Venice with falling snow: two versions?

[Lisa]

We were recently in Venice on one of the very rare days that it snows there. It played havoc with visibility, not to mention leaving little white streaks on the images. I took a photo that day off the Rialto Bridge (one of the standard snapshot locations) that intrigued me, and I tried two different processings of it that went in a couple of different nonstandard directions. I'd be interested in getting your impressions of them, which you prefer (and more importantly, *why*), and any suggestions for improvement.

Comments?

Thanks,
Lisa

 

[DougDolde]

Both are great. I have a slight preference for the color one but don't ask me why.

 

[johnastovall]

Number 1 :thumbs:

 

[Jack]

Wow, excellent! I like both too, but slight preference for the color version.

 

[Dale Allyn]

Yep. Count me in. I like them both too, Lisa. Nicely done.

They both work for me, so I don't have to figure out why.

 

[glenerrolrd]

I like the color much better because:

1. It shows the weather (snow,fog) much better than the B+W. A little different than the standard travel shot.
2. The strength of color in the foreground layers fall off into a soft palate creating depth to the image. The soft colors work well with the diffused lightly.
3. The B+W rendering seems to have a forced level of contrast inconsistent with the actual lighting. A soft low contrast scene processed to add contrast.

Definitely a nice photograph with a lot of potential.

 

[nei1]

The colour shot looks less contrived (sepia seems such a tired option)even though the sky is distractingly bright the rain is a little more convincing.Your efforts should be to emphasize the central gondollier¿? by cropping or printing.

 

[woodyspedden]

Hope you don't mind. I took a crack at the B&W conversion trying to preserve the low contrast light and feeling.

Woody

However I still think it works best in color

 

[Lisa]

Thanks very much for your comments. I was surprised - I expected more people to like the sepia one.

(I have to admit - the first one is my first attempt at playing with negative values of Clarity in ACR, to emphasize the snow haziness. The second had substantial positive Clarity to *de*emphasize the haziness. Experiments, experiments...)

Ciao,
Lisa

 

[helenhill]

The Colour version is just sooo Charming
The palatte of the buildings
Draws me in....:salute:

 

[Oxide Blu]

I like the monochrome image better -- appears 'timeless' in a way the color image does not, and it does away with those annoying yellow/orange stripes on the taxi stand. The color image is a 'throw away' image -- lots of ooh and ahh now but when you come back to it next year it will be just another pic. Come back to that monochrome image in a year and you will pause and look at it and remember your time on the bridge in the snow.

 

[MoJo]

what Oxide Blue said. I much prefer the Sepia image for its timeless quality, it gets to the essence of the feeling there. the color seems busy and snapshoty in comparison.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

I like the monochrome image better -- appears 'timeless' in a way the color image does not, and it does away with those annoying yellow/orange stripes on the taxi stand. The color image is a 'throw away' image -- lots of ooh and ahh now but when you come back to it next year it will be just another pic. Come back to that monochrome image in a year and you will pause and look at it and remember your time on the bridge in the snow.

I fully agree with this, I myself would not have printed the color one, but the sepia / b&w is really beautiful! Why, because I don't like fog, and - as a Leica fan - really search for tack sharpness.....

 

[Oleksiy]

I like the b&w version more. Firstly the color doesn't distract you from details. Secondly, it doesn't let those colorful plastic tents to spoil the mood. Timeless is the right word.

 

[Lisa]

Thanks again for your comments. It sounds like we have something like half for the color one and half for the monochrome one, and a couple of us who like both about equally. I agree that the two have a very different feel to them, one a "fantasyland" candy-colored version and one looking like an antique photo (which is why it's so difficult for me to compare them). So, *both* are going up on my wall.Thanks

Lisa