Choice - B&W or color

[Wicked Dark]

So I shot this the other day and I have been playing with it in Lightroom. I really like both versions for different reasons. I'm curious to hear opinions on them and if you have a preference.

I have left them both uncropped and have made similar edits in sharpness and clarity although not identical edits.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4709844794_5c0d44dd56_b.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1284/4709844806_2a15ef9db5_b.jpg

So...share your thoughts and insight. I'm just stuck looking at both of them and I'm just too close...you know what I mean?

[Marko]

Black and white all the way - VERY lovely image. :highfive:

Personally though, I'm not crazy about the orientation; I think it would be stronger rotated 90 degrees clockwise. In addition the tones here feel rather flat, and they SO have the ability to sing much louder in my opinion; so I suggest some levels play especially on the main plant. :twocents:

Hope that helps - Marko

[Wicked Dark]

I messed with color levels in the B&W image as well as curves. It's tough because the colors aren't isolated to the main subject or the background exclusively. If Lightroom does masks, I haven't discovered them yet.

I'll play with the rotation. I didn't touch that since it would be altering it beyond just the color or lack of it.

[Wicked Dark]

No other ideas?
I've played with the rotation, but it just looks weird to me. Sorry.
Also messed around with shades, curves, white balance and contrast, but nothing else has worked. Problem is that there isn't much of a shade range in the ferns themselves. The light green color is fairly uniform with only a highlight at the edges. I've tried bringing that out in different ways, but nothing really changes.

[Marko]

OK WD - you're the master of the shot, I just throw ideas out :D

For the B/W - just making the leaves lighter (increasing contrast) did a lot for the image in my opinion, but if you tried it and didn't like it - your call. (The burrs look like stars when they are lighter as well)

Even if you keep them as they are, they are very well done.

[Wicked Dark]

I think I must have zoomed every slider I could find. : ) The contrast is high, but maybe could be tweaked higher...I'll come back to it.

[F8&Bthere]

There's some things you could do with the local adjustment brush- to "paint" on localized contrast adjustments or whatever, but fwiw I like the B/W version and agree with Marko that it's pretty darn good as is- I also like the way the lighter burrs look like stars.

[Wicked Dark]

Interpretations are everything. Those burrs are the softest moss.

[QuietOne]

The B&W looks eerie and catches my attention. I also realized, once I'd looked at the color image, that I noticed details in the B&W that I'd missed in the color until I went back and looked at them. It's a bit subtle and I'm not sure what level of detail you're shooting for, but the veins in the leaves might be nice with a tiny boost. But then, I like veining in leaves. FWIW.

[Canthaiwan]

I personally like the B/W!!

[Matt K.]

Monochrome ... works for me. I'd try to get more contrast, make it really 'hard', almost to an abstract. But really, you could frame it as is ... nicely done!

[jlabel]

I liked the Black and white version, it gives me such an alien look to it

[Mad Aussie]

Definitely the BW is better. I'd have gone for selective colouring and blurred the background mess more.