Paris in monochrome
Today I take you on a tour of the lovely city of Paris, France - all in black and white. Sure, I generally go for big colors, but change is good, and I am working to embrace my inner monochrome artist, and bringing it all to you right here! Enjoy!
Despite being a "big color" guy, I'm really digging monochromes!
A cafe I came across one evening in Paris
The famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore... that gentleman just happened to walk up while I was prepping for my shot.
Paris is an absolutely gorgeous city. I know, that is not exactly news to anyone. We all know it’s gorgeous, whether we have been there or not. You see great photos from Paris, you read things about how beautiful Paris is, and so on. It’s not a secret.
But now that I am crafting more of my images in black and white - using Tonality from Macphun - I am revisiting many of my previous shots of different cities and recreating them as monochrome images - and they look stunning. It has given me a new lease on life, photographically speaking, and I am really enjoying delving further into this colorless art form.
Standing in the middle of the Champs Elysees one evening, with cars racing by - yeah, probably not safe.
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which sits just outside of the Louvre (not to be confused with the bigger and more famous Arc de Triomphe).
My first post like this was this one about London. I really like how many of those came out. So, I thought I would try it again, but this time with Paris. Paris is always a good idea, right? Right! Honestly, I find everything about Paris beautiful. I have taken pictures of the most basic stuff there, but for some reason I find it beautiful. Call it the Paris effect, I guess.
To me, part of the beauty of Paris is in the vibrant colors that I have witnessed there. Whether it’s a sunset, a landmark, a museum, or something else, to me Paris is a very colorful city, so although I knew I wanted to create a bunch of monochromes of Paris, it almost seemed weird to do so. It seemed like I was going against the identity of the city.
But I learned one thing in the process - Paris looks pretty stunning in black and white, too!
Notre Dame one afternoon
Inside the Musee d'Orsay, which is a fabulous museum and which was once a train station. So beautiful there!
Shopping at the bookstore
That’s one reason I am glad that I have broken with my old habit of only doing things in color. You really do discover not just new things about your images when you convert to black and white, but you discover new things about yourself, too. I honestly had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that I would develop a serious taste for black and white images. I mean, look at my work back over the years. The main constant thread through all of it is that they are colorful.
But before I started experimenting with the techniques myself, I really had no idea how stunning a black and white photograph could be. Well, I did have an idea because I have seen plenty of them, but I guess I just never took the time to try it out on my own images. I have long admired beautiful monochromes that I see online, shot by friends or strangers.
I’m glad that I am finally exploring this art form for myself. I feel like a kid let that has been loose in a candy store for the first time, and the only cost of entry is having Tonality by Macphun!
The Arc de Triomphe - yes, I pushed this one pretty far, but it feels like you can do that with a black and white and get away with it better than with color.
Try Tonality out for yourself - for free!
I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed creating them. Truthfully, most of these were done with very minor adjustments in Tonality - I just chose a preset and applied it. Simple, right? I plan to do more posts like this in the future, and of course am open to any feedback. I’m not as confident in my monochromes as I am in my traditional color photo work, but I’m getting there. You don't get better unless you do something, right?
If you have not yet tried Tonality by Macphun, I highly recommend that you download a free trial and give it a test drive. It is very easy to use (like all their products) but it's incredibly powerful as well. There is SO MUCH you can do with it, and I am also working on a post which will show you just how flexible Tonality can be (coming soon).
Get your free trial here. If you decide to buy it, use the code JIMNIX to save 10%!
Here are a coupe of other resources for you as well in case you would like to learn more:
- My review of Tonality - click through to read my full review of this wonderful software
- A quick video I did of Tonality - click through to YouTube or watch it below
Thanks for stopping by today! Let me know if you have any questions!
Just a street in Paris - shot down low with a wide angle lens
Outside The Louvre in the late afternoon
Night at The Sorbonne
Today I take you on a nighttime visit to The Sorbonne in Paris - a gorgeous area of town that is lively and very photogenic. Come along!
Ah, Paris - you're so fabulous!
I haven't been to Paris in a while, but thankfully I still have plenty of photos from my previous visits to keep me busy for a while. You know, sometimes you just need a dose of Paris.
"Paris is always a good idea." - Audrey Hepburn
I needed one, so I popped into the library and found these shots from one evening while I wandered over to The Sorbonne. I had seen pics online in the past, but wasn't really clear about this section of Paris.
