[Pavel]

Colour, sepia and filter versions, Which is the most effective and why? Thanks pavel

[Keith Alan]

Color.

My first instinct was sepia but it only took a second to realize that I couldn't tell if the rocks had snow on them anymore without the faint blue tint, and that I only knew it was snow from the color version.



It's a really nice composition of an interesting scene, but the bright sky would have brought me back at a different time looking for more drama and/or contrast.
The tree and rocks have a lot of personality, and I feel the little point of land with trees in the distance really makes all the difference because it's a bonus layer the viewer can discover yet is small and subtle and can be moved all around with minor camera re-positioning to create a different balance every time.

Keep this location on your list of places to try whenever the sky and light turn special and you happen to be in the area.

[matthew]

Definite no to the filtered version. At first I liked the colour of it, but the smudging and grain is too heavy for my tastes. (A series might work differently.)

Maybe to the sepia version. I don't have a problem recognizing the snow - the winter itself is pretty sepia around here - but Keith does make a good point. I do like the way the monochrome lets the scene exist as one unit instead of as separate elements.

Yes to the colour version. Despite liking the wholistic approach, the interplay of cold snow and warm tones in the trees makes this my favourite. And again I agree with everything Keith suggests about the sky and the value of having some places to come back to.

This goes beyond your original question, but I do have a couple of other thoughts if you don't mind:

First, I'd clone out the little speck of something in the water; I don't mind little specks themselves, but there's no real clue as to what this is. I suspect it's a buoy or a bird, but it doesn't add anything and I find it distracting.

Second, I'd suggest cropping on the right-hand side. My goal would be to remove the sign on the fence and most of the orphaned tree branches that are poking into the sky from the right edge of the frame, so a little cloning might still be needed to clean up the sky. Exactly where I'd crop this would depend on the shapes that it leaves in the shadows on the rocks in the foreground.

Finally, keep an eye out for the foreground-background relationships when you're shooting and try to avoid unintentionally overlapping objects*. The main tree has a bench sticking out of it, and in the distance there's a leafless tree whose branches are overlapping the evergreens behind it. Moving slightly to the right might have made the background trees separate, but might also have caused other problems -- but this is the real beauty of zoom lenses, they let you choose your viewpoint and your composition in two distinct choices. When you have a scene like this it's often rewarding to try slightly and not-so-slightly different positions to see how the different elements relate to it.

(* juxtaposition, often achieved by intentionally overlapping objects and changing foreground-background relationships, is an important part of photography. All I'm talking about is watching for the details that a camera will pick up but that we often don't notice as part of a general 'good hygiene' practice.)

[enviroguy]

Hi, Pavel! You received 2 great in-depth critiques above. Mine is simpler.
At first I thought I liked #1 best since the colour is most natural and the slight bluish cast enhances the cold feeling of winter. I remember that that my fingers and toes had no feeling after a while. However, the sky is so overcast as have little interest.
I don't think the overall sepia tone of #2 works well in this winter scene. Just not that appropriate. I'd prefer to have a slight blueish cast to emphasize the cold feeling. I'm sure that with your newly found skills that you could try that.
At first look, I thought that #3 was overprocessed; but I actually like it the best. There is some detail in the sky as well. It has a kind of artistic look that I find attractive. I wonder how it would look with a different colour cast.
Regards.....Dennis