Colour or B&W?

[lerabu]

Which one do you prefer? I prefer the B&W because of the time of the day this was shot, the light is really harsh. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions! Any other critique is very welcome!

[statichash]

I prefer the B&W too, primarily because of two things.

1. The sun as you mentioned
2. That red car to the left, it's a bit distracting in a sense that it pulls my eye to want to look at it, instead of the subject on the bench.

[lerabu]

Thanks!

It's true about the car. I hadn't considered it. It must be that when you really get into a picture you stop noticing some things that really pop up to someone for whom it is a first view.

[Harpo63]

Gotta agree... B&W works for this pic. Not only the red car, but the texture on the bench seems to come out better as well the contrasts in the building in the background.

However, the building in color is also nice, but overall, B&W for this particular shot

[supersleeves]

I also prefer the black and white picture. I find that with harsher lighting, black and whites tend to look a lot more stunning.

And agreed about the red car, although I have to admit that I didn't notice it until I was reading down the posts

[lerabu]

That's true about the lighting! Now that I think of my B&W conversions it was often because of the harsh light. You could say harsh light adds to B&W conversion because id adds more contrast possibilities.

I didn't notice the red car either before reading posts, even though it's my photo lol :P Attention to detail!

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by lerabu

Any other critique is very welcome!

Originally Posted by lerabu

I didn't notice the red car either before reading posts, even though it's my photo lol :P Attention to detail!

That's right! Attention to details. Some suggestions beside lighting:

- Learn to use your 50 f/1.8 shallow DOF to isolate the subject from the background.
- Crop to enhance composition.
- The building horizontal lines aren't level.

Sample photo for illustration purpose only: