Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong

[shadowblade]

Sunrise over Po Toi O and Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong, from the High Junk Peak trail.

Multiple stitched images taken with the Sony A7r and Sigma 35/1.4 Art.

Too blue, too red, or just right? Photoshop, Chrome, Firefox and my phone browser all look different, the monitor's colour-calibrated and at least Photoshop and Firefox are supposed to be colour-aware. It probably looks best on the phone... (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge)

EDIT: added processed version

[Jeremy Roussak]

Looks pretty damn good to me.

Jeremy

[Paulo Bizarro]

Good photo, but to my eyes it looks too garish and crunchy.

[shadowblade]

Not sure how to change it. Just turning down the saturation makes the scene look washed-out and wrong.

I don't think I can trust the colours on my monitor at all. It's calibrated, but Photoshop, Chrome and Firefox all look different, and all look wrong (heavily undersaturated and lacking contrast in Photoshop, far too red in Firefox, both in Chrome). It looks good on the phone, but that's not colour-calibrated, and looks good on non-wide-gamut monitors, but nothing really looks right on my colour-calibrated, wide-gamut laptop display.

[praja343]

On my calibrated monitor looking at it on a Chrome browser, the land promontories have a decided cyan cast. Maybe the greens in the shadow are supposed to have that? I like the composition but the colors look off.

[Cornfield]

A possible nice short ruined by processing.  Less is more in this game.

[shadowblade]

On my calibrated monitor looking at it on a Chrome browser, the land promontories have a decided cyan cast. Maybe the greens in the shadow are supposed to have that? I like the composition but the colors look off.

How does it look now? (in the original post)

The foreground vegetation looks yellow on my monitor, so I'm guessing it's less cyan now. Up the back, I think the bluish tint is partly due to atmospheric haze.

A possible nice short ruined by processing.  Less is more in this game.

Always blame 'processing' when you can't specify what exactly is wrong (I can't either - can't trust the colours or contrast of any of my displays). All I did was stitch and white-balance (using a white building) the image (single exposure, not blended or HDR), then apply a standard curve.

Not sure what it is, but it does seem to look a bit off. But there hasn't been any real processing (apart from the aforementioned removal of cyan cast from the vegetation), so it's not that.

Here's how it looks with a direct B&W conversion - all colour removed, so you can see how the tonality and contrast look.

[shadowblade]

And here's a processed B&W version.

I normally prefer vibrant, saturated colours, but, in several ways, I actually prefer how the black-and-white version rendered here.

[Farmer]

And here's a processed B&W version.

I normally prefer vibrant, saturated colours, but, in several ways, I actually prefer how the black-and-white version rendered here.

Actually, that B&W is lovely.  There's a wonderful feel to it and the light really is emphasised across the water and from the sunset.  I think I like the foreground better, too (it was struggling just a little against the saturated colours of the sky in the colour version).  I really like the shot, and particularly this B&W.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Another vote for the B&W (processed) version.

(Does that mean I'm depressed?)

[shadowblade]

Actually, that B&W is lovely.  There's a wonderful feel to it and the light really is emphasised across the water and from the sunset.  I think I like the foreground better, too (it was struggling just a little against the saturated colours of the sky in the colour version).  I really like the shot, and particularly this B&W.

My main issue with the black-and-white version is that it turns a warm, clear, colourful tropical sunrise into what looks like a cold, dreary, rainswept morning - almost the polar opposite.

Just tried applying the black-and-white version as a luminosity mask onto the colour image, then adjusted the saturation to suit the increased brightness and adjusted the magentas to be redder and less pink (updated the original post). Looks great in PS to me, but looks awful in the various browsers on my monitor (which I've figured is no indication of how it actually looks on everyone else's monitor). How does it look on yours? I really need to ditch this wide-gamut setup and get a monitor that displays web images the way they actually look - no matter the browser or calibration, it just seems to refuse to recognise the colour space and just stretches out most images into whatever colour space the screen is capable of displaying. Even relying on third-party opinions only helps to a certain extent, since my preference is for strongly-saturated images (think Velvia or Kodachrome) rather than the muted colours seemingly preferred by some - makes it hard to distinguish 'oversaturated' from 'saturated as intended'.

[graeme]

I'd work on the BW version ( maybe try a last contrasty version? ). There's an interesting image in there.

Glad to see you're out photographing again after your recent troubles.

[shadowblade]

I'd work on the BW version ( maybe try a last contrasty version? ). There's an interesting image in there.

Glad to see you're out photographing again after your recent troubles.

No, just processing an old photo from years ago.

The black-and-white really doesn't reflect the mood.

I'm sure there's a colour image there somewhere - just need to process it on a monitor which reflects its actual appearance.

[graeme]

The black-and-white really doesn't reflect the mood.

It's got it's own mood.

I think artworks have a life of their own & personalities of their own at least partially independent of their creator & of the circumstances in which they were created.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It's got it's own mood.

I think artworks have a life of their own & personalities of their own at least partially independent of their creator & of the circumstances in which they were created.

I agree.

And I wouldn't mind seeing a lower contrast version of the B&W.

[Farmer]

My main issue with the black-and-white version is that it turns a warm, clear, colourful tropical sunrise into what looks like a cold, dreary, rainswept morning - almost the polar opposite.

Just tried applying the black-and-white version as a luminosity mask onto the colour image, then adjusted the saturation to suit the increased brightness and adjusted the magentas to be redder and less pink (updated the original post). Looks great in PS to me, but looks awful in the various browsers on my monitor (which I've figured is no indication of how it actually looks on everyone else's monitor). How does it look on yours? I really need to ditch this wide-gamut setup and get a monitor that displays web images the way they actually look - no matter the browser or calibration, it just seems to refuse to recognise the colour space and just stretches out most images into whatever colour space the screen is capable of displaying. Even relying on third-party opinions only helps to a certain extent, since my preference is for strongly-saturated images (think Velvia or Kodachrome) rather than the muted colours seemingly preferred by some - makes it hard to distinguish 'oversaturated' from 'saturated as intended'.

I'm not seeing a new B&W to look at?  The original colour, displayed on calibrated monitors looks great (it's saturated, but appears to be "as intended" - but I really have no way to know :-) ).  The B&W does look different as you say - it'd be interesting to see the other B&W you've mentioned.

[shadowblade]

I'm not seeing a new B&W to look at?  The original colour, displayed on calibrated monitors looks great (it's saturated, but appears to be "as intended" - but I really have no way to know :-) ).  The B&W does look different as you say - it'd be interesting to see the other B&W you've mentioned.

I think you misunderstood - what I meant is that I took the B&W and applied it as a luminosity layer onto the colour image, before tweaking it a bit to get the colour image as it stands now.

[Farmer]

I think you misunderstood - what I meant is that I took the B&W and applied it as a luminosity layer onto the colour image, before tweaking it a bit to get the colour image as it stands now.

I did misunderstand!  Thanks for clarifying - that makes sense.