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Home » Blog » Tutorials Fine Art Black and White Photography » HOW TO CREATE A FINE ART PHOTOGRAPH OF EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

September 25, 2015 by Julia Anna Gospodarou

HOW TO CREATE A FINE ART PHOTOGRAPH OF EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

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Urban Saga II - Empire State of Light © Julia Anna Gospodarou

Urban Saga II – Empire State of Light © Julia Anna Gospodarou

In this tutorial, I will show how to create a fine art photograph of Empire State Building

Urban Saga II – Empire State of Light

ESB – The symbol of New York City. This is the way I see it.

The Story of the Image

In my new black and white fine art image in the series “Urban Saga”, Urban Saga II -Empire State of Light, I aim to show one of the symbols of New York City in a way that suits my idea about this city and the way it makes me feel.
Here is a quote from Tom Wolfe, that I totally agree with, because it is very close to what I think about this city and how I feel about it.

“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”

– Tom Wolfe

If you ask me what is my favorite city in the world I will always hesitate between Paris and NYC. I think a combination of both would fit my personality perfectly and would solve my dilemma about which city to mention first when I am asked which is my favorite one. A combination of both cities would be for me a combination of history and modernity, of softness and boldness, of thought and action. This is very much how I see myself, this is why I love these two cities so much.
To get back to the image, today I will show you how I see New York City, but my next photo will most probably be from Paris.

My Vision for the Image

We all have a certain way we see a place, and this has to do with our sensibility, with our experiences, with what we know about that specific place and, in many cases, it also has to do with that first impression that place made on us. As artists we feel the need to show all these things through the art we create and, since we photographers use photography to express ourselves as artists, we will feel the need to express all these feelings through the images we create. This is what I try to do in all my images, either I create a fine art photograph of Empire State Building or of any other subject, and this is no exception.   What you see here is how I feel about New Your City and about the Empire State Building in particular. I will continue my story about this city in my next photos and I will try to also share with you some of the things that helped me create these images, both artistic (vision) related, as well as more technical aspects (shooting and processing techniques).


 I use black and white photography to express myself because this suits my artistic sensibility, but just like generally in art, this is only a tool and not an end goal, I could just as well use color or even another medium than photography, because the end goal is to express myself and not to create a certain kind of art or use specific tools.


One of the things I intended to do in this image, besides recreating the feeling I have when I think about this subject and I relate it to my story, was to highlight some of the buildings I love most in New York City: the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center 1, and my favorite, the Spruce Street Building by Frank Gehry. How did I do this? By using light. By playing with intensities of light and giving more importance in the light chart to these buildings so they stand out and the eye can go to them. Also, I needed to prioritize the importance of these buildings in the structure of my image. I did this again by using light, which is the most important tool we have in photography, and by assigning a different light intensity to each building, using more or fewer highlights, depending on the role it plays in my image. I am not going to tell you the order these buildings should be seen but you can discover it if you look at the light and shadow intensities in the image.

You can read this article I wrote if you want to consult a more in-depth tutorial about the creation of a fine art architectural photograph.

Technical Realization – Processing

Working with Vertoramas

Trying something new as a different way of expression

The image is a 4 shots Vertorama, shot with Canon 5DMK3 and Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8.
Vertorama, which is in simple words a vertical panorama, is something I’m trying for the first time here and I love the result. These days I’m again attracted to the vertical format which was one of my favorites before my “square period” and working with vertoramas gives me a whole new way of seeing the vertical format, not to mention the extra detail you get from vertoramas and panoramas because you stitch more images showing each part of the scene in a larger size.

Image format – 6:13 – an original format you will not find in any book

The format I chose for this image is not a very conventional one, because honestly, I don’t care much about norms, but about what works best, and in this case the best for me was a 6:13 format. You won’t find it in any book, but just like one of my favorite photographers, Arnold Newman was doing, I’m subordination the image format to the aesthetic result and you will probably see more of these “original” formats in the future. It may give some more work to the ones who will print my work, but I’m sure they will be understanding.

Trying a new format, as this accentuated vertical format for me, or a new technique, like working with blended images in a vertorama, is one of the best ways I know to kick-start a new wave of inspiration in my work. The same can happen when experimenting with different subjects or different gear – lenses, filters etc.
If you need some inspiration in your work, this is one of the first things you should try: look at the world in a different way and the inspiration will come running.

