Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi

[synflame]

Looking for some opinion as to whether the black and white conversion works with this shot. The guy in the picture was one of the few people at the mosque the day I visited and he sat down as I was setting up my tripod. Just would't budge but in the end I'm glad he was there. Gives a good sense of scale to the shot.

Hebrides photography,isle of lewis photography, Synflame Photography

[windrider86]

Both are strong images for their own reasons. But, I am leaning more towards the black and white. It has far more impact, imo,

[Kistabill]

Can't really make up my mind here but my immediate reaction was that in the BW shot the sky looks closer up than the mosque. Does that make sense?

[Kistabill]

Oops - sorry Synflame, Im should have said that i did in fact like both shots

[Photologyst]

Both are terrific to me. The man adds interest. People like other people in photos.

The B & W looks as if there is still some colour at the front of the mosque green floor tiles?

I probably would try boosting the blacks on the B & W to give depth and bring out the relief calligraphy as well as the sky.

[boun]

Both are marvelous, but even thought that sky blue color is beautiful I will have to choose the blac and white version, because it is much more dramatic, and I feel, but this is my personal opinion, I'm not an expert acctually I'm soo far, but let me say there is completely no need for a person
Mosque and this great framing are already interesting enough, but I'll repeat this is still just my subjective view

[synflame]

Thanks for the positive comments everyone.

Photologyst, I tried to boost the blacks as much as possible but lost detail in the clouds. Maybe a little more time in photoshop.

[superchud1]

I can't decide because of the sky, the B/W makes the sky look surreal. But in the color the blue really stands out. Like them both

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by synflame

Thanks for the positive comments everyone.

Photologyst, I tried to boost the blacks as much as possible but lost detail in the clouds. Maybe a little more time in photoshop.

You have not completely desaturated the photo. Thus, the colour in the tiles. Although, the selective colouring is interesting in itself. What is lacking, IMHO is depth.

I adjusted and converted the photo into two versions in Lightroom. I wanted to concentrate on the mosque’s reflection, the tile floor and to improve the sky. That included curves and luminance as well as blacks. Recovery improved the blown whites.





Because the original photo is in colour, you will want to adjust individual colours to enhance each in “B & W.” In order to produce fully saturated colors, specify inks in descending order, darkest at the top, lightest at the bottom. This will bring out the relief script on the mosque and its reflection much better than I could do in the low grade copy.

I would even play around a bit more with highlighting the man, perhaps his turban.

My preference is for the sepia toned photo. Although, with a 100K jpg copy it’s not the greatest. You will be able to do much better with your RAW original.

This is a superb photo and no doubt will become one of your signature pieces.

This tutorial might be helpful: Duotone

Or just google “duotones+photoshop.”

[boun]

sepia is my choice !!