Wood curves – color, or black and white?

I’ve been trying different black and white conversion techniques lately. Every time I take a monochrome image, I make a note to try a black and white conversion. One method is using Nik Silver Efex Photoshop plugin; another is a combination of contrast enhancements using Tony Kuyper’s luminosity masks and a Black and White adjustment layer in Photoshop. Then I compare the B&W versions with a color one. Sometime the differences are pronounced, sometimes they’re subtle.

And a B&W conversion of the color image that has stronger contrasts than the Nik conversion:

The darks come out more strongly in the last two, but you may not see difference depending on your monitor. Every time I look at them I change my mind about which one I like best!

7 thoughts on “Wood curves – color, or black and white?”

Scott Von Holzen on March 30, 2012 at 10:31 pm said:

The Color image is the best. The reason is your two black & white images still lack “pop.” For example that upper darker curved line and those two thin dark lines below, can make great statements if you could “kick them up.” Good effort, I see where you are going. Nice.

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- tomwhelan on March 30, 2012 at 11:10 pm said:
  
  Thanks for stopping in. Everyone sees something different, and our monitors play a big role in how we perceive contrast.
  
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nonoymanga on March 30, 2012 at 10:54 pm said:

Art photos. Good day Nonoy Manga

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- tomwhelan on March 30, 2012 at 11:12 pm said:
  
  Thanks, Nonoy!
  
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ehpem on March 31, 2012 at 12:18 am said:

I go for the colour version too, but that might be a response to the beautiful tone of brown.My eye does find more detail in that shot and the lighter banding does stand out more for me.
And, I totally agree with you about the monitor affecting our perceptions – mine is not a great monitor, but when I look at some of my pictures on a lesser monitor I have at work I cringe. I would not have published them like that if I was seeing them with that hardware, and I would have edited them totally differently. It is so hard to know what many of our viewers will actually be seeing when we hit that publish button.

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Ajay Ramdasi on April 2, 2012 at 7:54 am said:

I like the colored image more. The brown in it just makes it more appealing than the b/w ones. Nicely shot.

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milkayphoto on April 2, 2012 at 8:37 am said:

I’m drawn to the color image as well. Not sure why, it is simply the one I keep going back to.

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