A bit more on the technical side, working with panoramas or vertoramas requires for you to decide this in the first place so you be prepared to take more than one shot of your scene, that combined will cover a larger field of view. You can create still or long exposure panoramas or vertoramas, it is up to you and your vision what you opt for, and then you need to stitch them together. I use for this Photoshop that has a very straightforward tool for stitching panoramas and works great even when used in its Auto stitching setting. Its name is Merge to Panorama and you can find it in Lightroom too if you select your images to stitch and right click on them.

Black and white processing with Photography Drawing

After stitching all the partial images in a final one and cropping the result to the desired format, working on the image is pretty much like working on any other single image.

What I do, whoever is following me knows it already, is to use Photography Drawing, my black and white processing method to create my fine art images, to process them. You can find all the details on how to use Photography Drawing in my book written with Joel Tjintjelaar, From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography – Architecture and Beyond and in my video tutorial and processing eBook Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography – Creating (en)Visionography. Photography Drawing means processing a black and white image by using the principles of classical black and white drawing. In a word, applying Photography Drawing means processing your images as is you were drawing them. This is the method that gives you the most control over your image because, just like if you were using a pen to create on paper the effect you want where you want it, the same way you cause your software. All you need to do is to tell it what to do and where. This is what I do. I “talk” to my software and tell it what to do where.

Here is for instance how one of my “drawing layers” looks for this image. You can see here how I applied the light or shadow effect I needed, selectively and at the intensity I needed, so I can create more depth in the image, something that the original image lacked. It does look like a black pencil drawing, isn’t it? And this is because the final image is the result of combining the straightforward conversion to black and white with my “drawing version” of this image. This was a more difficult image due to the many details I had to deal with but generally the technique I use is much less complex.

Urban Saga II - Empire State of Light - Empire State Building, New York City © Julia Anna Gospodarou - Photography Drawing Processing Layer

Urban Saga II – Empire State of Light – Empire State Building, New York City – Photography Drawing Processing Layers

Working with selections

One thing that helps you to focus on a certain area in Photography Drawing is to use selections to isolate that specific area, so you can treat it differently from the others.

You can use all kind of selections to reach your goal, depending on the image. Starting with Quick Selection and going as far as Luminosity Masks or channel elections, depending on how complex the image is.
After you made your selections all you have to do is to draw inside these selections, by using a multitude of tools your software offers you.

Here is a fragment of my selection channels so you can see what were in this image the areas i wanted to process differently from each other so I can have the most control over light and shadow.

Urban Saga II - Empire State of Light - Empire State Building, New York City © Julia Anna Gospodarou - Selection Channels

Urban Saga II – Empire State of Light – Empire State Building, New York City – Selection Channels

Technical Data – Urban Saga II – Empire State of Light

TECHNIQUE:

Vertorama (vertical panorama) created by stitching 4 images
Short Exposure images shot on tripod
– Camera and lens settings:
1/100. @ f/6.3, 200 mm, ISO 100

CAMERA: Canon 5D MKIII
LENS: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

Black and white processing – Photography Drawing (PhtD)

– LR5, PS CC , Topaz B&W Effects  (B&W Effects extensive review) + Topaz DeNoise + Topaz Detail + DxO View Point.

FURTHER STUDY RESOURCES – FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY, ARCHITECTURE, LONG EXPOSURE

You can find more resources about fine art black and white photography, (en)Visionography, long exposure photography and architectural photography in my extensive collection of photography tutorials. To receive my future tutorials directly via email you can subscribe to my website.

More about how to create fine art photography, from vision till processing and the final image you can read in my book From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography, with co-author Joel Tjintjelaar, and in my video tutorial Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography - Creating (en)Visionography a hands-on tutorial accompanied by an eBook presenting my processing workflow, or attend one of my workshops.

