I don't remember one of these taken from the train before but knew it was yours straightaway of course - your monochrome work is always an inspiration... easy Fav for this one.
i think part of the story is that i will often over-expose or under-expose in camera in order to get the most out of the light or the dark (whichever is going to become the emphasis)...
i work with Lightroom 5 and one of the things i do when i am looking for high contrast with a bit of a fuzzy feel is decrease clarity by quite a bit... i'm not sure what the comparable for the clarity slider is in PS or other software - basically it decreases contrast in the midranges... then i go to the tone curve and select strong contrast...
basically this gives me a near silhouette finish of the shot... i then convert to black and white using nik silver efex... generally increasing contrast again, but decreasing structure - at least in the whites...
back in LR, i will use the clipping tool and mess with the whites and blacks, to get them where i want them to be... lots of pure white and pure black... sometimes i will use the gradient tool or paint brush to fine tune...
that's it in a nutshell... of course it varies for each image for any number of reasons... and i will occasionally use photoshop to do some dramatic whitening or blackening of certain areas if the sliders in LR don't suffice...
hopefully that makes some sort of sense and is useful :)
i think part of the story is that i will often over-expose or under-expose in camera in order to get the most out of the light or the dark (whichever is going to become the emphasis)...
i work with Lightroom 5 and one of the things i do when i am looking for high contrast with a bit of a fuzzy feel is decrease clarity by quite a bit... i'm not sure what the comparable for the clarity slider is in PS or other software - basically it decreases contrast in the midranges... then i go to the tone curve and select strong contrast...
basically this gives me a near silhouette finish of the shot... i then convert to black and white using nik silver efex... generally increasing contrast again, but decreasing structure - at least in the whites...
back in LR, i will use the clipping tool and mess with the whites and blacks, to get them where i want them to be... lots of pure white and pure black... sometimes i will use the gradient tool or paint brush to fine tune...
that's it in a nutshell... of course it varies for each image for any number of reasons... and i will occasionally use photoshop to do some dramatic whitening or blackening of certain areas if the sliders in LR don't suffice...
hopefully that makes some sort of sense and is useful :)