B&W vs Color in a Reflection

[utsuri]

I took this shot yesterday morning, towards the end of the morning and my shoot. I'm practicing getting over the limitations of my camera and just saying, "Well, I wouldn't be able to take this since it won't fit in the frame," by using the wonderful option of panorama assist and stitching the pictures together later. I was also studying reflections because the pond was really still, minus the occasional goose floating along.

The light was getting flat already, but still trying, I actually liked these better than any other ones I took regarding this personal assignment. Both are pretty heavily edited, and for the color in the second one, I added a sepia tone. I lean toward the color because of the pink and greens, but toward the b&w because the sky looks more like a backdrop than a bright distraction. And my other half is no help because he says he likes them both, go figure.

So my question is, which do you like better and why? And besides shooting earlier in the morning (which I'll go straight for this one the next time I'm at the park) is there a way to limit the brightness of the sky during the editing process, while not under-exposing the rest of the shot? I'll be glad to hear what you think.





Exif Data
Aperture: F4
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 80
CoolPix L22

[williamawalker]

I like the second one due to the color. I'd sacrifice the sky for the overall image I think. The sky doesn't distract too much for me.

As far as the sky issue when editing. If you shot in RAW you can simply underexpose one the image when you open it and paste it in a layer on top of the regular image and simply delete everything from the underexposed image besides the sky. You can do it if you didn't shoot in RAW, but I find it more convenient that way. It's all about layers and then removing the parts you don't want.

I'm sure you can youtube "fix blown out sky" and get a ton of results. I'd verify, but it's blocked here at work

[utsuri]

Well, I'm glad you're staying busy at work and helping me out at the same time! Thanks for the advice, and I would love to shoot in RAW but my little camera is purely automatic. It is helping me learn some basics while I save up for something better than my point and shoot. Thanks again; I'll have to try that out and see how it works, then maybe youtube it, all after work of course