Jasper Park: trying to decide on version

[Mike Buckley]

Trevor,

The next time you add a control point on a curve that doesn't produce desirable results, try dragging that control point to the edge of the frame. Doing so might remove that one control point, leaving the rest of the curve as you wanted it. That's how the control points work on my primary software.

[Kyle]

I prefer the colour image but only slightly. Both are great!

[tbob]

I would start with the original color and work to bring out more depth in the various crevices to give more of a 3D effect...it might require working at the pixel level. Once your satisfied, then convert, which may require different conversions to different parts of the image.

Could you give a bit more detail on how this is done? I am not sure if Aperture has this capability but it may be a technique I can store in my brain if I ever go back to a program capable of more fine tuning.

[bnnrcn]

Now,it certainly looks much better Trevor,brown area at the bottom makes sense and I prefer the coloured version.For B&W, I find dark area at the bottom too much,so a little cropping might help,just an opinion...

Just after I typed the above reply to Tony and it suddenly hit me. I could use the dodge tool to subtly lighten the trees and not affect the mountain. I did this then slightly increased the midtone contrast and this is much closer to my intent.

[Downrigger]

Nice, and nicely improved.
I prefer color and I think this is why:
There are some nice gradations and textures (for instance in the main, sunlit face) that are richer when subtle gradings of hue are added to gradations in luminosity. Part of what makes this so nice is the warmness of the light, and the interplay of the hues in that with the textured luminosity of that big face; that is what really seems to drive the appeal of this, for me.