Streets of Barcelona - A B&W Journey

[arjubx]

Had a recent trip to Europe and spent 2 days in Barcelona. Loved walking around and created a series of black & white shots that captured my time around the city. Appreciate any comments or feedback.

1) Walking

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2) Crossing Shadows

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3) One Headlight

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4) Sharing the Love

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5) Waiting in the Rain

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6) Reflections in the Light

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7) The Swap

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[greenboy]

@arjubx,

I especially like the shot with the scooter, and the bottom one!

 

[Gerard]

Really very nice, my favs are #3 and #6.
Any specific PP methods?

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Had a recent trip to Europe and spent 2 days in Barcelona. Loved walking around and created a series of black & white shots that captured my time around the city. Appreciate any comments or feedback.

Nice work, I love the black and white treatment.

 

[Wisertime]

Nice shots. I didn't know it got cold in Barcelona.

 

[AlterKnabe]

@arjubx
I personally judge your B&W treatment as quite fine, I like the strong contrasts. I suppose you used LR to produce the B&W version.
Nevertheless some criticism - hope you don't mind.
#2 reminds me only in "bad focused" - sorry.
#4 catches my eye - but I personally would prefer to see the vertical walls as verticals, these walls are tilted to the right, what I find diverting my attention.
Besides these remarks: well done, thank you for sharing!

 

[Aperture Don]

#2 reminds me only in "bad focused" - sorry.

Nope - the shutter speed was too slow.

 

[arjubx]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and compliments so far.

@AlterKnabe
#2 Very fair, the reality was that I accidentally bumped the camera into MF when going for the shot (remapped my button right afterwards) and almost deleted the image on the spot.

I ended keeping and liking it enough due to how the highlights and shadows interacted. Maybe it is better if I keep it only for something like Instagram where it is much smaller and the OOF look is not as distracting.

#4 Good catch, went back to the image on LR Mobile and noticed I forgot to apply rotation/distortion fixes, will fix and repost at when I get a chance.

@Gerard
Both these images started with a high contrast/moody BW conversion. Below are the unique edits that created the final feel of each of these 2 pictures.

#3:

• I was pretty aggressive with dodge and burn to really emphasize the dark ally look in the front with some large exposure reduction gradients positioned to create a "V" effect on the lower half of the image.
• I then went back and lightened up some of the spots on the walls so it was not all black.
• From there I dodged the headlight and the space in front of the scooter to emphasize the lights.
• There was also a bit of negative dehaze in a small spot right in front of the scooter to amplify the headlight's effect.
• Finally some touchup to smooth out really bright and dark spots on the top half of the image to prevent them from pulling the viewers eyes away from the rider.

#6:

• After the BW conversion, it actually was quite flat and not what I envisioned in my mind.
• The foreground was much darker than what you see and I was really looking to call out the symmetry in the image.
• The biggest thing that I did was a large dodge gradient for the ground in front of the ocean that was angled to match the waterline. Basically this is what made the bottom half of the image as white as the top.
• This large gradient of course made all the foreground objects look weird so I had to go back and burn the shadows, trees, etc back to a darker black.

*edited post to make it easier to read

 

[apicius9]

I love the city and was there quite often. For me, the scooter picture captures the old town spirit very nicely. I could swear I have walked through there myself Thanks for the nice pictures & memories.

Stefan

 

[arjubx]

I love the city and was there quite often. For me, the scooter picture captures the old town spirit very nicely. I could swear I have walked through there myself Thanks for the nice pictures & memories.

Stefan

Happy to help! My favorite part were narrow streets and old town feel, definitely going Togo back in the future as 2 days was just not enough.

 

[NigelD]

Interesting series - love #2 and last one. I'm in Barcelona soon - I hope it's not too wet...

 

[kb1142]

Wonderful contrasts. Nice work for sure.

 

[trandg]

I loved all of these shots, but in particular liked #2 because it was different. Less technical, more about the art and imagining the scene details that aren't there. Nice set.

 

[NigelD]

Sometimes it's the details that aren't there that make the shot - I agree.

 

[arjubx]

Excited this got featured. Thanks for all the feedback.