A set of black and white architectural photography images - this was part of my portfolio a couple of years ago

Fire appliances at Dorchester Fire Station  

Bench. Architecture photography in Dorset taken at one of my favourite photography locations

Swimming pool in a lovely private country house in Dorset

A new private library, Dorset. Stunning interior space. 

Just a room in a farm in Dorset

Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth. Love this fantastic structure. 

The new sports hall flooring at Bournemouth University  

The RNLI Memorial in Poole, Dorset, located amongst the complex of buildings forming the RNLI national base

Picture of a wine rack in a restaurant in Lucca, Italy

Duomo, Florence. This has to be one of the most imposing buildings I have photographed. 

This picture of The Shard in London is one of my favourite black and white pictures of London

The Shard, London.  Extreme leading lines in this London cityscape

A lovely waterside kitchen with a view of Poole Harbour - the most expensive bit of estate agent photography I never did! 

Duomo. Sienna. Just love the details in this stunning ceiling. 

Back to one of my favourite places in West Dorset. Check out the roof then look at the next image. 

This is the ceiling of the new church dome

And these are the tiles on the roof. I'm in danger of story telling here!

Seats at the University of Southampton

A new kitchen in Southampton

Poundbury architecture photographed for John SImpson Architects

Another picture of Poundbury architecture in Dorset

San Sebastian Cathedral in Spain - an immense structure with a stunning roof

Bordeaux Cathedral. Just breathtaking

Art in a vineyard in Bordeaux, France

Barrels, Remy Martin, Cognac, France. In case you didn't know which country Cognac was in? 

Travelodge Central Southampton, Hotel photography in Southampton. 

Construction product photography in Poole, Dorset

A picture of a funky building in Portsmouth

Horndean Technology College, completely refurbished for Hampshire County Council

Barton Stacey School. Panoramic architectural photography in Hampshire. 

Hamworthy Park Junior School, Poole Dorset, extended for the Borough of Poole

School dining room in Hampshire

Winchester School of Art

Hamworthy Park Junior School

Floor in a new house, Poole, Dorset

Stunning new house, Poole, Dorset

Picture of a private housing development, Poole, Dorset

Interior of a new house, Poole, Dorset

Light fitting three storeys high!

A couple of years ago I put together a portfolio of colour and black and white images for submission to the BIPP. I never submitted them. I was never happy with them.

This is the black and white interior set, which to be honest I found in the draft folder of my Squarespace Blog.

I have redone my portfolio for submission to the BIPP, so am finally happy to publish this post with this set of images.

My architectural photography work has come on a lot since then, and I am looking forward to publishing my new portfolio submission when I can.

Rick McEvoy Photography - Black and White Portfolio

Rick McEvoy Photography Image of the week - Friday 29th July 2016 - black and white interior photograph of Chideock Church Dome

This is the black and white version of the picture of the dome in Chideock Catholic Church. 

The extra work in Nik Silver Efex Pro to the colour image below was this

Preset - Full Dynamic Harsh

No filter. I tried all the colour filters but they either did nothing or destroyed the image pretty much. The colours are very delicate in this image, and I was not looking to create something completely different, just an interesting black and white version of the image. 

And that was all. 

Just the preset. 

I have said this before but I will say it again. 

Fantastic software. It has really given me a new interest in black and white photography. 

Thanks for reading about this weeks image of the week, and tomorrow morning you can view another portfolio image. 

Rick McEvoy Photography

29th July 2016

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk

Picture of a red London bus in black and white

The next image in my series of black and white architectural photography images features a picture of a red London Bus. Yes London buses, famous for being red.

Why a black and white image?

Good question.

Why not I say.  A London bus in black and white is fine, and provides the foreground for the picture of skyscraper buildings in Canary Wharf.

Editing of this image from the colour version below to the black and whiter version above consisted of the following.

Firstly, I browsed the presets quickly and chose “Full dynamic smooth”. I just preferred the effect that’s all. Nothing technical – I just liked the effect on this image.

Next I went through the filters, and chose the orange one. I will post this image with each filter selected to show the difference they can make to an image. Obviously the green filter worked the best having such a big prominent lump of red colour in the foreground!

Here is the colour edit of this image.

Picture of a london bus

And here is the RAW file.

Picture of Canary Wharf, London

I like this image, which I took with and without the red bus in. The streak of light raking down the face of the building was actually there – I think I saw this when I took the picture (but cant be sure as it was some time ago),

I prefer the picture with the bus in, as it adds some colour to the scene and places the location as London.

PS – I removed a No Entry sign, down in the bushes to the right of the bus. This removal was actually done in Lightroom, using the Spot removal brush. You can get away with this when you want to get rid of something within something random such as the foliage in this image.

Thanks for reading this post, and please call back again tomorrow where I will revisit the dark and moody picture of the Palace of Westminster – the one with the blurry water. I want to explain what else I did to this image and also produce a couple of variations of this edit.

Rick McEvoy Photography

15th July 2016

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk

Nik SIlver Efex Pro - what have I learnt in my trial with new black and white architectural photography work?

