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Those members that live in Sydney would be aware of the Anzac statue at the eastbound approach to Anzac bridge. It faces due west (into the setting sun for symbolism) and at midday today I stopped and photographed it. The sun was at 90 degrees to the statue which cast a rather large shadow on the face and part of the body. I actually wanted that for effect as it represents all that have fought and died so therefore the face should be somewhat anonymous.

Below is pretty much as shot, just a slight shadow adjustment to the dark areas to bring out a bit of detail. I actually think that the colour version doesn't look quite right with the bright blue sky, so I did a B&W with a slight sepia tone to sort of give it a more "historical" feel, but I'm not sure about that either. The straight B&W looked pretty ordinary, hence the sepia tone.

Help? Opinions? Advice?

i think if you got stuck into some dodging and burning it would work a treat... best thing is to just play until you're happy.

cheers

John, I definately like the b/w version better. The coloured one seems to have a blue caste on the statue.

Cheers
John

john, the black and white gives it a much nicer feel, but i think the lighting has taken away from a lot of the detail in the face because it was behind the statue which is a shame, but its great shot otherwise.

Thanks for the feedback guys but the more I look at it, the more I realise it just doesn't work.. It's boring. Next time I'm going past I may try it from a more acute angle (ie stand right underneath it and shoot much more vertically).

I think you nailed it best yourself John - the image just doesn't demand attention as it's currently composed. If these two were all you had, I'd up the contrast on the monochrome version and keep that. The blue cast in the colour shot makes the whole thing look washed out.

Best reshoot, methinks. I don't reckon the bloke's going anywhere in a hurry so pick a nice sunrise, sunset or interesting sky to really show him off.

Think you're right Manta. BTW, a couple of you have mentioned the "blue cast" . In PS it is not visible and I even did an A4 print and it doesn't show it either but on the compressed for web version you can see it is quite obvious.