Black and white, or color tree roots

[Tzetsin]

I'm going through my shots from my recent trip to Vancouver. I've got about a dozen shots of interesting tree roots. I took the shots of the tree roots with the intention of making abstract black and whites.

This is my first attempt at the tree roots. I had a black and white mask over the shot, and I was using a paint brush with 6% black to enhance the shadows. I thought it was going pretty good and was pretty happy with the results so far.

I'd turned off the B/W layer mask for some reason and said to myself "oh... hrm..." And now I'm not sure if the enhanced color shot isn't better than the black and white shot.

What do you guys think? Is there something I could/should do to enhance the bw to trump the color one?

I just want to mention that the original shots are in perfect focus, and are much more detailed than these copies seem to look.

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[Mso]

I much prefer the colour version, the roots stand out more in that one..

[ravncat]

The black and white shot has alot of potential left to it I think. As they are now, the BW shot has very flat tones and lots of details. There's nothing grouping those details together, organizing them into a strong composition - especially because they are all in the same overall tonal structure. This makes the overall image pretty flat and a bit hard to "get" right away - but easy to spend lots of time looking about within.

The color image doesn't have this problem as color is the organizing factor, making things clear and adding color contrast which is helping this image I think. The neon green's in the background feel a bit unreal to me and I wonder if there's too much color there - perhaps trying a more muted green palate might make it feel more rustic, more natural, less, radioactive. I also am not sure that I like the balance of color, there's almost a diagonal symmetry of green to grey in the colored image, but it is not there, and I think takes away from the composition of details, tones and natural structures within.

That being said, I like the black and white aesthetic to this shot better and I think there's with some dodging, burning, and adjustments to the tonal structure - it could be a stronger image.

[Tzetsin]

Originally Posted by ravncat

The black and white shot has alot of potential left to it.

Thank you for that.

I'm still learning how to do black and whites, the color image is a result of curves / color hue intended for a black and white image. As you say, it IS pretty "radioactive" lol. I've been working alot with dodge/burn this last little while. I'm still at the learning point where I'm about a subtle with it as a hammer to the head. I'm glad you feel there is more than can be done with the BW image, It proves to me that there is still hope for the image in the intended form, and that it is only my ignorance that is preventing it. Ignorance I can improve. I cant easily reshoot that tree.

I do like the style of the color shot though, and as it stands, I've created 2 more images in a similar fashion. Those images were pretty soft focused though and had no other value than a "painted" surreal look.

[John Hendry]

I like the colour better a bit over worked you need to be carful with dodge and burn if you are not wanting that surreal look. have you tried using layers to brush in tones to different parts of the image a spot color might work bringing in some colour to a B&W image.

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