Three versions of a shot I took this evening up in the Berkeley neighborhood. Can’t decide which I like best. Opinions welcome.
First, full color.
Second, select color with the building Black&Whited out.
Finally, select with only the sign remaining in color.
winterSmith 
Hi Sam – I like the top image the best. I’m actually getting tired of the black and white with selected color effect. I just love the blue hour sky.
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Sam – I should add my comment is meant in general – not specifically regarding your work. I may have sounded rude. Sorry.
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Sam, I agree with Dawn. Top image. My problem is that the select color effect becomes quite predictable after the first couple exposures to it. Maybe now’s the time to ask what you are trying to get the image to do. Look pretty? Send a message? Force a reconsideration of our world around us?
Just a thought … if you know what you’re trying to say with the image, does it really make sense to ask us if one is better than the other? In a perfect world, it would seem that what you are trying to say should guide you to the best image. Great art is neither created by a democracy, nor are its decisions ruled by a benevolent hand.
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Sam, like Dawn, again, I’d like to add something to my comments. They are not as rude as they may have read. When I say a decision about the best should be based on how well it relates to what you want to say, this is a perfect example. If we wanted to speak of isolation, the sign-as-color alone would be a perfect example. If we wanted to express hope, the second one in its half-and-half treatment works well. If we wanted to celebrate the world around us (as I imagine you want to do now that you’re back in Denver), the full-color one would be a great treatment.
So, when you show me three treatments, I find it impossible to declare which I prefer, unless there’s an obvious artistic reason for one over the other. Mostly, though, I’m going to consider the work in terms of whether you succeeded in what you were trying to say. There’s the issue for me. And as said before, if it’s just to make something pretty, that’s great. But I personally need to know what I should use as my base for commenting on your work.
I’m going into the desert soon to shoot a lot of rocks and sand and sky. Yeah, I’m going to want to shoot the pretty and get blissed out with that. But I’m also wanting to find drama, tension, anger (clouds in the sky), joy in a morning sunrise, and so on. I will shoot these things with the intention of saying something.
We’ll find out later if the trip was a success.
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Select color is a nice tool to have in the box. There are times when it absolutely works, but it’s also not something to overuse. Anytime I shoot neon I consider it, because that’s a case that’s just made for the technique. But considering it and printing it aren’t the same thing.
I also posted this to FB and Ello asking for opinions. The select is winning handily, with the full color in second. Those who prefer the color are like you guys – reacting against the technique. I don’t have enough sample size to know, but I wonder if those who know less about shooting and processing technique are more likely to respond to the gimmick, whereas the more you know the more you’re over it.
Hard to say. If I were entering the shot in a juried contest, though, after these responses I’d almost certainly go with the color.
Thanks for the feedback.
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First off, I didn’t see anything anybody said as rude. Just informed comments from really talented shooters who wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust them and know I could count on their expertise, basically.
Your remarks on context are interesting. As you know, I’m big on authorial intent, and in that frame what you’re saying make all the sense in the world. Really, it forces me to thing about it in terms I haven’t been. I suppose what I have been doing is assuming that one version is better, and that your consideration would be conducted on grounds that don’t worry about intent. Visual impact, technical construction, etc. At some level I guess the criterion is mercenary – which of these would people be more likely to buy – but of course that’s not really a criterion. They would buy it BECAUSE OF those other things.
Still, there is an apples/oranges thing at work here. The color and select tell different stories, they’re tonally different, the project different moods, they say different things about the artist (the color shot works organically, while the select sort of foregrounds the technique and emphasizes the hand of the craftsman, etc.
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I’m generally a fan of color – the lamp is like a moon in the sky, but the last shot I actually like the best with only the sign in color.
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I’m a color freak, too. Trying to force myself to work past my own self-imposed limitations, I guess.
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