Unsure on which is better version....

[allenlennon]

Hi all, I am glad i initally dont chuck away all the photos. As i put all the photos into their dated folders. And i was bored and went browsing through them. And came up with this image i have toatally forgotten about. I cropped it and gave it my usual 50% sharpen. And i came up with a coloured version and a B7W version, unsure of which one i like better. What do you lovely people think??

It was dated to September 2011, i was in Kiama on the coast of Australia. It was a great holiday!

B&W


IMG_0863-2 by AllenLennon, on Flickr

Colour


beach-1 by AllenLennon, on Flickr

[jiro]

Both are good, Allen. If you will do some selective dodging and burning, your image will have a stronger message to deliver.

[ktuli]

B&W for me. The lack of color in the sky and water is what makes the color version less appealing to me. The B&W version eliminates that problem and makes the water and sky equal with the land and "stream".

- Bill

[Polar01]

Allen: I like both images, however the B&W a little more, I am with Jiro. I would like to see the area of the last piece of land before the ocean lighten just a touch, and then on both the top of the image darken again just a touch in the clouds. This would help to balance the image and with that stream it would lead my eye through the picture.

Cheers:

Allan

[gilliebg]

Hi Allen; this is the sort of shot I love taking, and I prefer the colour version. I would just lift the contrast a bit with the highlights and shadows filter if you have PS and then use the dodge tool to bring out some detail in the rocks. I like the moody overcast sky and upping the contrast makes it part of the story, for me. Gillie

[RustBeltRaw]

Mood-wise, I prefer the color image. If you stick with that, I'd suggest increasing the exposure and increasing the black clipping point a little. A touch of saturation and sharpening may also help polish the shot. For the black and white, try using a slider-based black-and-white conversion tool instead of straight grayscale. That'll let you independently control the relative darkness of the beach and the sky so you don't lose any detail in the rocks.

[AB26]

Hi Allan, my choice would be the colour. Unfortunately you were in the right place at the wrong time. No matter what we do, whenever it is overcast like that and the light is so dark and cold, any picture taken under those conditions will be flat. Those are the pictures we keep to remind us to go back to the same place at the right time.
If we can't go back, we simply keep them as a reminder of a wonderful place we have seen.
If only there was a little sun coming trough the clouds. We can't get them all Alan, not always in any case.

[MFCA]

Hi Allen, I'm more fond to the BW version but as Willie refereed a dodge and and burning would pop up the photo, I took the liberty of downloading the BW photo and give a small tweak to it if you don't mind.


Original


Edited


Note: I do not try to offend you in any manner by changing your photo but I seek to help you in improving it. Cheers

[Polar01]

Allen: I am afraid that I too also did a little work on your image please forgive. Reading the posts' I took exception to post #7 stating "No matter what we do", as if there is no image of any worth or worth taking, I disagree. Knowing the sky this is what I would have done to get the best image I could under difficult conditions, as the sun don't always shine where you wnat it.
What I did was open in raw, adjusted white to move the histogram more to the right than the left, then backed off the blacks to move it also alway from the left as it was clipping. A little contrast, clarity up to +8, then used nik to more or less dodge and burn the sky only (never get these two dodge and burn straight in my head so I use Nik software). I than did something, I do not know why but I inverted it and I like what I saw, so I also learned something today, so it was a good day.
For myself this is the direction I would have taken if I was presented with this scenario

Cheers:

Allan



There is a lot of noise but with the orginal file this most likely would not appear.

[allenlennon]

Thank you all for your wonderful feedback. MFCA, Polar01 and to everyone else, i dont mind you downloading my images, and if you like the oringinal RAW file im more than happy to give. In fact ill change my signiture to state i give permision for anyone to use my images to help me and others. And MFCA i do like your edition of it. Polar01 I do like yours aswell.

This is why i love CiC. Its a great community!