Boiler Attendant on the Waimarie- which version - Colour or B&W?

[Jim A]

[pschlute]

b+w for me works best.

[Shadowman]

Color version for me, really exposes the heat.

[mugge]

Colour for me.
Cheers Ole

[DanK]

to answer the question, I would want to know how much attention you want drawn to the face. Both versions have a lot competing with the face: the boiler back makes up much of the photo, and it is better illuminated and higher contrast than the person. As it stands, with the processing as it is, this problem is more severe in the B&W--the face is dark and low-contrast and fades into the background. In the color version, the colors help lessen this because they make the person stand out a bit more.

In either case, I would do some additional editing to focus more attention on the face. I'd start with simple dodging and burning and go from there to see what can be done. This image is too low-res for me to try it myself.

[Manfred M]

+1 to Dan's comments because his comments are quite similar to what I thought when I first looked at the images.

If you are trying to create an environmental portrait of the boiler operator, you are going to have to spend some time dodging and burning the image to bring out the operator and tone down both the background and the front of the boiler.

When it comes to B&W or colour, those are personal preferences and I find that some people tend to one medium and others go the other way. It's your image and you have to decide if the simplification of removing all the colours adds or detracts from the story you are trying to tell here. The B&W version seems to lose the fact that the boiler is operating as the glow from the feed opening is more subdued.