Prairie Morning:opinions and C&C please

[tbob]

This was taken last weekend. The low angle light on the fields with the dark clouds attracted my eye and I took this to see what I could make of it. The colour version was not quite what I wanted so I decided to go for what attracted me in the first place; the interaction of light and shadow.

Does this work well as a black and white? How about the overall choice of final version? I would be interested to see how others feel and any versions/conversions welcome.

My version



Out of camera (with sensor spots corrected) for people to play with

[bnnrcn]

I prefer the coloured version Trevor . The horizon is curved if my eyes are not wrong.Btw I really like your photos,I think you have nice places to shoot near where you live and we are lucky to view them,thanks for sharing

[tbob]

I prefer the coloured version Trevor . The horizon is curved if my eyes are not wrong.Btw I really like your photos,I think you have nice places to shoot near where you live and we are lucky to view them,thanks for sharing

Your eyes are correct! It is a hill with the crest just off the middle of the ridge.

My environment and I thank you for your admiration! Although by now I am a little soured on the snow.

[flashback]

Trevor,
This is a great example of how B&W conversion can affect an image.
In the color image, it comes off as a bright sunny day with some (temperature) warmth. The B&W version, which shows more detail in the sky/clouds, speaks more of a cold and desolate place.
Between the two, the B&W (IMHO) simply works better; more detail, more emotion. Overall the colored version looks more like a snapshot to me (but then, I am a pretty big fan of B&W.)

[Donald]

Does this work well as a black and white?

Yes ... in my humble opinion.

How about the overall choice of final version? I would be interested to see how others feel and any versions/conversions welcome.

Couldn't resist the challenge, Trevor.

My first thought was that I'd probably go for getting more detail out of the sky. That doesn't mean it's the correct thing, just that it's my thing.

I did that by applying the Detail Extractor filter in the NIK Color Efex Pro 2 package. The same filter had the same effect on the land going off into the distance. With that done, I then opened it up in NIK's Silver Efex Pro (SEP) 2 B & W converter. Did very little there. Darkened up the line of trees on the horizon. Added more contrast on the land. Put in a vignette that, hopefully is subtle and not too obvious, but which does have an impact and, finally, applied the SEP2 copper tone #17

ps - EDIT: Should have added that my starting point was your colour image above, not the B & W.

[IMG][/IMG]

[bnnrcn]

After Donald's edit B&W works for me too.It has got a stormy look and it adds to the composition.Because the colour version is a nice sunny day ,I would keep both versions as different images

[Geoff F]

For me, Trevor, this is one of those scenes where the sky and foreground just don't balance well together. They both seem to be competing for my attention instead of blending together.

As an example of this, try some crops with a different image size ratio.

If you take your B&W conversion and crop quite a bit of sky; you are left with a nice snowscape plus an interesting sky behind it. But the foreground is definitely the main subject.

Alternatively reduce the snow covered field by around half and now the sky becomes dominant. With the snow acting more as an 'introduction' to the main subject, the sky.

These variations between land and sky are less noticeable in the colour option, but for me, there is still some 'conflict' between the two elements.

Donald's edit has the sky as clearly the main subject but now, because of the sky intensity, the foreground becomes less of a distraction even without a crop.

[tbob]

Thanks Donald and Geoff; this is exactly why I love this site. i will do back and rework this and I do agree the sky need to be the main item. Donald's enhancement of the foreground contrast and cloud detail is definitely critical to the image. And Geoff's points on choosing one element are extremely useful