Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/08

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Subject: [Leica] Color(u)r or B&W?
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Sun Aug 8 16:10:04 2004

Nathan:  I'm smack in the middle on this one.  I like Steve's suggested 
cropping, but I like the picture best in color.   I think it has to do with 
the fact that the photo was taken in the shade.  The colors make it more 
cheerful, because we don't have any of the "snap" that brighter lighting 
would provide.  It's possible that with different color filtering, that 
could be mitigated.  But I like the way the yellow lion contrasts with the 
blue shirt and the bluish poster.

Another reason is that with the color picture, I first see the lion, then 
the boy, then the girl in the bikini.  With the B&W, I see the boy, then 
the girl, then the lion.  Somehow, seeing the lion first makes it 
funnier--I see two things associated with childhood, then the "punch line" 
of the girl.  Comedy often works by threes.

Finally, the B&W has an odd texture that says to me "digital converted to 
B&W."  Look at the boy's hair.  I don't know if you shot RAW or JPEG, but 
I'd be inclined to guess JPEG.  The texture might have been a bit smoother 
if you'd had more bits to work with in the conversion.

Speaking of texture, the 10D photos have a very different "look" to them 
than your film shots.  Not better or worse, just different.   I can tell 
they're digital without being told.  Then again, they still look like 
Nathan pictures, so it doesn't seem that using the digital is cramping or 
changing your style.

--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA

At 02:11 AM 8/8/04 -0500, you wrote:
>From: Nathan Wajsman <nathan.wajsman@planet.nl>
>Subject:
>
>I have been having an offline dialogue with Steve Barbour about one of
>the images I posted among my PAWs last week:
>http://www.nathanfoto.com/paw/2004/2004_31alt2.jpg
>
>Steve suggested that this image would be better in B&W and took the
>trouble of doing it with the JPEG I posted. I have now done a proper
>converstion on the original Photoshop file, and the result is:
>http://www.leica-gallery.net/wajsman/image-71391.html
>
>Personally, I still prefer the color version; I think the lion on the
>bicycle cart and the mannequin in the shop window work best in color.
>Steve prefers the B&W image, also cropped as he suggested. What do y'all
>think?



Replies: Reply from s.jessurun95 at chello.nl (animal) ([Leica] gay pride amsterdam 2004)
Reply from nathan.wajsman at planet.nl (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Color(u)r or B&W?)