Ice Tea anyone?

[theantiquetiger]

You darn Canadians had to send that arctic blast down here last night, it got to 20 deg (-7 deg C). This is a small coffee shop that forgot to turn off the auto-sprinkler on the front courtyard

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3762/11820952564_d4bc614607_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11820952564/)
ice tea (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11820952564/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7385/11824197845_30283ddddd_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11824197845/)
ice tea2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11824197845/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2826/11824980136_d6890c202e_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11824980136/)
ice tea color (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/11824980136/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

[aubintbay]

Only too happy to help you get a nice shot like this one! The b/w treatment here is really working.

[Marko]

Nice capture AT.
I really dig the highlight detail in the icicles!
I like the BW overall here as well though on my monitor, the black chairs and the blacks in general may (not 100% sure) be a bit too black.
- If you're up for it I'd love to see a version with maybe a 15% or so reduction in the blacks. (meaning the blacks should be globally reduced in intensity by about 15%)
If this were mine, at the end of it all, to finesse the contrast even further I might burn the shadows in the icicles. This would add contrast and make the details in them pop harder. I find it's always the small details that make photos sing their loudest - and local contrast control is a big part of it (for me anyway).
Hope you had fun there - Lots of photo ops if u can brace the cold. :)

[theantiquetiger]

Nice capture AT.
I really dig the highlight detail in the icicles!
I like the BW overall here as well though on my monitor, the black chairs and the blacks in general may (not 100% sure) be a bit too black.
- If you're up for it I'd love to see a version with maybe a 15% or so reduction in the blacks. (meaning the blacks should be globally reduced in intensity by about 15%)
If this were mine, at the end of it all, to finesse the contrast even further I might burn the shadows in the icicles. This would add contrast and make the details in them pop harder. I find it's always the small details that make photos sing their loudest - and local contrast control is a big part of it (for me anyway).
Hope you had fun there - Lots of photo ops if u can brace the cold. :)

Done, added to the original post. I don't notice much of a change in the black of the chairs because the were a solid metal black. I do notice the big difference in the icicles after burning the shadows of them.

I also added the color version

[asnow]

You darn Canadians had to send that arctic blast down here last night

Welcome to our world. I quite like this picture (the B&W one). I have to admit I'm not too fussy with the color one. As you indicate and seem to be quite open to editing your pictures, I thought I'd give it a shot. To be honest I'm not sure if I've improved it or made it worse.

p.s.
**Edit**
Now that I can see both on the screen I think your ice tea2 is better than mine.

[theantiquetiger]

Welcome to our world. I quite like this picture (the B&W one). I have to admit I'm not too fussy with the color one. As you indicate and seem to be quite open to editing your pictures, I thought I'd give it a shot. To be honest I'm not sure if I've improved it or made it worse.

p.s.
**Edit**
Now that I can see both on the screen I think your ice tea2 is better than mine.

No problem editing my images. It appears you lost detail in the icicles. I like my second edit above (which is actually Marko's edit suggestions, it just took me 10 secs to do it)

[Hillbillygirl]

Nicely done on that 2nd edit AT, and anytime us Canucks can help get ya' a beautiful shot such as this, more than obliged to help.:p Just a little taste of our winters eh.;)

[Marko]

I like your 2nd edit AT. I also like the colour version but the saturation is a bit high.
Not sure if you did this while you were playing, (This is something i do all the time and highly, highly recommend) but did you see how it would look when you went overboard (maybe 30% increase in shadow detail).?
I'd love to see additional shadow detail as a test (and I would guess the detail is indeed available in the file)...unless you already tried it and it looks bad. Milking details from the extremes is a fabulous way to make images sing louder. Hope that may help.