Which one is your favorite?
I made the image above in Trinidad, Cuba, on my last tour there in April 2013. This house was a pale turquoise, and I really liked the color contrast of it against his warm-toned tanned skin in late afternoon light. (see below image) But often with strong shadows, the scene can also be a great black and white photograph, so I decided to convert this using Silver Efex Pro 2, one of my favorite go-to plug-ins for converting to monochrome. It provides a great selection of presets and the tools I need to convert my color images to rich black and white versions.
Removing the color makes the image feel more classically documentary, timeless in a way. But the color image, while feeling a little more contemporary, has a national-geographic feel to it. I really like both of them. Which do you prefer?
Thanks for visiting,
For this one, I have to go with B&W. Both stand alone and work, however, B&W with this type of situation adds another layer of depth to the image. Well done.
Thanks, John! I appreciate the feedback from you, as well.
The B&W is my preference. The color distracts from the subject, which I interpret to be his face. His face is clearly the center of attention in the B&W, but even his torso skin color detracts from that in the color version.
Thank you Scott – for your input. It’s very interesting to hear how we all ‘see’. I believe the B&W is stronger, overall, if I have to choose myself. The removal of color just makes the image more graphic and it tells the story of the light and shadows more effectively, too! Thanks for weighing in.
Thank you Jerry. I would agree with that Abell/Frank comparison. Great to hear from you.
Wonderful shot(s). I like to think of this as Sam Abell versus Robert Frank. Both are wonderful and your comments I think are spot on. Nice job on BOTH images.
how about a black and white Cuban against a colored stucture? Or visa versa?
Oops I missed this comment as it was nested under my reply to Jerry. Good idea, Marc – I just haven’t had time to explore how I want to ‘treat’ all my images from Cuba, but hopefully in late November/December I’ll have time to really ‘work’ them in different ways.