After the colour blast that was yesterday’s post, it’s time to give the cones a break and switch to monochrome. Because I work so much with colour, I forget to play around in black and white. It’s taken some years to figure out the situations when black and white work better than colour, and thankfully in the digital age it isn’t necessary to make that decision before shooting. (The last time I shot black and white film was in high school!) Colour photos can be converted in post-production, with an array of options for black and white conversion: channel-mixing, contrast, or HDR if that’s your thing. It may seem counterintuitive, but converting to black and white does not make editing a whole lot easier except for one thing: white balance.

These photos were all shot the same day with Jessica Mezey in the historic centre of Porto, which in the height of summer makes it challenging to keep the tourists outside the frame. São Bento Railway Station (above) was the busiest of these three spaces, but we got what we wanted and none of the security people asked us to leave, which is always a good thing.

Note to self: post more black and white!

Câmara Municipal do Porto

Torre dos Clérigos

August 10, 2015
Album: Portugal [Summer 2015]