Color or monochrome?

[LenG]

I've been sitting here looking at these two versions of the same image for about an hour now. I stepped away after about 30 minutes to give my eyes a rest and come back to it relatively fresh to see which I would find more appealing. (Yeah...like that worked...I kept thinking about it and my time afk lasted about a minute )

Anyhoo...I'm trying to choose between color, or monochrome in these two images.

They are cropped from a much larger image. I did some noise reduction, and a bit of smart sharpening and slight curve modifications.

With the monochrome image, I applied a high contrast red filter.





I will let you be the judge. Any C&C will be welcome.

Canon Rebel XTi; EF75-300mm @ 85.0mm; ISO 800; f8.0; 1/60s

[Donald]

Len

What was the finished picture that you saw in your mind the moment before you pressed the shutter?

[LenG]

That's a good question.

*thinks a moment*

The cropped image is what I saw in my mind's eye before I pressed the shutter, but as I was in CS5 with it, I decided to try it in monochrome "just to see" what it would look like. Thus my dilemma...they both have their appealing attributes. The monocrhome has better detail (in my eyes) yet the color shows the red berries embedded in the ice.

(By the way, this was taken at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, Canada.)

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Len,

I prefer the colour for the red berries.

Not that I do B&W often, but I was a little puzzled by the choice of a red filter, as that'll turn the berries white and they'll become invisible within the ice, whereas a minus red (cyan) filter would have turned them black and rendered them far more visible.

Just a thought,

[Steaphany]

I agree with Dave and prefer the color since, apart from the subtle hues, the red berries are the only significantly colored objects in the scene.

[didymus]

I agree with Dave about the berries, but I prefer the monochrome version.

But... because I know the berries are there, can you bring just the berries out in the monochrome version?

[Skitalez]

In a black-and-white version, it as X-rays of a Backbone of a fish

I prefer the colour

[LenG]

Dave: I chose the red filter because it gave a better contrast in the monochrome version, but now that you mention the fact that the berries are "gone" it makes sense to not use it. However, the berries disappear anyway. It's hard to say if anyone would know they are even there in the B&W version.

Steaphany: Absolutely. They are the only thing, really, that give the image a splash of color even though it is miniscule.

Gary: I will try to bring them out some by using Dave's suggestion of a cyan filter.

Yegor: Thank you for your input as well.

To all: I really appreciate your input Thank you very much.