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Strolling around I stumbled across these sheep in the cold Bavarian winter:


Well, I thought, nice match of brownish colors with the "white of winter"
Upon thinking further I had the tendency to crank up color-saturation to emphazise what little color that shot had (we all long for some color in winter, don't we?). Thinking a little longer I came to the reverse conclusion to drain the pic off every color and convert to black&white. See the result:


I've produced another black&white version with more contrast and sharpness:


Now I'm not so sure.

So what do you think? Which version do you prefer? Why?
What are good situations to use b&w? Are there any hints & tipps to improve upon either of the results?
Please speak up! I'm quite confused...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I prefer the B&W one as it looks more stark. but I'd personally increase the contrast and maybe even the sharpening - but that's just my own preference for B&W shots!

I quite like the 1st pic, as it looks more natural to me, afterall, I think winter time does not kill all the colours, though we dont have winter here.

The 2nd pic - looks okay for me, too, as it looks like the era of days gone by, you'll get more attention to this , but I still prefer the 1st.

Edited - spelling

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Thanks for the input and feedback!
I've produced another black&white version with more contrast and sharpness and placed it in my first post for direct comparison.

What do you think?

And yes, David. I really love the "remaining" colors of winter and try to pick up on them. But on the other hand the natural reduction in colors and color-saturation in winter lends itself well for strong "graphics-oriented" pictures. And I can understand Gordon when he likes to support this by cranking up contrast and sharpness.
But perhaps this subject does not lend itself to a more graphical approach...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Thomas, I think the boosted version looks better - but again that's just me.

Hi Thomas
Yeah, the boosted contrast looks much better.

No wonder Gordon prefers B&W - years of experince and looking into thousands ... millions... billions of photographs !

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Hi Thomas,
That's a great composition! The place you live must look stunning in winter. I think I prefer b&w #2 because the extra contrast makes the sheep stand out more, but it also looks a bit harsh whereas I like the softness of the colour one....in other words...I can't decide which one I prefer overall

I think in the b&w version if you could drop the contrast a bit but still make the sheep stand out it'd be perfect. Also the snow at the bottom bothers me a bit. There are shades and textures in the colour pic that seem to have been lost in the b&w.

I can't remember what photo editor you use, but if you use photoshop you could use a seperate layer mask to bring back the detail in the snow. There's also an excellent b&w plugin for photoshop available for free from http://www.optikvervelabs.com called Virtual Photographer which has loads of different b&w effects that you can adjust to your liking and blend in.

Hope this helps a little.

(p.s. That link seems to sometimes work and sometimes not work...I'm not sure if it's their site or a China thing)

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China