The Guardian

[mugge]

This lady was sitting outside a room exhibiting photography and films and I cannot make up my mind if colour or black and white is best. The boss (the wife) maintain that the colour version is the best. I disagree saying that the black version is the best. C&C welcome. Please let me win

The Guardian by Ole Hansen, on Flickr

The Guardian by Ole Hansen, on Flickr

[Manfred M]

Short answer - neither.

You don't have a particularly compelling composition here, with the column breaking your shot into two separate images. The lady is too small to have a real impact on the image. Try to crop much more tightly and see what that gives you.




The strength of this scene are the complimentary colours. Go B&W and you lose that. To quote Robert Capa "If your image isn't good enough, you're not close enough".

P.S. I agree with your wife. The colour is the stronger image. You just don't get enough separation in the B&W, especially when looking at the person sitting by the door. The pink draws the eye in, the monochrome does not do so nearly as well.

[mugge]

The crop does not work for me at all. I think it is about a lady guarding this small door and all that is inside the door. That is what I wanted to portray.

[Manfred M]

The crop does not work for me at all. I think it is about a lady guarding this small door and all that is inside the door. That is what I wanted to portray.

That is not obvious from the original image. Perhaps more material to the right might have done so as the door has been cut off and is at the edge of the frame, That suggests it is not an important part of your composition.

[billtils]

That is not obvious from the original image. Perhaps more material to the right might have done so as the door has been cut off and is at the edge of the frame, That suggests it is not an important part of your composition.

Ole

In answer to your question, I prefer the colour version - there are lots of nice colours and textures that the mono does capture so well. However, I agree with Manfred on the composition - the central pillar is a distraction and if the intent is to convey "guarding the door" then let's see more of the door please.

[Shadowman]

So much texture and pattern in the composition that the lady becomes an added element, as presented in both versions she is overshadowed by the other elements by their size however she does stand out more in the color version, nice effort.

[Rufus]

Compositionally I have to agree with the earlier posts.

As for B&W or colour I prefer the colour. However, I could change my mind if the B&W could be processed with more blacks to emphasise the texture and the lady.

[DanK]

I have to agree about the composition. What grabs my attention is the bright pillar. There is unnecessary detail on the far left even if you don't want a tight crop, and losing half of the door is a problem.

If your goal is to draw attention to the woman, then I think you will do better with B&W unless you can use the color to draw attention to the woman rather than drawing attention away from her. In Manfred's crop, I think the color helps; the intense color of the brick draws attention to a line that includes the woman. With a wider framing, I think I would go with B&W. However, I would substantially increase contrast (the lack of contrast is at the dark end), and I would burn the column substantially to make it a little less distracting.

[MrB]

My preference is for the cropped image. Colour works well, but so does a more contrasty mono - and that can be achieved by using a red filter in the conversion.

Philip

[Geoff F]

I seem to be somewhere between the previously suggested alternatives.

For the full size image, I prefer the colour version. With a crop, I prefer a black & white option although I would crop to give a slightly larger image than Manfred's version. Possibly retain the pillar to give a sense of scale and purpose to the scene