Luckily, it was sort of between the apartment we rented and Notre Dame, and you pretty much always end up at Notre Dame at some point. It's a required stop, right? ;-)
So after a full day of shooting around Paris, there's only thing left to do - get some night shots! Actually, I was pretty tired, so I stopped in here for a few shots and then headed home. While the Metro is very convenient in Paris, I often spend most of my time walking. It's a great way to learn a city, and frankly I can find more interesting stuff to shoot if I walk.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been playing a lot with Tonality by Macphun (see my review here), using it to craft black and white images. I'm a fan of big colors, but I am stretching myself to further embrace monochrome. I've always enjoyed looking at it, but I never took an active interest in actually converting any of my images. So, I thought it would be cool to do that with these images.
Each of them is a 3 exposure HDR created in Aurora HDR Pro (and that review is here), and then taken over to Tonality for the black and white conversion and some further edits, depending on what I was feeling at the time. I think they came out pretty nice.
I plan to keep experimenting with black and white conversions, and I will keep sharing my results here - so check back often! Thanks for stopping by today!
Merry Christmas from Austin, TX
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Austin, TX!
Just wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my hometown of Austin, TX. No, it's not snowing here right now. That would be pretty cool though, huh? I know I would love it.
Nope, these are from a few years ago when we got a little snow, and I ran around like crazy to take some shots, knowing it wouldn't last...and it didn't. But I did get these!
Hope you enjoy your holiday, and I will be back in a couple of days with more photos from my travels. Thanks for stopping by!
The Eiffel Tower
Um...well...this is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I'm not sure what else to say about it, honestly. As you can see, I caught it on a rather cloudy day, and since I was shooting from a boat, a single exposure had to be the ticket in this case. Still, I thought it was a decent pic overall and when I converted to black & white I liked it even more. I added some grain too in order to give it a little more personality. I rarely share monochrome shots, since I love color so much, so it will be probably be another year or so until I share another one. :) Hope you enjoy!
The sentinel of Loch Ard
Some thoughts on why I don't normally post black and white photos...
I have 2 confessions to make, and this might be a little embarrassing. But, here they go...
1) I never think in black and white when shooting.
2) I usually just convert a photo to black and white when I find that the color version sucks.
In other words, black and white is not a core part of my photo-thinking, and is mostly a poor attempt on my part to save a photo from the wastebin. I like black and white photos - and many of them I LOVE - but I never think in black and white. I am a big color guy at heart. Always have been - probably always will be.
Daily Photo: The sentinel of Loch Ard (roaming in the Trossachs)
It's hard to confess those two things, because it's sorta like admitting that I lack vision. A black and white photo can be incredible, timeless and ageless, and full of just as much life (or more) than a color photo. Many of the most famous photos ever taken are black and white (see Ansel Adams), and I love them. But I just don't think that way. It doesn't come to me naturally. So, there you have it, one of my shortcomings as a photographer.
But sometimes I do try it, and it works out (the converting to black and white that is, not the thinking in black and white). I was driving on the edge of Loch Ard in the incredibly scenic area known as Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park (in Scotland). I saw this scene, dumped the rental car on the wrong side of the road (you know how hard it is for an American to drive over there?) and stood there in the howling wind, thinking about how awesome this shot was going to be, in all its full color glory. :) Oh well, I'll take a black and white this time and just shut up about it. Thanks for listening - and looking!
Indecision on the River Thames
This is the classic view of Big Ben, shot from across the River Thames in London. I was there firing brackets left and right, and as a result have several hundred shots from here, all slightly different. As you can see there was some nice drama in the sky that night, but that led me to a point of indecision: do I process this HDR in color or does it look better in black and white?
I decided to offer up both and get YOUR feedback. What do you think?
I like how the orange color just pops, as well as the streetlight on the bridge, in the color version. But in the monochrome the details of the Parliament buildings are richer, and the shadows of the buildings in the river seem to stand out better...hmmm...so hard to decide.
Windswept tree at Enchanted Rock
Thanks so much to everyone who visited and commented here last week - I really appreciate it and will catch up soon!
Last week was Spring Break here in Central Texas, so the family decided to take the week off and head up to Fredericksburg, which is an awesome little town up in the Texas hill country, about 1.5 hours from Austin. We mostly hung out and relaxed but I did get a couple of opportunities to go out and shoot. One afternoon we decided to hike up Enchanted Rock, which is a massive pink granite boulder nearby, and which rises over 425 feet. It's quite a climb! It's dome-shaped, so it's a hike instead of what you would call traditional rock-climbing.
This was shot on the back side of Enchanted Rock, but you can get a feel for the size and shape of Enchanted Rock from this photo. I saw this lone tree sitting there, seemingly braving the elements for an eternity, and just had to shoot it. This image makes two in a row in black and white, so I think I will return to color tomorrow! I miss color already! :)
Strike a pose
...and now for something completely different!
