At an art festival many moons ago, a visitor wondered aloud if our “Sandhills On A Stroll” image might look better as a black and white. I may have mentioned that the sandhill’s red cap could be considered it’s most distinctive characteristic, and I might have been too dismissive at the time, but our busy schedule was probably the biggest reason that finding a more thoughtful answer to this question didn’t make it to the top of my to-do list. But now our situation has changed, so here we are. I will present a few alternate representations of the image and you can decide for yourself.
Your Options
Figure 1 shows the current version. It is one of our most popular images and eclipsed our older image, “Sandhill Cranes” shortly after it was introduced.
Figure 2 shows my black-and-white conversion. In this one I reduced the contribution of the green channel, making the background a little darker. I also increased the red channel a bit, which made the birds stand out more, especially the foreheads of the adults.
For Figure 3, I tried to evoke a sepia vibe to the monochrome, but the hue was customized to match the body of the birds. I also had the idea of keeping the adults original crown (since, as I mentioned, it was such a distinctive feature). This effect is independent of the sepia treatment and could also be applied to the regular black-and-white. Try to evaluate its contribution separately.
My final “brilliant idea” is in Figure 4. Since the red was so dominant, I changed the hue of the monochrome to the red of the sandhill’s cap. This idea may have gone too far.
And Your Verdict?
So is monochrome better? If so, which one? And does keeping the red cap make the image better? Let me know what you think in the comment section below. But don’t let my (lack of) imagination hold you back. “None of the above” is an entirely acceptable answer if you include your solution in your comment. And if your idea gets the most votes/favorable comments, I’ll give you either a print of your idea or ten dollars toward the cost of any Bee Happy Graphics product or service. Thank all of you for participating (or just reading this far).
Leave a Reply