Nik Silver Efex Pro – what have I learnt from the last two weeks?

Firstly, that I love this software.

The presets are incredibly powerful, and I reckon that in 50% of my images just the preset alone is enough.

I like the toning feature, and the fact that you can scroll down the 22 different toning treatments and the effect is instant.

The reason I have not used toning much is because I want consistency within an image set, and toning makes things different. Not the adjustment for coming up with a set of 12 black and white architectural photography images.

I absolutely love the filters - they really do make a massive difference. And in an instant.

I reckon going through my favourite presets then applying a filter might be all I need to do, for non-portfolio images, giving me a quick and slick black and white conversion process.

What don’t I like?

Control points. Too fiddly. I like doing local adjustments using the brushes in Lightroom. Maybe I just need to give them time, but I am really after a quick conversion.

And the fact you have to select “edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments” every time, after selecting edit in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Beyond that it really is down to time. How much time are you prepared to spend on an image?

I love the fact that I can choose a preset, add a colour filter and be done with. I am going to have a go at this with a load of architectural images and see what comes up.

I am clearly not stopping at 12 black and white architectural photography images – there will be a few more. How many I really don’t know but now I am going to have a play with my two step black and white production workflow!!

So by the time you read this blog post you will have seen a few black and white pictures of London on my blog - please keep popping back to see what new work I have posted.

Rick McEvoy Photography

14th July 2016

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk

Tower Bridge, London - more new black and white architectural photography

Such a great bridge, such a great landmark. The colour version is below. But first what did I do to create the black and white picture of Tower Bridge, London?

Not a lot!

The preset I chose was Full Contrast and structure

From the brightness bit I pushed the dynamic brightness up by 29%. 

I boosted the contrast from the 17% in the preset to 41%. Any more and it starts to look odd. I want to push my editing but not too far. 

I want all the detail in the structure but also all the moodiness in the sky. 

Increasing the structure any more just took the image into bad HDR land! And I don't want to go there!! 

The colour filters I love. This time I went with the yellow filter - these filters really do instantly transform an image. So so powerful. 

Another feature I really like is the Toning adjustment. You just hover over the 24 different toning treatments and the image changes. Although for this picture I stayed with neutral, or no toning. 

And finally Vignette lens fall off 1 and I am done. 

Then I hit save, wait for the image to appear in Lightroom, then right click on the image and add to my target collection and the image you see above is in my working collection folder in Lightroom Mobile. 

All so slick. 

I actually find it quicker using my IPhone for adding and sharing images - quicker than on my PC which is really quite ridiculous! 

Next I right click on the original edited version I have made the black and white image from to add that to my working collection, and finally I create a virtual copy of the same image, hit D, select reset and that is the RAW image.

Practise has given me a really slick and efficient workflow. Lots and lots of practise that is.

The editing is done on my laptop, and this post is being written on my IPhone at the same time within the Squarespace Blog app! I do finish off quickly on my PC.

It is all about using the mots efficient tools for the job.

Anyway back to the image - here is the full edit colour version.

Picture of Tower Bridge, London

And this is the RAW file.

Tower Bridge by Rick McEvoy architectural photographer

One more image to go then I regroup, so I will heopfully see you tomorrow on my blog for the black and white treatment of one of my favourite pictures of London.

Picture of the extension to Hamworthy Park Junior School, Poole, Dorset - black and white architectural photography image number 8.

The next image in my series of black and white architectural photography is a picture of Hamworthy Park Junior School in Poole, Dorset.

Hamworthy Park Junior School by Rick McEvoy, architectural photographer

This image was taken for the architect for the extension to the school, Kendall Kingscott. The client was the Borough of Poole.

The colour image is the client issue image. To get the black and white version of this image this is what I did in Nik Silver Efex Pro using the final edited Tiff file from Lightroom.

Firstly, I browsed through the presets. I went through all my favourites, then went through all the presets, but nothing looked better to me that the first preset, which is called Natural.

This was my starting point. And as I am no longer timing myself with these black and white edits I gently went through the other options and selected the following;

Dynamic brightness +53%

Structure shadows -68%

Control point on the cladding – structure +34%

Green colour filter

Vignette lens fall of 2

Then hit save!

Again nice and simple.

Here is the colour image, which to be honest took me a long old time to produce, due to the shapes and very subtle but specific colours in the extension to the school.

Hamworthy Park Junior School, Poole, Dorset, photographed for the architect Kendall Kingscott

And here is the completely unedited RAW image

Hamworthy Park Junior School extension for the client, the Borough of Poole

Image 8 is now done, and tomorrow I will be something slightly different – not specifically architectural photography but architectural photography in the making, also known as construction photography. I photograph lots of construction sites, and it will be interesting to see how a picture from a construction site looks in black and white.

Oh yes forgot to say - this was taken using my Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm lens.

This is after all about me seeing where I can expand my photographic services and add something different – to be able to do this successfully I need to be able to show these alternatives to clients via my website.

Thank you for reading this post, and please call back to my blog tomorrow.

Picture of a reflection of a windmill, Burseldon, Hampshire. New black and white architectural photography image number 7

Picture of a reflection of a Bursledon Windmill, Hampshire. This is black and white architectural photography image number 7.

Picture of the reflection of a windmill, Bursledon, by Hampshire Photographer Rick McEvoy

I was browsing through my Lightroom Catalogue, and wanted to include in this set of 12 black and white images something a little bit different. As regular readers will know I have to sort my collection of Hampshire images due to a geographical error on my part, so this might just be one of the two to go in there – the colour version that is.

I wanted to add mood and drama to this picture of the reflection of a windmill. This is what I did to the image in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Firstly, I selected the pre-set “Full dynamic harsh”

I reduced the brightness by Brightness -9%

Then increased the Dynamic brightness +28%

Next I applied a Red colour filter – I have never tried these before and like the effect they give.

Finally, I added a Vignette – lens fall off 3, and also Burn edges - all edges 2

So not too much really, and I like the result.

Original image capture was as follows

Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm lens. Focal length used was 45mm Exposure was 1/125th of a second, F8, ISO400.

Here is the colour final edit, which I also like quite a lot.

Picture of the reflection of a windmill, Bursledon, Hampshire

And finally the flat RAW image.

Picture of the reflection of a windmill, Bursledon, Hampshire

Let me know what you think of these image and what I am doing to them, and I hope you are enjoying my black and white photography work. Tomorrow I will be posting a recent architectural photography image that I am looking forward to converting to black and white, so make sure you come back to my blog tomorrow at www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk/blog to see what I come up with next!

And after that only another 4 images to go until I have my set of 12 black and a white architectural photography images.

The black and white version of the picture of the Joint Emergency Services Building in Poole, Dorset.

Well I have produced a new image so the black and white version of this Dorset architectural photography image was inevitable!

As some of you will know by now, I really like the Nik Software, recently made free by Google. If I had known how good it was I would have bought it just for the black and white software, Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Looking at this image you can see why. I love this black and white conversion. The pre-set used for this conversion was erm well I can't remember to be honest!

I have never produced black and white architectural photography work before, but now have an ever-expanding collection. On every commercial photography shoot I now produce at least one black and white image. This is quite a quick process, as all I do is take the final edit of an image and open it in Nik Silver Efex Pro. The I scroll though my preferred pre-sets and see if anything jumps out at me as a good conversion. Often one of the presets does the job, but for some images, including this one, I take the pre-set and tweak it a bit further.

Then I hit save and voila the image is in Lightroom next to the colour version!

Nice and easy.

I like black and white images as when you take the colour out of an image other things dominate the view, the textures, patterns and contrasts.

Like with this image. The sky has come out really interestingly, and the building is very much the imposing dominant feature. The textures and contrasts in the building take over from the colours.

And the black and white version is different, which is always good.

So you can expect to see lots more black and white architectural photography from me coming up – I find it a nice break from producing commercial work and it gives my portfolio a new dimension.

Actually this is going to give me three new portfolios, namely

Black and white architectural photography

Black and white interior photography

Black and white travel photography

This is all part of my evolution as a photographer. I will write more about my black and white adventures on my blog over the next months.

Wellington Memorial - a set of five black and white architectural photography images that tell the story of the Memorial

Wellington Memorial - black and white architectural photographers work in Hampshire by Rick McEvoy

Wellington Memorial - black and white architecture photography in Hampshire by Rick McEvoy

Wellington Memorial - black and white architecture photographer in Hampshire by Rick McEvoy

Wellington Memorial - black and white architecture photographs in Hampshire by Rick McEvoy

Which do you prefer?

I like the colour set, and the black and white set. Well I would say that wouldn’t I!

Seriously….

I like the rich, vibrant colours in the colour set. And removing the colours leaves the structures and the textures.

So how did I get the black and white set?

The black and white images were created using Nik Silver Efex Pro, and I used the same Preset, full spectrum, for all the images. Don’t tell anyone but it really was a case of clicking on the image, selecting “edit in Nik Silver Efex Pro”, choosing the preset and selecting save. The images popped back into the Lightroom Collection next to their colour versions.

I used the final colour edits and put them through the Nik Software.

Very slick. Very impressive.

I chose the Full Spectrum preset quite simply as I liked it on the first image – I liked the dark sky with the column of the memorial providing a stark contrast. I thought this would work well with as all five images, and I wanted a consistent look and fell, so really happy with the results.

And I have managed to get these two sets of five images produced quickly and published out in the big bad world, which is really what this is all about.

No point me spending hours in Photoshop if no-one gets to see my work is there? No this is about the content more so than ever – I want to create new work rather than sit and stare at my computer analysing pixels. (And I spend enough time listening to photography podcasts so the learning never really stops).

So I am going to concentrate on getting out and producing lots more new work this summer, as well as carrying on with my commercial photography work.

I hope you have enjoyed my musings and deliberations on the 10 images produced of the Wellington Memorial, and also I hope you have liked some of the images? Please let me know which you prefer, and also while I am on that subject get in touch if you have any photography related questions.

Thanks for reading this post, please call back tomorrow for a rubbish video or a new picture – not decided yet!

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk