B&W Conversion...Working?

[plangereis]

I wanted to try a B&W conversion of a photo I took this summer at Joffre Lake. The lake is glacially fed, and the blue-green of the lake water was unreal! Yet, I thought the photo might work in B&W as well, so I played around with it in Lightroom 2. Does the conversion work okay? I love the colour version, so please focus on my B&W conversion when providing comments. Thanks for your help, too! I keep thinking I may have went a little dark on the B&W, but I found this brought out the cloud detail nicely!

original

This shot is being used as 1 of 10 photos representing our club in a provincial photo contest.
B&W

[Lightwriter]

I like the original image.

[nathanbarlow]

colour. fullstop.

If you still want to play withe the BW, get some more contrast and diffrence in shades in the mountain and foreground. Cant see where water ends and foreground land begins - looks like an odd reflection. and the mountains area is almost a silhoette.

[chalkie7]

The colour version is far better IMO...you're losing far too much detail in the bottom half of the picture in the b&w version.

[plangereis]

Originally Posted by chalkie7

The colour version is far better IMO...you're losing far too much detail in the bottom half of the picture in the b&w version.

Originally Posted by nathanbarlow

colour. fullstop.

If you still want to play withe the BW, get some more contrast and diffrence in shades in the mountain and foreground. Cant see where water ends and foreground land begins - looks like an odd reflection. and the mountains area is almost a silhoette.

Originally Posted by Lightwriter

I like the original image.

Thanks for all of your comments. I also like the original better, but I am trying to play around with B&W conversions, hence my thread. I looked at the B&W and it did seem a little dark so I am uploading a new version of the B&W along with the original B&W for comparison. Please let me know what you think of the new version.

original conversion


new conversion

[diputs]

I still do not feel like the new conversion is a great B&W. I am probably being influenced by how much I like the colors in the original.

BTW, I like your quote.

[nathanbarlow]

the new one is better. Still feel the distant water needs a bit of work - seems a bit lifeless.

[PrimeTime]

Hope you don't mind, but i've been playing with B&W myself and your image looked like a good challenge for me. What i did this time is use the color selection tool and made a layer mask of the different zones in the image.(about 8 different masks) Then i adjusted each zone with the curves tool..........a little dodge and burn and....................



What do you think? I also vote for the color version.

[elle s'ennuie]

I really like the colour photo! In the b&w version, the clouds are striking, but the foreground kind of blends into one grey mass... Have you tried it cropped to only the mountains and the sky?