Homage in Colour and Mono

[GBO25]

Taken in the main square in Assisi, Italy

[IzzieK]

Graham...both of these are very good shots. It even has enough data in the image to convert it to a very nice B/W...I am not an expert in B/W so take my comment with a grain of salt there. I like the coloured one better because I can relate to it anytime. Anyway, excellent shot! The textures and the expression speaks a lot about your shot, about your handling this kind of shot. Did you have to pay this model of yours? This is the kind that shouts "How were you able to get this shot?"

Oh btw, there is no EXIF...

[John 2]

That's a great capture Graham. Beautifully sharp. My only crit is that the area directly between his staff and his face is a bit bright and the OOF lamp pulls a bit. A keeper for sure though. As to mono or colour, probably the mono version - no the colour version - although maybe the mono version............

[GBO25]

Graham...both of these are very good shots. Did you have to pay this model of yours? This is the kind that shouts "How were you able to get this shot?"

Oh btw, there is no EXIF...

Thanks Izzie and no payment required. This was a Franciscan monk at the home town of St Francis of Assisi and he was kneeling in the square and talking to some other tourists. I just got down on my knees and got the shot.

Don't know why there's no exif but it was 1/160, f5, ISO 100 at 50mm on a 15-85mm lens. The camera was an EOS 600D (Rebel T3i).

My only crit is that the area directly between his staff and his face is a bit bright and the OOF lamp pulls a bit. .

Thanks John. I agree the background is a bit bright and I do have a version somewhere where I've cloned out that lamp. Should have posted that one -sigh.

[Kris V]

This shot was made for B/W! (IMHO at least).
I love it!

[JamesScott86]

Excellent capture - well taken.

[Manfred M]

In my view there has to be a really compelling reason to throw away all that data that your camera has recorded to show an 8-bit B&W (256 possible shades) versus a colour image (16.8 million possible tones). There are certainly good compositional reasons to do that under some circumstances, but I certainly don't see that in this image, Graham.

The colour version is already quite monochrome looking and has a very limited tonal range. In my view, the colour version is vastly superior to the B&W one. To paraphrase Einstein (out of context, of course); "things should be as simple as possible, but not simpler"...

I started out as a B&W photographer and did nothing else for the first year or so after I started, before moving to colour, so I do like a really good B&W image.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Graham I agree with Manfred that the color image is already nearly monotone looking and I prefer it to B&W version.

[TrishBJ]

Hi Graham, I agree with the crowd. I'm a fan of B&W, but in this case, the colour image makes the subject stand out wonderfully from the relatively monochrome background. It's quite superb. B&W is great for some shots, but in this case the colour version is better.
Cheers, Trish

[GBO25]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree that the colour is the best. I actually only converted it to B&W just before I uploaded it to see what others thought because I've entered this shot in a few competitions and have never done any good even with the version that doesn't have the lamp in the background.

Perhaps I should try editing out the other dark spots to the left of his staff.