Friday, February 23, 2007

Colour v Black and White?

Two versions of the same image. I originally liked the "near mono" version just fine. Then, I decided to make it full mono. I liked that too. Now, I can't properly decide which I actually prefer. Maybe it doesn't matter, but I kind of want to wrestle this to the ground. Can you help?





Comments welcome.

Ivan

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ivan,

The more you look at these photos the harder it becomes to decide which you prefer.

The buildings in the first photo have softer edges because of the yellow tinge. That adds some depth to the photo and creates the sense of the setting sun which is pleasant. The sky has nice tones of blue, some green, and yellow which creates another sense of mood.

The buildings in the second photo, because of their sharper edges, jump out at you more but appear colder because of the absence of that yellow tinge. Thus, there is less interest. They are simply silhouettes of buildings. The sky hold alot of interest with the different cloud shapes and tones of grey. That really adds to the photo.

So which do I prefer?

I actually prefer the monochrome version. The reason being is that it is 'cleaner'. To explain what I mean, I can clearly see the second photo enlarged, placed behind a black or white mat and framed. Its simple, fresh, easy to view. With the first photo, because of the colour tones, there is more complexity and one would have to play with different coloured mats to really bring out the full 'power' of the photo. So the photo has layers of complexity which I don't like. I am not saying I don't like the first photo because of the issues of matting, I am saying that there are issues of complexity (that are illustrated through trying to mat the photo) that I do not like.

However, after looking at these photos for a while and despite of that hogwash above, what really appeals to me in the second photo is the sharpness and clarity of the buildings.

Damian