As Mother Nature (and work) have been a bit uncooperative the past couple of weeks, I have decided to revisit a few images from my last trip to Oregon back in October.

If you have been following me for a bit, you may have seen my post about Astoria and Fort Stevens. If you read that post, I hope you saw the photograph of the wreck of the Peter Iredale. The Peter Iredale was an English steel 4 masted barque cargo ship that ran aground on the Columbia River Bar in 1906 during a storm. (The Columbia River Bar is the area where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. This area is extremely treacherous, even today.)

I thought the photo of the wreck remains would look really good as a black and white image. So here it is.

I took the original color image and converted it to black and white using Photoshop’s black & white conversion options. I used the “vivid landscape” option but increased the green color channel a bit over the default and slightly decreased the red and blue color channels a bit.

Then, I made a small adjustment to the contrast and brightness settings. Lastly, I applied an 85 warming filter at 30% to give the photo that subtle warmer tone.

So, here is the original color image for comparison.

Here is what I like about the black and white version. First, I think the monochrome sets off the graphic qualities of the ship’s remaining structure, and this contrasts nicely with the softer qualities of the waves. Also, I think that the monochrome allows the viewer to focus more on the tones and composition of the photograph. My intent was really not so much to document the wreck as to create an appealing graphic image. In my opinion, the back and white does a better job of the objective.

What about the color image? Well, I really love the contrast of the deep rusty reds of the ship in contrast to the various rich blue hues of the sea. The colors are vivid, and I just think that the original image is quite striking.

But those are my opinions. What do you think? I would love to know which you like better and why.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed the photography disertation. Thanks so much for the visit, and have fun out there!