Popping - Good or bad?

Partly arising from the discussion in Paulyrichard's thread I thought I'd post an image I've recently worked on to see what people think.

I'm not against popping - I find it useful in drawing attention to areas of a photo that otherwise might get lost. Though I've only used it twice (the other occasion can be seen here: link). If it's not overdone I think it can work well. Yes there's an element of artifice, but then you could say the same of framing, angle of view, focal length etc. etc. Anyway, here's my image:




Taken at the Acropolis Museum (again) with the K20D + DA17-70

Apart from the popping I'd be interested in people's views on my b&w conversion - have I overdone the contrast perhaps?

Like the shot and the discreet 'popping' - don't think the contrast is over done you have detail in the shadow however on my monitor it does look over sharpened.

Now can we see the original, thanks,

This is a fantastic image. It has a strong statement. It works on so many levels (pun) for me, with the horizontals in the foreground (pretendin' to be verticals) by my subjective eye, and the old with the new.

What I see in this image also, are all those verticals, includin' the trees, and then the human element in the shot, which is...another vertical. So many many verticals, by so many many elements.
All this contrasted with the subtle horizontal divisions in the picture.

This 'colour popping' as its called jus' doesn't bear thinkin' about let alone introducin' into the image.

I do find the image over-sharpened though.
Colour popping, you don't need it on this image, the image is too good for it.

Agree with both about sharpening, and Pauly about popping. For me it doesn't work. And indeed, the popped man is not a vital element of the pic in my view, although he dates the picture (roughly) by his use of the mobile. But then, the museum building is also contemporary.

G

Thanks for the feedback, all. I was anticipating over-sharpening comments - I just haven't got the hang of downsizing originals to 800 pixels width while keeping the detail. The original of this pp-ed version looks similar to the above without being oversharpened.

Will post the (original) original later. George, you'll be horrified as I've done quite a lot of pp-ing on it!

I'll make sure I'm sitting down.

G

Cracking shot all round Doc. But I agree colour popping doesn't work and isn't neccesary in this one. For popping to work at all - and there are obviously a lot of people who can't stand the technique under any circumstances - the bit left saturated needs to be really dominant such as vivid red. Just like the red scarf in Paul's Whitechapel photo.
david

Brace yourself, George...

Here's the original:




Converted from Raw and resized - no other adjustments.

Crash!!!

G

Blimey.. that is a lot of PP.

99.9% of the time I am not a fan of popping but the only comp I ever won here was with a shot that had some so I'll keep my mouth shut...

K

There does seem to be a bit of pp-ing as you say.

Where have all the people gone ? And you have done some structural work as well

I have no problems with that at all. To me it is all about the final image.

Without trying to overtake your thread, what do you think about this colour-pop?

Not something I do a lot, but the colour of the water and the rest of the boat were very drab.

Dr M,

I posted a reply, then deleted it because I got confused.

All I can say is that I shall never look at your creations in quite the same light again.

G

Wise decision