Category: Monochrome Photography

San Francisco’s Pier 14

The San Francisco Embarcadero has become a wonderful venue – ever since the decision was made to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway following the 1989 earthquake. One of the many new features in Pier 14 – a pedestrian pier that is eminently walkabout from along the Embarcadero.

One of my favorite spots to shoot an image is this one – where the pier and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge “converge” with Yerba Buena Island in the distance.

The original image was shot with my tiny Sony RX100M6 at f/4, 1/1000 sec. and edited in Lightroom Classic. In Lightroom I used the range masking feature to selectively adjust a gradient in the sky portion of the image. Range masking allows adjustment of the tonal range (or color) to which the gradient is applied. In this case I wanted to darken the drama in the clouds without also darkening the bridge or the island itself.

Black and White Lightroom Monochrome Photography Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Sony RX100M6 Photoshop Photoshop CC San Francisco/California

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date August 8, 2019
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Otherwise known as the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Bridge!

Image made with my Sony RX100 Mark VI handheld at 24 mm, f/6.3. Edited in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

Black and White Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Portraiture

The Language of Black and White

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date August 8, 2019
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From a post I wrote earlier for InMenlo.com…

I’m just back from a weeklong workshop titled “The Language of Black and White” held at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Taught by Cira Crowell, the week involved a deep dive into the key aspects of black and white photography — a genre that I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy very much. Cira (@ciracrowell) is a superb black and white photographer who I met last summer in a workshop taught by photographer Christopher Michel (@chris_michel)

Each day of the workshop had a theme: Who, What, Where, Why, How and When. After introductions on Sunday evening, Cira asked us each to share what black and white photography means to us. “I’ve come to appreciate the timeless quality of black and white photography,” was my comment. Others shared insights about the simplicity of black and white, how dropping away the color helps add clarity to a photo, and more.

We began each day with a short reading from a wonderful Georgia O’Keeffe book: “Some Memories of Drawings” to help us set a mood for the day. O’Keeffe comments on many of her early drawings describing what was in her mind as she moved from concept to drawing on the paper.

Tags santa fe

Black and White Monochrome Photography New Mexico Photography Photography - Black & White Uncategorized

What’s behind that door?

There’s a week of new learning ahead in Santa Fe!…

I’m here for The Language of Black and White workshop by Cira Crowell.

iPhone Xs Max Lightroom CC Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photoshop CC San Francisco/California

Image Processing: The Overton Technique

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date June 22, 2019
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My photographer friend Roxanne Overton has pioneered using an easy technique in Photoshop for creatively merging multiple images of the same subject. Doug Kaye wrote about the technique – and how to do it – on his blog a while back.

While multiple images taken from slightly different positions often generates the most interesting results, you can sometimes be surprised by the simplest approach.

Here, for example, is an image taken with my iPhone along the San Francisco Embarcadero yesterday that I processed using the Overton Technique. It was generated from one image. After opening the image in Photoshop, I duplicated the layer and then horizontally flipped it – creating a mirror image. Auto-blend then combined the two layers to generate this results – which I tweaked a bit further back in Lightroom to black and white, etc.

If you’re an Adobe Creative Cloud member and have both Lightroom and Photoshop, give this technique a try. After playing with a few image sequences, you might find one that feels downright brilliantly creative!

Black and White Fujifilm X-Pro2 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Fujifilm X-Pro2 San Francisco/California Street Photography

Chasing Light on San Francisco’s Streets

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date July 30, 2016
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Yesterday, I met up with my photo buddy Doug Kaye at San Francisco’s Ferry Building for a couple of hours of San Francisco street photography. I was just back from 10 days in India – and, frankly, in a bit of a time warp still recovering from a bit of jet lag. In spite of my handicap, we had a wonderful time!

I opted to shoot with my Fujifilm X-Pro2 with the 35mm f/2.0 lens (50 mm equivalent). I setup the film simulation for Acros with the yellow filter – my favorite for street photography with people – and also tweaked the highlights to +1 and shadows to +3 to add more contrast to the JPEGs coming right out of the camera. I was shooting in RAW+JPEG but, as it often turns out, the JPEGs were just perfect coming out of the camera so they were the only images I imported into Lightroom.

