Black & White or Color ?

[AndyE]

My wife and I celebrated last week our 25th anniversary. We spend a couple of days in the area/hotel we got married. Gee, time is flying by.
On that morning, light was coming through the window, looking into those eyes, I had to take a picture. (I am still falling in love ).

What would you keep, the b&w or the color and why? I can't decide yet.

regards,
Andy

(taken with D2X, 17-55mm @ 55mm, ISO 400, f/3, 1/40sec)

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Converted through NC to B&W
View attachment 8882

 

[greyflash]

She does have beautiful eyes Andy and you were right in taking the picture. Natural light is often very flattering as you see here. For myself, I find the straight across look to be disconcerting and were this image mine I would have rotated the image CCW until it went from lower corner to upper corner. The way it is you are forcing the viewer to tilt their head to look at it.

Happy anniversary, your wife looks young and vivacious.

 

[ScottR]

Andy,

Personally I prefer the B&W. But then again I grew up with B&W. I found the light brown at the top of the color distracting. Also you see the pores on the skin more on the color then the B&W.

Now if you want to really try something modern, use the B&W and just make the eye appear in color. Of course they may just look plain silly :twisted:

Very nice moment and memory to capture at any rate.

 

[PhotoOp71]

I would say go with the color. It shows her true beauty. Nice work.

 

[Chris101]

I love black and white, but in this case, the mono version looks flat while the color photo is packed with potential energy!

And, uh, what? Did you marry her when she was 2?

 

[Zulu-]

I normally prefer b/w pictures, but in this case I'd say go for the color version...

If you could brighten the eye a bit and get rid of the shadow from the eyelid, that would really make you fall even more i love i promise you that...

And I have just had my 1st year anniversary....

 

[Steve S]

It's gotta be color

If I were you, I'd soften her skin just a teense, and sharpen her eyes a bit more. She a real beauty, lucky you!

 

[TOLady]

Hope you don't mind, but I knew I'd prefer this in B&W but it looked a little flat using NC method. I've used the channel mixer method and it seems to bring more life into the picture.
Very lovely wife - she's definitely a keeper, and so glad to hear you're still falling in love with her - that's what keeps the magic. Cheers, Sandi

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[PhotoDawg]

I like the B&W better!! She looks very happy and relaxed!! Well done!!

 

[Wossname]

My wife and I celebrated last week our 25th anniversary. We spend a couple of days in the area/hotel we got married. Gee, time is flying by.
On that morning, light was coming through the window, looking into those eyes, I had to take a picture. (I am still falling in love ).

What would you keep, the b&w or the color and why? I can't decide yet.

regards,
Andy

(taken with D2X, 17-55mm @ 55mm, ISO 400, f/3, 1/40sec)


Converted through NC to B&W

That's a lovely, relaxed image; I like it because it feels unposed. I would probably be tempted to either clone or crop the orangey stripes at the top. Of these two, I much prefer the warmth of the colour version; for me, B&W portraits need to have deeper richness of tone, but then I love single light portraits and film noir style B&W.

You're a lucky boy Andy.

Cheers

Neil\Tokyo

 

[AndyE]

Neil: That's a lovely, relaxed image; I like it because it feels unposed.

Neil, thanks, you are absolutely right. It was completely unposed. My wife doesn't like being photographed at all. This was a very rare moment, which makes it even more precious (to me).

Sandi: Hope you don't mind, but I knew I'd prefer this in B&W but it looked a little flat using NC method. I've used the channel mixer method and it seems to bring more life into the picture.

Sandi, thank you for the improvement of my B&W. I tried to avoid using Photoshop in the past - afraid of burning even more time with my hobby, but there will be a moment in the near future where I have to use PS. I fear it will be quite soon.

Kind regards,
Andy