Julia Anna Gospodarou - (en)Visionographer

Julia Anna Gospodarou Fine Art black and white photographer Julia Anna Gospodarou is an internationally acclaimed photographer, architect with a Master degree, author and highly sought-after educator, teaching workshops and lecturing around the world. Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, author of the best-selling book From Basics to Fine Art - Black and White Photography , with high distinctions in the most important photography competitions worldwide (International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year, World Photography Awards SWPA and Hasselblad Masters finalist, as well as 80+ more awards), widely published internationally in books and magazines, Julia is passionate about the art in photography and striving to spread it into the world.
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Instagram post 2194592222091727111_371712180 One more (en)Visionography workshop sold out in a matter of days. Thank you again, with all my heart, for your trust. See you soon in NYC! #ILoveMyStudents <3 #envisionography #newyork #juliaannagospodarou
Instagram post 2171397510157696903_371712180 In a world of smartphones and Instagram-size photography, in a world of instant gratification and of quantity over quality, printing large is a statement and a challenge, and if you know me you know that I never shy away in front of a challenge. :) I always try to print large and not because “bigger is better” but because, especially for my kind of photography, where detail is so important, only if you go large can you experience the image in a powerful way, and the intensity of the experience the viewer has with my images is an essential part of my work. This is my last project with some really large prints most of them larger than 1 meter and some going even to more than 2.5 m long. Those of you who are printing large know how many challenges you have to face and how many efforts you need to invest in creating one piece of work. You may need days on end of hard work to create an image that is suitable for large prints. Getting all the details right, tweaking the light so you have the right amount in the right place, dealing with software quirks and artifacts, working sometimes at pixel level, all this requires the heart and mind of a perfectionist who is willing to spend long hours on making the best piece of art they can. This is what I’m always trying to put everything I have into the making of an image that can be printed large and I cannot tell you what an intense satisfaction I have when I see these images printed in huge prints like these and knowing they will inspire the people who will own them. I’m trying to put a piece of my soul, a piece of myself in these images and I hope the collectors will see those pieces of me in these images and will have a powerful experience looking at them. More limited edition prints of my work you can find here https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/keyword/fine%20art%20prints/ To order just send me an email at info@juliaannagospodarou.com Printed by Marios Weinwurm #limitededitionprints #blackandwhiteprints #blackandwhiteprinting #juliaannagospodarou #fineartprint
Instagram post 2164127833631204521_371712180 _Cloud Echo II_ Chicago Chapter II in the Cloud Echo story. There is a certain belief that in order to tell a story you need to make documentary or street photography. Personally, I don’t agree with this belief. I think fine art photography can tell stories in just as powerful a way as the most powerful documentary photography and sometimes even more intensely. The difference is that the stories you can tell in fine art photography are more subtly and more symbolically presented and they involve more imagination both from the artist who creates them as well as from the viewer who interacts with them. In fact, I think this is the meaning of fine art photography, to tell a story in a subtle way versus an obvious way. I believe that if you don’t feel the need to take a moment to interact with a fine art photograph to understand and connect with it then that photograph wasn’t subtle or symbolic enough, and when things are too direct in fine art photography this deprives it of its most important power, the power to make us dream. We don’t make fine art photography to show how something is, we make fine art photography to show how WE are. To show what drives us and what our aspirations look like. This is why I always try to tell a story when I make a photograph. I tap into my imagination and find inspiration in my own life and experiences as well as in what I see around me. These buildings you see in my photographs, they are all characters in the story. This is how I like to look at them, this is how I see them in my mind. People, places, happenings, interactions, impressions, feelings. Not just buildings, not just architecture but much more. This is what I do. I always try to go further. I always aim to create more than just photography. If you want to follow me in this world of imagination you can do it through my prints. Here is where you can find limited edition prints of my work https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/
Instagram post 2153810268660880955_371712180 _Cloud Echo I_ Chicago One of my favorite places for photography in Chicago – Millennium Park. I have shot countless images in this area and I still haven’t had enough of it. It is one of those places where every step you take offers you another unexpected view if you open your eyes and let the magic of the place guide you. I don’t know about you, but there are places in this world where I truly feel I am in trance while photographing and this is one of them. There is a connection that happens without me even actively searching for it that has to do not only with the place itself but also with the experiences I relate to it and the stories I make in my mind about it. My students know that I am a strong advocate of creating stories in the images we make and using photography in the same way writers use words to write a novel. So this image is part of my “novel” about Chicago and there are many more chapters that will follow. To see more of my Chicago work, and other “novels” from other places, and for limited edition prints from all these places, here is where to look https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/ > < #architecture #architecturephotography #architecturelovers #creative_architecture #cityview #chicago #chicagophotography #millenniumpark #cloudgate #longexposure #longexpo #longexposurephotography #formatthitech #ndfilters #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #fineartphotography #fineart_photobw #mono #monochromatic #monochrome #ourplanetdaily #places_wow #fantastic_earth #bestoftheday #phenomenalshot #photoshop #juliaannagospodarou #envisionography #photographydrawing
