No Exit

I have a BW version, which one works better?

since they are quite monochromatic, i guess that both work equally being color in little advantage becouse red catches eyes more easily... on the technical side i like the overall texturing on the image and the untextured bottom as lead in, i guess the whiteout above is too much and becomes distracting... on the other side having the image balanced toward darker tones could have been an improvement. Another possibility would have been crop the image so to unbalance it on the left and eliminate a little whites; look at the file attached: crop, brightness -18, contrast +4, saturation +8, unsharp mask 500/0,2/0... do you feel it is an improvement? other than that it could just be a matter of tastes.

Definately a little flat in contrast, and the upper highlights are a little blown out. The suggested edit posted with increased contrast is an improvement, but the crop doesn't work as well for me. The original is perhaps a little to centered, and I find my eye wanting to move from left to right. Maybe shot from a little further back to include more of the wall on the right, then cropped more landscape orientation than portrait, to contrast the vertical oreintation of the bricked up opening. Nice textures, especially with increased contrast, so a good fit with the theme.

Yes, this need more contrast. And making it more dirty could work well too. For this photo, I would take out the burn tool and play around.

 

In the black and white version, I find that the top left portion is too prominent. I kind of don't see it in the color version, but it really apparent in the B&W.

The higher contrast version does work better, IMHO. The original, however works as well. I quite like the bottom of the image, which to me, also has much texture, but a different texture than the brick.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

PT, I like the natural earthy colors of this. For a photo of texture you would think that b/w would concentrate more on it but for me in this particular case color works better because it also makes that nice association with brick color which is so distinctive and enhances the texture aspect of it. I would like a little more contrast and sharpness too but prefer your original comp with that extra white and some space around there to set off the rest. You could slightly 'burn' some areas in the white to show a little more definition there. A very slight counter-clockwise rotation would help too, imho.

 

Chitra

Wonderful subject PT! I love this centered as it is, and in colour. The colours of the bricks have bags of "pop" and the white and blue details, as well as mold, add interest. Well spotted.

 

A tiny crop at the bottom to eliminate the zone of ground that appears darker (reddish) along the bottom edge, would keep our eyes on the main subject, but that's the only cropping I find it needs.

 

As others have said, the white bricks top left seem overexposed, probably because the exposure meter is sensing a lot of dark bricks. it's better to expose for the brightest part of the scene and fix the rest later in Photoshop (a very easy "mistake" to make). Burning the shadows in that zone would help but some textures have been lost.

 

PS Its weird how the newer bricks seem to have been painted white before being sealed into the wall - there's certainly a complex story here.

No exit or no entry ?

I prefer the colour version, PT as I really enjoy the warmth of red bricks. I too want increased contrast as per Giuseppe's example - and probably would have worked on burning as suggested by Stephane (I would have used the "Apply Image" function in PS, one channel at a time on the "multiply" blend mode.)

Compositionally I see as Steven; I'm not so keen on the fg gravel but do like the interplay between the established, darker, brick and the brighter "door" - and reckon taking more from the right into the frame, in landscape, would have been worth a shot. Of course it might not have been possible. Fine textures.

Overall, such an image cannot help but feel a little flat because...well, it is a wall taken in overcast conditions. I think increased contrast, some burning, darkening at the edges perhaps - might be some techniques that could assist in increasing the tempo a little.