Mountain

[AndrewKulin]

[attachment=15734:Emerald_...0_colour.jpg][attachment=15733:Emerald_...2x900_BW.
jpg]

[button]

I like the B/W, but I wish those branches weren't there.  Otherwise, cool shot.

John

[Jeremy Roussak]

[attachment=15734:Emerald_...0_colour.jpg][attachment=15733:Emerald_...2x900_BW.
jpg]

I prefer the B&W, although I think you've overdone the sky a bit, losing the contrast between it and the mountains,. I agree with John that the branches don't add anything, although the uppermost, pushing into the sky, is OK.

Jeremy

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I, too, prefer the B&W. I would clone out the branches (Oops! No! Russ will send his boys to break my knee-caps!) I do think I would increase local contrast a bit.

Eric

[DarkPenguin]

B+W.  But, as everyone else has said, the lines of the photo draw your eye to a spot obscured by the branches.  The smart photographer carries a chain saw.

[RSL]

Honest, Eric, my foot soldiers are too busy this week to do any serious kneecapping. But if you crop out the branches, this is what you end up with:

[attachment=15746:Emerald_...2x900_BW.jpg]

Leave something to be desired?

Generally I'd agree with everyone so far that the B&W is the better rendition since the color version is a bit too pretty, but anyone notice that in the color version, because of the color, the branches separate themselves from the background, where in the B&W version they don't? For that reason I'll vote for the color version.

[cmi]

The image has a almost overwhelming sense of calmness to me, and I like it this very much. Really, too bad the branch is blocking the view.

The b/w version looses some of the fascination of the original, the calmness gone to an extent, but instead is more about the details everywhere, and therefore reminds me partly of a carving, or classic oilpainting. The sky is a bit too textured for my taste, but then, I prefer the color version anyway.

Christian

[bob mccarthy]

You can relight the scene pulling the eye to the main mountain.

Something like this.

Not enough pixels here to do it right, but you get the idea.

[bob mccarthy]

Played with the B&W from your b&w, not converting color.

Too few pixels, the focus is the texture on the granite, but detail is lacking.

Just another idea, takes the branch out, refocuses the image.

I prefer the color to this attempt

Bob

[Jeremy Roussak]

You can relight the scene pulling the eye to the main mountain.

Something like this.

Not enough pixels here to do it right, but you get the idea.

I like that. Would you mind revealing how you did it? My Photoshop skills are rudimentary, so I'm keen to learn.

Jeremy

[francois]

I like Bob's B&W version best. I'm still split on the branches. Removing them would give a cleaner image.

[AndrewKulin]

Thanks for all the comments.  There was nothing I could do about the branches - photograph was taken from the balcony of our room and I had set up the camera as far to the left as I could to get the branches out of the way.  And as this is located within a National Park they frown upon visitors bringing in chainsaws (and firearms).

I have attached a re-coloured version of my original B&W with a bit more contrast and a few more pixels.

[attachment=15767:Emerald_...e_Colour.jpg]

Andrew

[bob mccarthy]

I like that. Would you mind revealing how you did it? My Photoshop skills are rudimentary, so I'm keen to learn.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

the adjustments are fairly standard photoshop (or any other editor for that matter) moves.

1) levels - the original file had no blacks or whites, most everything was mid-tone-ish (ie lacked contrast). I do not just move the endpoints sliders to the limit of data as I see often recommended. Hold/release the alt/option key as you move level sliders and look at the image. Tweak to taste.  Same with shadow slider. Some of the image can be pure white or black, you decide how much. In many cases I do not have any pure white but the black slider is frequently moved into the black a bit to give a good anchor blacks.

2) Curves - in this case I wanted to emphasize the mountain against the forest. Used curves to beef up the contrast. Resulted in an "s" curve being introduced

3) Face of mountain needed some punch. Since this was a greatly reduced jpeg, it was a crap shoot but I did a dup layer and then did a high pass with about a 4 rad, used overlay blending, and then blended layers to fine tune,

thats it, all global adjustments. If I had the original file I would have concidered some local adjustments, but I didn't..

hope this helps

bob

[jasonrandolph]

I'm going to disagree with most of the comments already made, but I think the branches need to be there.  They provide balance to the composition, and since trees dominate the left portion of the image, what better thing to balance it than another tree?  As far as the color/B&W question, I prefer the B&W.  However, I think it works just as well in color.  Coming from Hawai'i where the water color is often blue or green, I didn't find the colors to be overdone.

Bottom line is that you've captured a stunning image.  I think the composition is excellent, as is the light.  Which version you choose to use is a matter of artistic license, since both are very good.  Nice job.

[DarkPenguin]

Thanks for all the comments.  There was nothing I could do about the branches - photograph was taken from the balcony of our room and I had set up the camera as far to the left as I could to get the branches out of the way.  And as this is located within a National Park they frown upon visitors bringing in chainsaws (and firearms).

I have attached a re-coloured version of my original B&W with a bit more contrast and a few more pixels.

[attachment=15767:Emerald_...e_Colour.jpg]

Andrew

I like the happy little trees in color better, I think.  (Oh, and it is my understanding that Obama signed the law that allows you to carry firearms into the National parks.)

[cmi]

Thanks for all the comments.  There was nothing I could do about the branches - photograph was taken from the balcony of our room and I had set up the camera as far to the left as I could to get the branches out of the way.  And as this is located within a National Park they frown upon visitors bringing in chainsaws (and firearms).

I have attached a re-coloured version of my original B&W with a bit more contrast and a few more pixels.

[attachment=15767:Emerald_...e_Colour.jpg]

Andrew

Andrew, in the meanwhile the branch does disturb me a bit less. To me the new version appears overdone, looses the spirit of the first color version. But a less contrasty version I would indeed like. I tested it in PS. As it is, I still like the first color version most.