Vella, interesting street scene in a residential neighborhood in Paris. Indeed the light waws very harsh, so the B&W interpretation achieved a better image without the overexposed areas. There is interaction among the youngsters but the basketball is not visible in the foreground group, perhaps in the background group. Nice composition with the Church in the back separating both sides of the open space.   Posted: 08/04/2026 15:09:16

Vella, I feel it as though the monochrome image has both positives and negatives. Isaac has alluded to the former. But to my eye, the basketball players, especially those at the far end of the court get lost in the monochrome image. you have said nothing about the lens that you used in this image, so without that my eye tends to think that the images are stretched vertically. I could be wrong! But it just looks that way to me.   Posted: 08/05/2026 21:05:21

Hi Vella
with the contrasty conditions you had to deal with on the day mono was the best way to go you say its not the sharpest it looks OK to me,the young people add a sense of scale and they also add tremendous foreground interest,the buildings down the side and in the background not only hold the eye in but show the enviroment in which the basketball court is situated,the more I look at it the more I see,and the more I see the more I really like it.   Posted: 08/07/2026 12:47:29

Hi Vella, Interesting French architecture showing kids at play. The basketball is in the hands of the young man in the background. You mentioned that your image was a little soft. One of my favorite images was soft as well and has won medals and one best of Show. That said, we don't have to be perfect to make a good image.   Posted: 08/07/2026 18:32:56

Given the strong light and contrast, you made the right choice in changing to b/w. The line of light coming in from the bottom left corner really takes the eye into the image. However, I think it would be improved if the action was in the foreground than in the background.

By the way, the latest version of ON1 RAW has got an AI driven sharpening feature to fix softness.   Posted: 08/08/2026 16:28:41

Agree with your assessment re: background   Posted: 08/08/2026 20:58:03