I rarely ever shoot photos of people, rarely convert shots to black & white, and almost always produce HDR photos. This is a major departure for me! I shot this last year on the big Thomas Hawk photo walk here in Austin. This is a local model named Eight (well, ok, her name is probably something else, but that is what she is known by). Several local photogs do shoots with her, but it ain't my thing. Anyways, she showed up for that photowalk, and was hitting some poses by the lake while folks snapped away. I joined the fray. Why not?
Above the mountain
Continuing with the winter theme, today I have a shot from atop a mountain in Beaver Creek, CO. I had arrived there and had some spare moments, so I was of course driving around and looking for things to photograph - which isn't hard when you are in the mountains, and it has been snowing. Everything is beautiful. I originally took a 5 bracket set for this one, but instead opted to take a single exposure and convert to black & white. It's probably a cliche, but snowy scenes do look great in monochrome.
This Great Court
This is a shot from inside the British Museum in London. It's an awesome museum which I really enjoyed visiting, even though it was a quick visit for me. It was my last day in London and I made sure to squeeze it in. I enjoy going to museums and admiring all the various creations - sculptures, paintings, etc. It gets me fired up to go shoot some cool photographs and create my own art! Plus, museums usually have cool scenes you can capture. This courtyard with the awesome roof and architecture is one example!
Boiling clouds
This is the second image I have posted that was taken from behind Pike Place Market in Seattle, looking out at this lovely range of mountains in the distance. This one is remarkably similar to this shot, mostly because they were taken mere seconds apart from the same spot. I fired off a lot of shots within a matter of minutes, because it was incredibly beautiful and the clouds were literally boiling and churning, and changing by the second. It was incredible. I am posting this because I just confirmed a return trip to the lovely Emerald City in a few weeks, and will have a bit more time to shoot on this upcoming trip. I hope to get some cool shots! There is so much to shoot up there, and I can never get it all, but I can sure try!
Also, today was an awesome day in New Mexico. We left the northern mountains and headed out to Ojo Caliente, where we sat in their hot mineral springs, where you can literally feel the stress melt away. It was excellent, and definitely rejuvenating! We followed that up with a visit to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu where Georgia O'Keefe once spent her time painting - below is an iPhone shot from there. Talk about inspiring landscapes - I was shooting left and right. I can certainly see how that place got her fired up to create. We landed in Santa Fe, from where I am typing this. Exploring Santa Fe tomorrow - a town I love. More soon!
Mountains draped in clouds
I really enjoy viewing black and white photographs, though I do not employ that technique too often. I tend to be a big color guy, if there’s such a term, but now and then a monochrome just seems to fit the bill better. This is one of those cases. I was walking around at Pike Place Market in Seattle and after snapping a bunch of shots there, I walked around the back side - really more off to the right and sorta behind it - where there is a very small park which offers up a commanding view of these lovely mountains. I snapped away. The clouds were just spectacular.
I’m a big fan of the Nik Software suite, which fits perfectly for me as a plug-in to Aperture, and I used HDR Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, and Color Efex Pro all on this single exposure. It’s fun using all these great tools!
By the way, since this image has both ocean and mountains in it, is it called a landscape or a seascape?? hehe I am really not sure how to classify it.
Staring down a mountain
I was hiking around at the top of the slopes in Beaver Creek, CO and saw these guys as they were pondering their descent. I thought the clouds and the sky were awesome looking and grabbed a quick snap. Not a lot to say about this one - it's a pretty simple shot. I will add that walking in the snow is pretty hard when you sink up to your knees with each step! That makes it a little hard to compose a shot in a hurry - but, there are worse things, right?
Here it is in black and white - which looks better?
The Golden Gate Bridge
I tried to think of an interesting title for this one, but I couldn't come up with it. Then, I thought I would write up some interesting bits about my shot, but again I fell short. The Golden Gate Bridge is big, beautiful and bad ass. What else can I say about it? Oh yeah, it's in San Francisco. Haha, hope you enjoy the shot!
A tree, a fence and a camera
This is actually an old image that I posted a long time ago. No, I am not out of new photos to share - in fact I still have thousands to go, and some upcoming travel that will yield me even more. In this case, I came across this photo and wanted to approach it a little differently than I did the first time - using Nik Silver Efex Pro - which is fairly new to me but which I have quickly decided is awesome!
I caught this image outside of Jackson Hole, WY several years back while on a guys’ trip up there to see Yellowstone - which was amazing. It was a fabulous trip and despite having very limited photography knowledge at the time, I came back with some keepers. This is one of them.
Here is the originally posted version, which was in color:
