Due to popular demand, following on from my fine art photography in Glasgow video, I have produced a tutorial for post-processing long exposure black + white images. This genre is particularly popular with fine art architectural photographers, and it is the secret to creating unique, eye-catching images of architecture.
There are lots of resources on the internet and social media, showcasing people’s best work; but it is difficult to find advice on post-processing techniques. As covered in my video, I started by purchasing the below ebook by Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou, and they are now offering video courses; although I have not seen them. I am sure that they will be spot on!
This video shows you my thought process, the principle and the vision, the software, selection technique, layers and finishing touches. Oh, and the important factor…taking your time.
I hope that you find this tutorial helpful, let me know in the comments if it gets you started in the right direction.
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Music by:
Mr Scruff – get a move on
Bonobo – Sapphire
Quantic – transatlantic
Music by: @dcuttermusic /
Love your photos (and videos) mate! How did you learn how to use Ps? Keep up the good work
I "had" no interest in cityscapes but a fine photographer can make the ordinary into the extraordinary. What a fine demonstration video, simple and complex at the same time.
Near the very end I found my hands wanting to come up and applaud.
Thank you very much, my view points of the city have changed dramatically.
I came to watch this video thanks to an email you answered me earlier today. I really enjoyed it because you made of this a fun matter and it looks simple and plain now. Now it is time to put it to work and see what happens.
I also bought Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodorou and I found it fastactic too. Its a great starting point and I will watch the tutorial.
Regards
José Monroy
Mexico
Excellent stuff,very new to photography and post production,some great tips,and love your work 😎
By Jove I think he's got it. Brilliant artist Brilliant teacher. New fan. Thank you sir.
New subscriber. Very interesting and inspirational video. Have you tried using the pen tool for selections? I'm still learning how to use it but it does deliver nice crisp selections in the right hands.
Now going to have a binge watch of you other videos 🙂
USE THE PEN TOOL! NOTHING IS BETTER! TRUST ME – LEARN IT!
Cool video. There's some great tips in there and now I'm eager to give them a go. Just a pity I find you to be smug, it really makes it hard to watch, well listen to actually. 🤓🎲
As a teacher and also course attendant of the aforementioned author may i congratulate you on an excellent presentation. Well done.
Mate as I said before, GREAT vid. Been studying it and practicing over the last couple of weeks. Question for you. When creating you vision, do you think it works best to imagine the light from a single source (e.i. as it it would be sunlit) or does it work better to have a more surreal lighting scenario, such as two different light sources? Cheers
Simple and clever.
Whats the meaning of 'Fine Art'?
ND Big STOPPER long Exposure TS lenses and a Good sense of composition.
Shoot that on 5×4 Film sheet😉
Just found now channel and loved your portfolio – new subscriber 🙂
Love to see your shooting process with discussion of your vision against what and why your shooting.
Personally I dislike this kindda architectural photography. It says almost anything about the architecture itself. They just look like under exposed high contrast photography with interesting geometry look. It has almost none perception of space, morphology or concept to that matter.
Hi Ben – really enjoyed your videos and the channel that I had just discovered a couple of days ago. Your b&w fine art images are exactly what I love and your balance of strong highlights and deep shadows is very cool! I love that you are not afraid of pure or super deep blacks. The only suggestion on the videos I could make is to slow down when showing the final photograph image. Maybe pan slower and definitely have enough time showing the e tire image full screen. I do find that you might d of skip through the final results a bit – I am sure your viewers would love to look at your images in more details. Just my two cents. :). Looking forward to your next video!
didi you actually take several exposures(over/under /midtones) with your mind set on the edit process.
Great tutorial btw.
Wow. Never would have suspected there was so much involved (I'm a fine artist and very un-pro photographer). Very impressive. As someone who puts a lot of work into his art I'm heartened to know that true fine-art photography isn't just point and click and apply some filters. There's obviously a hell of a lot of work in it when it's elevated to a level.
Thanx Ben – just subscribed!
great video, thanks! music in background is kinda disrupting tho once you start explaining things
So what you've shown right is that retouching takes a lot of time! I have been a professional photo retoucher and image creator for the last 15 years. And it is a lot of work. And that's fine! There is nothing wrong with working hard to get an image the way you want it! No plug-in will ever do what manual labour can! So, even with the smartest tools and plug-ins out there, there is no better.tool than your eye! (Same goes for cameras). But, there is a better way to make selection in Photoshop than the lasso-tool and it's the pen-tool! Learn how to use that and you will save (some) time and have better selections! And trust me, nothing will ever beat that… If I can help you by showing how the pen-tool works, let me know!
Love the video. One suggestion – you have a great Rode mic – you should use it 🙂 Love your photography and your content! Keep up the great content!
thannks a lot your work its amazing …and you really looks like tom cruise ..hahhahahaha…abot the seleccion i like the way you do….
Muito bom, Ben. Congratulations. Infelizmente não sei trabalhar com Phot, só com LR 🙁
wots a Tierra Coffee?
Thank you!
Very good explanation and demonstration Ben – I couldn't have done it any better myself! Thank you for the shout-out and the mentioning of our book.
i found it complicated but that is mostly my lack of photoshop knowledge. But it is pretty awesome that you share your skills that you gained over years.
Fantastic video. Absolutly fantastic.