quite sure you’ve brought it out as well as you could. I’d like to see a larger version!

I’m tempted to say the top one as the subject matter seems to be about shape and form, and B+W tends to be good at conveying that. However, as Will pointed out it seems to be a bit flat. May I ask how you converted it to B+W – some ways work better than others. Also I would have perhaps shoot from a lower angle, to capture the texture in the boards.

But, then again I’m just an armchair critic, I haven’t actually shot in a while so my opinion probably isn’t worth that much.

Strangly I think the contrast is better in the colour one, it should be better in the mono one really??

can you show the first one with a screen overlay on it, this would give a little more depth to the image,

I like the second one…..and yes it’s worth putting in your folio

Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments. I’d love to be able to retake the shot but I live about 10 hours drive away :(

I’ve had to play around with the contrast, brightness etc of the photo as it was taken on a pretty bleak, overcast day- hence why the b&w version is flat (plus I’m not too good at digital manipulation yet).

Here is a larger version of the colour version. Any further suggestions on cropping would be appreciated as well.

I like the black and white version much better. It has more of an emotional impact, and is all about the form and curves. Although it does need more “puch” (should be pretty easy to do in PS/lightroom with a bit of curves and contrast, and maybe some dodging and burning)

I downloaded your larger thumbnail and did this quickly in PS

• better crop
  adjusted levels
  adjusted shadows and highlights
  adjusted contrast
  used selective color adjustment to bring the colors to life
  *added a pinch of saturation
  Enjoy
  I think that in image like this you need also something that is used as a main focal point. A person, bird, object, etc that is part of the scene or enhances it. You can still go further cropping concentrating on shapes and elements here..

And here is a better version yet

yep Eyal…the second one is better…the crooked skyline was offputting

Just be careful with adding too much saturation as the photo can look unrealistic.

Unfortunately the b&w version lacks contrast , you loose the difference between the boards and the edging. You may want to play around with your b&w conversion a little to improve this. In photoshop go into “Brightness and saturation” and desaturated the image using the “master” channel, then go into individual colour channels and play with the brightness, like make red and blue darker and see if it makes things better.

i had a play with this one, i used the black and white converter, up the conrast and colourized it a little with hue and saturation, im quite new to all this, but i did think it didnt look so flat when i finished. its a nice photo to work with! :o)
xx
ps i havent worked out how to post a pic yet.

thanks everyone for your suggestions. when i get some time i’ll play around some more and see if i can come up with something better than the originals posted.