how is this achieved?

positivenote

hey all,
came across these wonderful images and would love to try something similar... is there any PP going on or is it just beautifully worked light?http://www.gabrielecroppi.com/gc/metaphysic-of-the-urban-landscape-new-york

frozenfrozen

Controlled light and crushing blacks in pp. really nice style

ScumLord

When your converting to black and white in Photoshop you can control the saturation of each colour so you could make greens appear white or black. That effect could be achieved quite easily in Photoshop using the black and white tool along with some curves adjustments.

DaireQuinlan

ScumLord wrote: »

When your converting to black and white in Photoshop you can control the saturation of each colour so you could make greens appear white or black. That effect could be achieved quite easily in Photoshop using the black and white tool along with some curves adjustments.

I think the OP is talking as much about the use of accents in the shots as he/she is of the contrast down on the toe of the curve. That certainly can't be 'achieved quite easily in photoshop' or at all, it requires light. Either the photographer has actually lit stuff, or more likely he's gone out and found those little nooks and crannies in every city that are lit only by one sun beam, or the glare from glass in another building. They're quite lovely. I think the contrast works well for them, though ordinarily I wouldn't be a big fan.

ScumLord

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I think the OP is talking as much about the use of accents in the shots as he/she is of the contrast down on the toe of the curve. That certainly can't be 'achieved quite easily in photoshop' or at all, it requires light.

No you can't change how the light has fallen in the shot but the black and white effect he is using can be achieved in photoshop. It looks to me like there is a fair amount of PP going on in those photos.

.Longshanks.

I agree with DQ. Probably also used spot metering

mehfesto

There seems to be a bit of flash on the people in the shots - the light isn't following the line of the sun in some of their shadows.

But I do agree with ScumLord. It's not that hard to paint black over something with a soft brush in photoshop to create big areas of nothingness. That bridge shot would be particularly easy to edit within, given the defined frame of it. I'd argue that there is a lot of PP in these shots. Why else can we see only one car's rim and not the rest of the machine?

I did something similar myself:

The top left of that had cars further down the road and a bogey sloping streetlight. It took them out for effect. There's nothing wrong with PP in shots that aren't documentary photographs.

frozenfrozen

There is definitely PP, but the shot in camera would have to be somewhat close to the finished images, just because of the lighting that can be seen.

Never anything wrong with PP, unless PP is the whole focus of the image, then it's not a photograph anymore, it's graphic art..... (IMHO, don't shoot me!)