Help with a Venetian photo.

Apart from the bubblegum in the foreground which needs cloning out, which version do you prefer?

1. Colour



2. Sepia



3. Monochrome



4. High contrast monochrome



Thanks! Kris.

For me the sepia version, the colour and B+Ws all suffer from the large areas of black where the shutters on the left hand side are, while still there the general sepia look makes this less distracting.
I can imagine a large sepia print looking quite good on the wall, but perhaps slightly darken the highlights behind the arch above the bar.

Davex.

I have voted for the mono version. I think that it is important that detail is still retained in the foreground shutter and door on the left.

If it was me, I would remove the litter from the foreground, reduce the illumination of the Bar sign and illuminate the sign and window down the far end of the passage. This would draw the eye down into the picture.

Kind regards
Graham

Mono for me but I do like the colour veriosn too. I bet you can pull out more shadow detail.

There are many shots which are best served by B&W or another processing to create a particular mood or recreate an era. However I sometimes feel people (I'm not referring to posters in this thread !) choose B&W or a Monotone simply because they believe it is more 'arty' or that it imbues them with a certain air of 'knowing' or superiority *taps nose*.

Notice the wonderful incandescent light in this shot, the strong influence & contrast of the reds (which has been completely nullified in the other versions), the lovely colouring of the granite pathway and the subtle night-time 'blue hue' at the top of the photo. All lost in the other versions.

For me it's hands down the colour version.

My Lady Love thinks so too!

K.

Unusually for me I prefer the colour as well. It somehow just seems more 3 dimensional. Something to do with the different coloured lights I think.

Kris, I had a go at processing this image in LR2, although with a different kind of effect. It's a 'preset' - 300 v1.
I had a go at 'dodging' certain areas of the scene, which were quite dark but still yielded some detail.
I'm quite sure you can do better with the original though.

I also gave it an 8x10 crop.

I just thought i'd throw this effect in the mix and complicate things more if you like it.

I still prefer the sepia, but the paulyrichard version is different and very good.

1 and 4 for me but 4 just edges it

The colour one for me!

I voted Colour, but only marginally btter than monochrome.

Leave the chewing gum. Why sanitise a shot?

I voted high contrast mono. I really like paulyrichard's version too (I assume that 300v1 preset is after the film 300) - I like how it brings out the cobbles.

Ditto!
The colour one has the most potential for mine, although the monos and sepia each has their own attractions.

I've had a shot at the colour one with LR3.3 - I won't post it here, but link if interested. It may be on the 'bright' side...

Your right DrOrloff, it's a nod towards the 'look' of that film. It does improve and enhance the textures in the image, which I suppose gives another dimension to the scene.

The colours in i-berg's attempt are subtly striking if that makes sense, and has made the colour shot look more favourable than what it was too.