Colour vs Black & White

Lostkat · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:40

Was messing around on my new 30D (woooo!) yesterday taking some pics of the house plant on the windowsill, and I decided I'd see how the B&W versions would look in channel mixer. Was quite surprised at the results. The colour photos highlight the bright colour of the flowers, but you don't actually notice the textures until you remove the colours.

I know they're not the worlds greatest pics and I've not really processed them much (didn't even bother adding a border). Just thought that the huge difference between the effect of colour and B&W was quite interesting

Lostkat · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:40

Sleepyd · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:44

Congratulations on the purchase. I decided to go for a 20D last month as they're quite cheap second hand now (had enough of the slowness of the 300D) Sounds like you're having fun with it already...

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:52

B&W deffo

Lostkat · 10 Jul 2006 at 20:02

Fantastic upgrade isn't it Sleepyd. So much faster!! I've been considering an upgrade for a while, but after being entrusted with rG-Tom's at the RR meet, I was sold. Gorgeous camera!!

Couple more - Wanted to show the centre of the flower.

HDR'd (3 stops either side)

HDR'd + B&W

Sorry if I'm spamming. Just feeling experimental

AdWright · 10 Jul 2006 at 20:38

Nice shots - the textures are good! I do prefer the punchy colour shots though.

The HDR shot doesn't seem to add much though - the other shots are well exposed as they are

Lostkat · 10 Jul 2006 at 20:39

AdWright said:
Nice shots - the textures are good! I do prefer the punchy colour shots though.

The HDR shot doesn't seem to add much though - the other shots are well exposed as they are

Aye, I thought they'd bring out the centre of the flower more. Doesn't add much though, you're right.

lukechad · 10 Jul 2006 at 21:00

Standard colour shots look the best for the flower, the whole idea of a flowre is for it to have awesome colours so they need to be showed off in all their nataural beauty. I feel that all the normal colour shots are the best

Colin_da_Killer · 10 Jul 2006 at 21:35

Colour F.T.W.

Great photos as usual LK.

robertgilbert86 · 10 Jul 2006 at 22:25

I vote B+W, they look much sharper

Zheka · 10 Jul 2006 at 23:09

Colour, great shots btw

titchard · 11 Jul 2006 at 01:05

The colour shots are far more vibrant and stand out a lot more, specially with the incredibly bright red and yellows, yet the B & W shots show more detail on the petals themselves.

Vibrance or Detail I think is your choice.

Rich

cyKey · 11 Jul 2006 at 01:23

lukechad said:
Standard colour shots look the best for the flower, the whole idea of a flowre is for it to have awesome colours so they need to be showed off in all their nataural beauty. I feel that all the normal colour shots are the best

Ah yes but the whole idea of black and white is to show contrasts, areas of light and shadow. These work well in both. Remember that the idea of photography is to play around and break perceptions.

Lostkat · 11 Jul 2006 at 06:33

titchard said:
The colour shots are far more vibrant and stand out a lot more, specially with the incredibly bright red and yellows, yet the B & W shots show more detail on the petals themselves.

Vibrance or Detail I think is your choice.

Rich

cyKey said:
Ah yes but the whole idea of black and white is to show contrasts, areas of light and shadow. These work well in both. Remember that the idea of photography is to play around and break perceptions.

By jove I think we've got it

The B&W or colour shots show the photos in completely different lights and make you concentrate on different aspects of the shot. I actually like both the colour & B&W shots for different reasons. If it came to printing them out for a wall though, I think I'd spend a little more time processing them and choose the B&W because I just love the texture of the petals and the white anthers.

Thanks for everyone's comments

matty · 11 Jul 2006 at 08:08

very good Kate, the first B&W is really rich!

Richard T · 11 Jul 2006 at 08:49

agreed... the first b/w one is superb but then so are the colour ones

Gamefreak501 · 11 Jul 2006 at 09:53

Nice shots there, I'm with everyone else here, the first B&W shot is great

dod · 11 Jul 2006 at 11:03

Great series LK, colour and B&W both great in their own ways

titchard · 11 Jul 2006 at 13:09

Lostkat said:
By jove I think we've got it The B&W or colour shots show the photos in completely different lights and make you concentrate on different aspects of the shot. I actually like both the colour & B&W shots for different reasons. If it came to printing them out for a wall though, I think I'd spend a little more time processing them and choose the B&W because I just love the texture of the petals and the white anthers.

Thanks for everyone's comments

No worries! glad that I could help!

I really have a fascination with photographing flowers, I think theres something about them that is amazing to capture, and with those shots they are great!

Would you be willing to send the original images if I gave you my email? Think they would look great as my desktop wallpaper.

Rich