fingers of death

[Jeremy Roussak]

Comments?

Jeremy

[luxborealis]

Great location, Jeremy and a wonderful composition.

The title is a bit melodramatic for me, but it see where you're coming from. Have you tried this in B&W? Great potential there. The colour version has a cool cast that seems to be softening details.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

A rather nice one, Jeremy. One can play with the cast, but it works as-is just as well.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It works very well as is, but I, too, would like to see a black and white version.

Eric

P.S. I suspect the title refers to the valley where it was taken.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Great location, Jeremy and a wonderful composition.

The title is a bit melodramatic for me, but it see where you're coming from. Have you tried this in B&W? Great potential there. The colour version has a cool cast that seems to be softening details.

Thanks! Eric's right: it was taken in Death Valley, at Zabriskie Point. I'd been there since before dawn and this was my last shot.

I have tried monochrome (I nearly always do), but I didn't feel it really worked: for me, this image was about the contrasting colours, bringing warmth to the right while the morning's cold lingered on the left ("cold" being, in DV even in October, a relative term!). I'll give it another go, though, since you both think it's a good idea.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Roussak]

Well, I tried again and came up with this. I remain less than entirely convinced that the loss of colour is a good idea here (even with a bit of blue in the shadows).

What do you think?

Jeremy

[brandtb]

Color version is a lot more successful. I would look at shifting the Cyan hues toward red a bit and see. Getting a warmer blue in shadows gives you an "approximation" of a complimentary color pair which has it's own power (purple/orange is a near reference here). /B

[luxborealis]

Well, I tried again and came up with this. I remain less than entirely convinced that the loss of colour is a good idea here (even with a bit of blue in the shadows).

What do you think?

Jeremy

I think more can be done with this in B&W... Try raising the Clarity adjustment, lowering you Black Point, and raising your Shadows adjustment. This photo seems to "want" cutting middle tones with sharp highlights and shadows (with some detail, at least, but bot a lot as the detail is in the mid-tones).

In colour, use the Tone a Curve - Blue only - to reduce the blue in the shadows.

Hope this helps.

[Roberto Frieri]

Very nice pictures, both versions. Many compliments.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Death Valley is such a colorful place that it is easy to get stuck on the question of color vs. monochrome.

I like both versions, but they are very different pictures. I agree with Terry's suggestions for the black and white version (his critiques tend to be spot on).

After my own one visit to Death Valley, I went back and forth between mono and color on many images, and my own favorite shot at dawn looking left at  Zabriskie point ended up as monochrome. I'll post it soon on another thread, so as not to hijack this one.

Eric

[Jeremy Roussak]

I think more can be done with this in B&W... Try raising the Clarity adjustment, lowering you Black Point, and raising your Shadows adjustment. This photo seems to "want" cutting middle tones with sharp highlights and shadows (with some detail, at least, but bot a lot as the detail is in the mid-tones).

In colour, use the Tone a Curve - Blue only - to reduce the blue in the shadows.

Hope this helps.

Yes, helpful as ever, Terry. This is what I've ended up with, both monochrome and colour. Reducing the blue in the shadows certainly improves the colour version.

Jeremy

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Now both versions are very nice.

[William Walker]

Now both versions are very nice.

I agree. The B&W especially.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

May I suggest in B&W version to keep blueish areas darker than orange ones, to achieve better global contrast and sense of depth?

[Rajan Parrikar]

The colour version is very good but has not been fully realized; the colour cast issue remains.

[muntanela]

I like this image, although I'm a bit bothered by the cut nail of one of the fingers.

[BobDavid]

I like the color version--nice interplay between warm and cool colors. One thing I learned from reading http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-LAB-Color-Adventures-Colorspace/dp/0321356780 is how much power working in the LAB color space is for this type of image. Dan Margulis knows his stuff and this book taught me a lot about tweaking color. It's a must read for anyone interested in the craft of color editing. Another nice thing about working in LAB, is that you are able to sharpen just the the black and white data while leaving the color channels alone. Finally, LAB is a nondestructive color space. If used with care, it's possible to go back and forth in and out of LAB without losing color data.

[BobDavid]

Hello Kikashi. I was waiting for the pot on the stove to boil. I hope you don't mind; I tinkered with your picture. It's just a different interpretation—neither better nor worse. It is a pretty amazing scene.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Hello Kikashi. I was waiting for the pot on the stove to boil. I hope you don't mind; I tinkered with your picture. It's just a different interpretation—neither better nor worse. It is a pretty amazing scene.

I don't mind at all. The increased contrast is interesting: you've overdone it a bit for my taste, though.

Yes, the scene is amazing; it's over on the right as you walk back to the parking area, tired, stunned by the sunrise you've just watched and looking forward to seeing how much of it you've managed to capture.

Jeremy

[David Eckels]

Stunning. Either color or BW version. Beautiful!