Colour and Monochrome

[Manfred M]

I don't know how Trevor works but I shoot in B&W so that I can see the details of the shot. When I get back to my digital dark room I look and decide which way to go.

I make my decision on B&W or colour before I look through the viewfinder. I compose the shot differently, depending on the genre. With Trevor's shots, I like the way that the colour one is composed, but I would have done a tighter crop on the B&W because of the reduced influence of the foreground and background.

This does not apply to the B&W, so I would have come in closer to the house and tree and reduced the amount of snow and perhaps the sky in the shot. Trevor is a touch closer in the B&W already, so he is moving in the same direction I would have.

[tbob]

If I'm trying to analyze my own image's effectiveness, especially if it carries through in black and white, I want to know if other sections give the viewer a sense of place or time, if I look at Trevor's skies I get nothing; if I look solely at the snow I get a sense of a light source (the cast shadows), without those shadows there's no sense of time in the image except I know its not night time.

Still am not getting this criterion for assessment.

In this image, except for the fact it is winter (so Mid October to mid April for me) and not night, it pretty much defies any sense of time. Plus the quadrants, for the most part, are devoid of anything and are flat out boring.

[tbob]

I make my decision on B&W or colour before I look through the viewfinder. I compose the shot differently, depending on the genre. With Trevor's shots, I like the way that the colour one is composed, but I would have done a tighter crop on the B&W because of the reduced influence of the foreground and background.

This does not apply to the B&W, so I would have come in closer to the house and tree and reduced the amount of snow and perhaps the sky in the shot. Trevor is a touch closer in the B&W already, so he is moving in the same direction I would have.

Not the same shot, I shot this to fill the frame with the two main elements. However may be closer to your point and intent?

[Shadowman]

Still am not getting this criterion for assessment.

In this image, except for the fact it is winter (so Mid October to mid April for me) and not night, it pretty much defies any sense of time. Plus the quadrants, for the most part, are devoid of anything and are flat out boring.

Trevor,

The criterion of dividing the composition is a visual exercise, I wouldn't physically divide the image just in my mind as a way of assessing the effectiveness of the image. The same criterion can be used by the photographer when composing within the viewfinder, analyze the scene and see if the elements so easily seen in color translate in black and white.

[tbob]

To paraphrase to indicate if I understand; assess how the elements relate to each other and if they are carrying crucial information needed for the image.

[Shadowman]

To paraphrase to indicate if I understand; assess how the elements relate to each other and if they are carrying crucial information needed for the image.

Yes.

[Manfred M]

Not the same shot, I shot this to fill the frame with the two main elements. However may be closer to your point and intent?

That is one approach, but I would not have cropped quite as hard as the subject is looking a touch too crowded in the frame.

[zen]

Trevor,

Notwithstanding the interesting discussion going on here, the two versions each give me decidedly different impressions, and I like both. Both, either one, might be framed and displayed.

For example, the color version seems to be a cold but promising sunny morning; sharp and crisp, and a place where one would see his breath and feel "alive." On the other hand, the monotone looks cold and bleak and wind-swept; a place where I would want to do only the work that is absolutely necessary, but then beat it back inside. The wind-blown snow ridges in the foreground of the monotone version, which are almost lost in the color version, just make me shiver.

In other words, not one or the other, but both.

Thanks for sharing.

Zen