We spent the morning chasing light – over the last couple of years our eyes have become pretty finely tuned to seeing the light – and looking for opportunities to exploit it in interesting ways. We walked from the Ferry Building up California Street to Kearny and then to Sutter before settling for lunch at one of our favorite spots: E&O at 314 Sutter.

Looking at these images from yesterday, I’m struck by the light/shadow captures. We took our time, shooting slowly along the way. Just a great way to spend a Friday morning on the streets of San Francisco!

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Tags acros

Black and White Fujifilm X-Pro2 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Fujifilm X-Pro2 San Francisco/California Street Photography

Fujifilm X-Pro2 on the Streets of San Francisco

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date May 21, 2016
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On Friday, Doug Kaye and I met up in San Francisco for one of our Friday Fotowalks (!) – a pretty steady ritual when we’re both in town at the same time.

I took the occasion to shot exclusively with my new Fujifilm X-Pro2 – this time with the Fujinon 18-55mm zoom lens installed on the X-Pro2 body.

For the last year or more, I’ve been shooting with fixed prime lenses – mostly the 35mm equivalent lens on my Fujifilm X-100T. More recently, I’ve added a Fujifilm X70 to the mix – with its 28 mm equivalent lens. But I decided to try the 18-55mm “kit” zoom on the X-Pro2 after seeing images from another X-Pro2 shooter on Facebook.

I was very happy with the results! The 18-55mm zoom has always been highly regarded – and it was a lot of fun to shoot with it again.

Some of the resulting images follow.

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Black and White Fujifilm X70 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Fujifilm X70 Street Photography

At the Pantheon in Rome

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While I was in Rome in April in a workshop led by Valérie Jardin, we spent a lovely morning at the Pantheon.

A couple of us, including my new friend Ken Lyons, found a lovely cafe and had a cappuccino while watching the crowds. A lot like watching the fire in the fireplace – interesting little insights here and there.

After coffee, Ken headed over to stand behind this obelisk and spent a couple of minutes lining things up – as I watched – and waited – learning from him.

This image was my result – shot with my new Fujifilm X70. It sure brings back great memories of that lovely bright morning in April in Rome!

Tags roma, Rome

Black and White Fujifilm X-Pro2 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Fujifilm X-Pro2 San Francisco/California Street Photography

Life is a Mystery

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Yesterday Doug Kaye and I met up for one of our Friday photowalks in San Francisco. Along the way, we stopped by the Bank of America Building – at least that’s what it used to be called – at Kearny and California Streets.

The sun is still reasonably low in the sky – and it casts these dramatic light and dark shadows on the south side of the building. It’s a perfect stage – just takes patience to wait for a subject to walk into the frame. It was Good Friday – so there wasn’t a lot of pedestrian traffic into/out of this building in San Francisco’s financial district. But, we’ve learned to be patient – and I was rewarded when this woman walked out the door and into the frame.

The mystery part of the image for me is her quiet reflection in the column across from her on the right. I love her hair and hands in that reflection – balancing off her walking into the light. Sometimes we get lucky!

This image was shot with my Fujifilm X-Pro2 using the Fujinon XF35mmF2 R WR lens and processed with the Acros film simulation.

Here’s another edit of this image – suggested to me on Facebook by Theo Streibel.

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Black and White Fujifilm X-Pro2 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Fujifilm X-Pro2 San Francisco/California Street Photography

San Francisco with the Fujifilm X-Pro2

Post author By Scott Loftesness
Post date March 19, 2016
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The streets of San Francisco provide such a wonderful range of opportunities for street photography – it’s become a bit like an old glove that just fits.

Even on a mostly fog covered morning, we discovered opportunities to capture interesting images – with me shooting with a new Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the Fujinon 23mm f/1.4 lens (35mm equivalent). I shot both JPEG and RAW – and post-processed a few of these images using Lightroom’s camera calibration for the Acros black and white film emulation.

I love the tonality of Acros – and want to spend more time shooting with it in camera. Meanwhile, the X-Pro2 has provided a new challenge – with a bit of a learning curve.

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