Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Jonathan Cross on September 07, 2025, 01:02:47 pm

Title: Colour or Black and white?
Post by: Jonathan Cross on September 07, 2025, 01:02:47 pm

Balcombe railway viaduct, Sussex, UK, 500 yards long, opened in 1841


Jonathan

Title: Re: Colour or Black and white?
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on September 11, 2025, 07:38:44 am

For an image which relies so much on geometry and patterns, I'd normally say monochrome without hesitation. But this time, I think I'd be wrong: the colour has a certain something which the mono version has lost.

Jeremy

Title: Re: Colour or Black and white?
Post by: langier on September 11, 2025, 12:20:00 pm

+1. I looked and contemplated; then returned for another look. The color works better in this example, IMO.

Title: Re: Colour or Black and white?
Post by: timwilson on September 12, 2025, 08:03:00 am

IMHO, the blue shirt is key in the color composition. If this was mine, I'd try bringing up the blue channel in the B&W version to get to something similar.

—Tim

Title: Re: Colour or Black and white?
Post by: Jonathan Cross on September 16, 2025, 01:54:42 am

Thanks for the comments.  Jane is in the image to give a sense of scale. The viaduct is a feat of Victorian construction with all its brick piers and still having a working railway line on top. I normally lean towards b&w for graphic images,  but in this case probably prefer the colour image. It is nice to get your views.
Jonathan