Aging Gracefully....+b&w

No nits, love the clouds too.  Ron

Yeah, I've done some high speed driving while looking for comps. Not a good long term survival strategy... 

This is an interesting image that is not necessarily pretty but definitely tells a story. Processing looks good but my inclination is that this image would be more powerful and graphic in B&W. No biggie, but if you have more to work with I also would like a tad more room on the right.

This is a marvelous image. Having driven through this area for years, I wondered if you two would come up with any really good oak images. No doubt about it, this tree has character. Good seeing on your part. The branches are all twisted yet there is great balance and spacing in them. I agree that a b&w would probably be inferior. I speculate that that's because the tones at the ground level will probably merge together a bit as they did in your previous post (this one's better). The weakest element is the top layer of the sky, which could use a bit more color but you can only shoot what's there.

The contrast of life (grasses) and death (tree, especially the tree's shape) is a nice metaphor for me.  Great streaming sky to go with it.  Processing looks fine.  Tree branches do appear a bit darker than the rest of the trunk / large branch areas, especially in areas of the sky.  It is always a tricky processing issue, when trees poke into a bright sky.  At least for me when processing.  While tempting to brighten those areas of trees, I often narrow my gaze when actually looking at trees that boarder a  bright sky and they actually do appear much darker, as our eyes try to compensate for a bright sky.  I try looking lower on the tree, and though the bark is the same tone, no sky allows our eyes to expose for those areas so they look brighter.  Sooooo, looks fine.  Enough of my my blah, bla.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions so far. This is extremely helpful - especially since I like to make my images the best they can be.  And often times, it takes comments and opinions from others - including non-photog's as Igor recently pointed out.

@Dave. Agree, that I think with the make up of the sky, and the "story" that b&w could make that more powerful. Agree, and here's my effort.  Also, this is a different frame, clouds moved and yes, I had more room on both sides. Originally I wanted to eliminate the bg oaks on the right, but including them I don't think takes away much.

@Igor, Thanks for the comments.  This is a different frame and I think the top layer of clouds is a little better defined (not much diff in color version though.)  And to your point with the grass/land, that was my concern. So in processing the b&w, I increased the yellow channel and targeted contrast in the grass as well.  I think it's enough to help tell the story with the fallen branches as well.  Least I hope so.

@Harry.  I'm glad  you mentioned the dark branches up top, I was wondering if anyone would.  Good analysis too; in the RAW file, there is detail there, but as the branches get smaller in the frame, the details are compressed to the eye and in the web version, they go dark.  I'm ok with that, after all, I new I was doing a silhouette type image. ;-)

I wanted to ask.  What you you all use for converting to b&w?  I will use the simple PS adj layer, but often times I'll use Nik's Silver EFex Pro.  What really bothers me about this concept of the plugin is that you're simply picking between a number of options without really knowing what the H you're doing. Although I do make adjustments in the app, not just defaults.)

thanks again!  Click to view large

Lon

Lon, I prefer the color version because the sky is most interesting on its own and thereby complements the structure of the oak in an amazing way to me. A real story teller for me, I like it a lot.

Peter

A glorious old oak!
Not the tiniest nit from me..
Sandy

Lon - I usually just covert to BW in PS using the BW converter under Adjustments.  I have tried using the Adobe Camera Raw converter, since it appears there are more color options to adjust to fine tune, but it just hasn't seemed to work as well for me - less contrasty results maybe.  After converting in PS, I sometimes use ACR and further adjust clarity, and use other adjustments in the main control to see if I can improve in things.  I have seen some great results with the 3rd party tools, but I am honestly too lazy to try to figure them out at this point!  I'm overwhelmed with PS as is, and unless my results are consistently poor, I'll probably just stick with the PS conversion.  It seems there are many ways to convert, I love simple

There is a lot to unpack here, Lon.  First of all the original image is really nice.  I have been looking at dead trees around here, intensely, for the last couple of months.  We have had a lot of fires in the past, so thousands of burnt acres.  Lots of knarly trees, but it's proving difficult to find the right set up.  For me, the branches are really important, they hold my eye just enough to then catch the main show.  Love the silhouetted presentation.    The b/w is superb in my eyes.  One thing I could see and are extremely difficult to avoid,  are halos around the dark silhouette of the tree.  I have learned to deal with them, but are time consuming and tedious, for me.  I use Silver Effects Pro, I like the dynamic brightness control, and the soft contrast as a starting point.  I then use the color channels to tweak.  That's all I use it for.  Then it goes to PSCC, and Tony's actions for all final adjustments.    Anyway............I love the tree and the image.   What a great way to spend the day.  Looking for the right combinations of elements while driving is a way of life for me. I love it.

Excellent image, Lon, and well worth the effort to get it. The B&W is excellent as well. This image certainly looks great in B&W. Which is better? Neither. Simply a matter of personal preference and the situation called for.

B&W all the way. Much more drama and impact to my eye. Real nice!

I use CS6 B&W in adjustment layers to convert. 

I like the color version, Lon, but to me, the B&W carries the mood. The tones look great.

I tried using Silver Efex for B&W. For some things, it works nicely, for others...not so much. I am now using the B&W adjustment layer in concert with TK's masks for conversions. In fact, I went back to using only ACR and Photo Shop for all of my processing.

You really caught some interesting skies behind your trees on this trip Lon. The tree is the star here, of course, but that is a pretty cool sky too.

I almost always convert to BW using one of the rgb channels. Occasionally I'll use the luminosity channel from lab. It's not too rare that I'll use various parts of different channels that I like, using masks to blend them into a final version.