This week’s Friday image was shot on my trip to Wales last week. It was 10:00 in the morning on Saturday and the rain was coming down hard from the dark sky. My friend checked the weather forecast and announced the weather would clear at 11:00 and that we should leave now to be ready for the storm breaking. I didn’t believe the forecast but agreed.
At 11:00 there was a break in the clouds and within 30 minutes the sun was breaking through the storm as predicted (Ed, if your reading this well done. All that new computer kit at the Met Office is paying off). As usual when a rain front breaks you get dramatic lighting and this was no exception. We raced over to the small coastal town of Aberdaron where we thought the light on the beach would be interesting; we weren’t wrong.
At the time I had the camera set to shoot in black and white as there wasn’t much colour from the contrasty lighting. To make the image more interesting a 6 stop Lee ND filter was used which gave a shutter speed of around 1 second. The image above represents pretty much my vision for the finished image (which by the way hasn’t had a lot of processing). It wasn’t until I saw the colour version that I realised there was a better option. Printing the two images at A4 the black and white looks good until you compare it side by side with the colour version. At A3 and larger the colour image is particularly impressive.
Let me know if you agree the colour version is better and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Colour one does it better for me. It’s almost monochrome anyway, just pale browns rather than greys. Foreground rock stands out more from the surrounding sand and the contrast of the flowing water on the right also stands out. But, if I had only seen the BW version I would have been happy. And 10 years ago you’d have been kicking yourself for loading te wrong film that morning.
Great assessment – thanks. And spot on about the film. Actually I would probabl have been using slide film so it would have been black and white. Black shodows and everything else blown out to white. I do love digital.
Often I have a hard time making the monochrome vs. color call, but not this time. The color version is really cool!
Thanks Mark
Monochrome seems to bring out the clouds, and the color one brings out the rock, better, I think.
Yes it does, I hadn’t really noticed that. I am tending to focus my attention on the rock and surrounding surf. Perhaps this is why I prefer the colour version.
I agree, the colour version is much better, that golden light just makes the image. Glad the forecast worked out for you!
Thanks Ed, pleased to see your getting better with those weather forecasts.
Color version all the way. The gold and brown tones add so much more depth and interest, and the streaky white motion of the water seems to show up better against the color (odd as that seems). Nice work!
Oooh I like both of these, the BW is just lovely, but I agree there is something about the intense gold tones in the sand that is damn near metallic. I think the colour would look really interesting printed on the right medium.
Its images like this that make me want to get filters!
I like both images but like the colour version better, those gold tones are super.
Thanks. I think its the golden tone that really appeals to me also.
Go get the filters, you won’t regret it. Thanks also for the comment about it being almost metalic. I might have a go at printing on some metalic paper I have.
This is an interesting scene and one which presents some difficulty for the eye as it has three distinctive zones. The background sky with very distinctive clouds holds your eye’s interest, then the mid-ground offers a little variation with interesting waves, and finally the foreground has very interesting compositional strength. To me this creates some confusion in one’s mind by wondering from foreground to background. The monotone b/w image only contributes to this confusion, while the color version creates more separation and, therefore, more interest. I believe this is why your viewers are voting for the color version.
Thanks John. I hadn’t really thought about the three zones but now you mention it I can see it.
The light and colour in this are fantastic!
Have a nice week end!
Photographer Gil Zetbase
http://www.gilzetbase.com/
Thanks Gil. I’m pleased you like it.
Which camera you used for this? It would be great if you could include the camera model as a tag as well in your posts. I follow your work keenly and it helps me judge better what kind of camera is capable of producing what kind of work.
No problem. This image was captured using an Olympus OMD EM5 with a Panasonic 45-150 lens. The EM5 is a Micro 43 camera and the example in the explains how I produced a 32″ x 12″ print from this shot. And in case you are wondering, it is a single image and hasn’t been stitched from multiple frames. Hope this helps.