Critique sought - Shadows.....

[patmoore]

One of the joys of digital photography is digging through the archives and finding long forgotten images. Recently I revisited shots from a 2004 trip to the Big Island of Hawaii and found this image. I've played around with it on Photoshop and come up with a few variations. You folks are far more experienced at photography than I and it would be helpful to hear your constructive criticism. Note: I didn't want to clog up my Member Gallery so I'm having tinypic.com host these shots.

Here's the original.



And in Black and White



The original again, this time with the keystoning removed.



And lastly, converting just a portion of the photo to Black and White.

[John Perriment]

Re: Critique sought - Shadows.....

Firstly, I don't like the mixed colour/B&W version. Often this technique works, but here the two mediums seem to conflict rather than compliment.

The image is definitely improved by the straightened verticals, but which is best - colour or B&W? A tough choice, because they both work. In the B&W I do find the waterfall feature in the backgound a little distracting, whereas in colour it's a bit more obvious what it is. I think on balance I prefer the B&W, but with the blacks in the shadows increased along with the overall contrast. The main part of the image is all about light and shade, which is perfect for B&W.

[Ian]

Re: Critique sought - Shadows.....

I think for me the problem with this composition is that the background and foreground are fighting each other for attention. The desaturating of the foreground helps but the balance is still not in favour of the background enough. It's a very busy image - perhaps too busy in the end. But I can see why you wanted to photograph this scene - it must have been a great place to be on the day

Ian

[Mihir]

Re: Critique sought - Shadows.....

I agree with Ian. The keystone corrected black and white version would have looked so much more impactful had that background not been there. There is a serious clash of the foreground and background. You may want to try another version using the adjustment brush in LR, with reduced clarity and sharpness and try and blur that background out, while reducing exposure too in that area. Although, I am not quite sure if that would still bring out the same impact as what your mind probably saw in just the shadow pattern in the foreground.

[patmoore]

Re: Critique sought - Shadows.....

I greatly appreciate the input. I agree that the mixed color/b&w doesn't work. I don't have Lightroom but used an old version (4.0) of Photoshop Elements to blur the background a bit.



There are two distinct areas that draw the eye in this photo and they may compete too much to make it a good shot..