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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Canon SLR Challenges - FAQ >> CSLR - Best of... >> The Best of Exhibition > 1st Place
And the Day Begins
by Cindyd (Sis-Q)
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19-APRIL-2006 Cindyd (Sis-Q)

1st Place
And the Day Begins
by Cindyd (Sis-Q)

Death Valley

Grayscale attempt. Had to adjust
curves and contrast some to make it
work in grayscale . . .

I wouldn't convert an image to B&W unless it looked
at least as good, and preferably better than
the color image. I'm not sure that is the case here.
Part of the strength of this was the rich color of the
sunrise on the sands.

I have some others from death valley that would probably
do better in B&W than this one. If I get time I will
replace this with a whole new comp.



Color - Monochrome/Duotone - B&W - can all be seen here

http://www.pbase.com/cindyd/death_valley


other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 13-Jun-2006 23:10
Terrific photo.
cindyd11-Jun-2006 19:39
Thanks again for all the comments - appreciated! Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge05-Jun-2006 23:01
Very. Very good! -Cat
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 23:25
Going through the exhibition I was waiting for an image to really make me go "Yes, that works". I actually said it out loud when I opened this. The bar has been raised. Great Shot. -Najinsky
alexeig04-Jun-2006 21:23
Absolutely amazing
Guest 04-Jun-2006 19:22
This is G R E A T but so was the original monochrome.
Guest 04-Jun-2006 17:52
wonderful photo!! great light and composition. thanks for sharing !
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 14:57
Jim's just saying that to deal with the guilt of having to make you take all that gorgeous golden color out of the image. ;) LOL! ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 14:45
Thanks for all the updated comments. A latecomer will be scratching their head if they read through all of these. lol. This challenge really did do a service to me by making me take one image and exploring 3 radically different approaches to presentation. No doubt there are countless more combinations. And yet as we can see by the comments there is not agreement over which way is "best". Would be easy if there were . . . but then the art world would be rather boring I suppose. This would be a good exercise to bring to my fledgling local camera club . . .

Personally I don't get as strong a feel for the overwhelming sun that IS Death Valley. The sun dominates everything there, including the photographer. Shooting windows are literally just minutes in the dawn and sunset. Yes, possibly the eye spends more time exploring the patterns in the sand and clouds - so that is a good side effect of the grayscale. But images not facing the sun as this one - with the blown out sky like RK pointed out - can spend much more of the frame exploring the shades and nuances of the textures. And I do have some of those - just need to take the time to work them.

Thanks again everybody, Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 09:46
Not that the toned one wasn't superb - but I do like this better. I can see the textures in the sand and the clouds much better. Wonderful! And thanks for being a good sport! Jim H.
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 08:15
Making some more adjustments in addition to merely desaturating colors to greyscale works fine and it is still a great image. It is a pity that the toned version no longer qualifies, I found it simply fantastic. -Gerald
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 06:34
Awesome in bw. - RK
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 05:59
Dearest Cindy, the Yellow was lovely, but really didn't do it for me. I'm also a color guy and so love the color image a lot...but this B&W is probably the most stupendous of the three. In truth, you got very lucky by being forced to make this grayscale. This is the utter best! Traveller
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 05:54
It is very nice in BW, but the original was just suberb and should be framed and hung on your wall. :) ~ Lonnit
BSPN KennyMac04-Jun-2006 03:20
wow
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 02:45
Under the new Greyscale rules, this excellent photo will need to be reprocessed to remove all traces of color. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Jim H.
Canon DSLR Challenge03-Jun-2006 16:46
Most splendid example of duotone or monochrome in a non b/w landscape.
Wonderful Capture , Cindy.
-Techo
cindyd03-Jun-2006 14:13
Thanks Olaf and Arn. Here is a link to the color version if anyone is interested:http://www.pbase.com/cindyd/image/59060951. It was achieved through 2 RAW conversions - 1 for the sky, and one for the land and sunbeams. I then took that image, converted to B&W for this image.

Olaf, I think I like this one better. Too bad since I just ordered a 12x18 of the color before I made this shot! But even so, I'm experiencing a little hangup. I virtually never add artificial color to any of my images - I always work with what is there to bring out contrast and saturation. So outside the 'toning' exercise of this challenge, I feel 'guilty' about this amount of enhancement. However, I did sample the original to get the tone color - so it is a color that was there to begin with! Just the same I might play around with getting the same effect on the sky through RAW conversion for my own conscience. Even though the results are the same I somehow feel it is more legitimate because I wouldn't be adding an artificial color layer . . . silly logic I'm sure. lol

Always interested in thoughts on this . . .

Thanks again, Cindy
Guest 03-Jun-2006 11:13
You know I love this shot. I can't tell you which I like best - the original, colored version - or this one!
Arn03-Jun-2006 08:35
Cindy, this pic is awesome and the burnt out sky around the sky doesn't bother me at all. It doesn't make this image any worse. The end result is stunning.
Canon DSLR Challenge03-Jun-2006 02:37
Thanks guys!

RK, I tried a conversion with exposure all the way down but it was still blown so I didn't bother with it. I guess a graduated neutral density filter would have helped to some degree - unfortunately don't have one. I see what you are saying but it doesn't bother me 'too' much since the eye sort of expects it in those conditions. Still, it would be nice to have a version that was a complete starburst without the big white blob.

Thanks, Cindy
Photogenix03-Jun-2006 02:14
Cindy, for me, the bright sun is distracting from the rest of the wonderful picture.
- RK
Canon DSLR Challenge03-Jun-2006 01:21
OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Breathtaking! Add it to your personal best list! ~ Lonnit
arra02-Jun-2006 20:46
Awesome composition and color!