Instagram post 2141475817868023927_371712180 _Converging_ architectural design Mario Botta Old times, good times! From my Athens workshop 7 years ago - sounds like a lifetime ago :) An image I love and one of my most popular images. 7 years later, I'm preparing to teach another workshop in Athens this weekend. Excited! #fineartphotography #artphotography #contemporaryphotography #fineart #artwork #blackandwhite #bw #bnw #bnwphotography #bnw_city #Insta_bw #monochrome #monoart #bw_society #architecturephotography #urbanphotography #architecture #architecturefineart #creative_architecture #cityview #envisionography #photographydrawing #juliaannagospodarou #instadaily #instagood #beautiful #mariobotta #athensarchitecture #athens #photographyworkshop
Instagram post 2138702779892263256_371712180 Like a Harp’s Strings V - Strings Last image (for now) from my award-winning and very popular series, Like a Harp’s Strings. The most minimal in the series, this time. What I did to create the images in this series was to shape the light so to build a three-dimensional look, just like the way I was doing for years when drawing in black pencil. When you draw an object, in order to make it look 3 dimensional you need to use light and render the shapes so they show how the light is reflected. This is, in simple words, the way I construct my images and this is what Photography Drawing means. I gave to this method of processing by shaping the light this name because when working like this I do the same things I do when drawing, either I make an architectural drawing or I draw anything else. Over the past years this method has become extremely popular especially for architectural photography and you can see many examples of this approach, which makes me really happy because I’ve always been happy to inspire others, no matter what I was doing, architectural design or photography. Order limited edition prints of this image on my website https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/ #fineartphotography #artphotography #contemporaryphotography #fineart #fineartprints #limitededitionprints #blackandwhite #bw #bnw #bnwphotography #awardwinning #monochrome #monoart #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #architecture #architecturefineart #creative_architecture #envisionography #photographydrawing #juliaannagospodarou #instadaily #instagood #bnw_city #bnw_planet #architecturehunter #archdaily #travelphotography #calatrava #athensarchitecture
Instagram post 2137125606630834093_371712180 Like a Harp’s Strings VI - Encore One more image from my award-winning and very popular series, Like a Harp’s Strings. What I did to create the images in this series was to shape the light so to build a three-dimensional look, just like the way I was doing for years when drawing in black pencil. When you draw an object, in order to make it look 3 dimensional you need to use light and render the shapes so they show how the light is reflected. This is, in simple words, the way I construct my images and this is what Photography Drawing means. I gave to this method of processing by shaping the light this name because when working like this I do the same things I do when drawing, either I make an architectural drawing or I draw anything else. Over the past years this method has become extremely popular especially for architectural photography and you can see many examples of this approach, which makes me really happy because I’ve always been happy to inspire others, no matter what I was doing, architectural design or photography. Order limited edition prints of this image on my website https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/ #fineartphotography #artphotography #contemporaryphotography #fineart #fineartprints #limitededitionprints #blackandwhite #bw #bnw #bnwphotography #awardwinning #monochrome #monoart #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #architecture #architecturefineart #creative_architecture #envisionography #photographydrawing #juliaannagospodarou #instadaily #instagood #bnw_city #bnw_planet #architecturehunter #archdaily #travelphotography #calatrava #athensarchitecture
Instagram post 2135666686938722576_371712180 Like a Harp’s Strings IV - Radiating More reshares of some of my older award-winning and most popular images for my new friends and followers. The fourth image in one of my most popular series, Like a Harp’s Strings. I really love this series and resharing it now brings back so many beautiful memories from when I was working on it. Our photographs can really re-create the path of our lives if we look back on them. I find this fascinating. Order limited edition prints of this image on my website https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/ #fineartphotography #artphotography #contemporaryphotography #fineart #fineartprints #limitededitionprints #blackandwhite #bw #bnw #bnwphotography #awardwinning #monochrome #monoart #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #architecture #architecturefineart #creative_architecture #envisionography #photographydrawing #juliaannagospodarou #instadaily #instagood #bnw_city #bnw_planet #architecturehunter #archdaily #travelphotography #calatrava #athensarchitecture
Instagram post 2133563002553533030_371712180 Like a Harp’s Strings III – Rising This is one of my most popular images ever and is the 3rd reshare of some of my older award-winning images. This series was so popular back in its days that it practically started a style – what is now called Photography Drawing - meaning creating 3D volumes and shapes with light and shadow, the way it is done in painting and drawing. I'm teaching this style in my workshops together with what is known as (en)Visionography and you can see many examples of this style around these days. Order limited edition prints of this image on my website https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Architecture/Architecture/ #fineartphotography #artphotography #contemporaryphotography #fineart #fineartprints #limitededitionprints #blackandwhite #bw #bnw #bnwphotography #awardwinning #monochrome #monoart #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #architecture #architecturefineart #creative_architecture #envisionography #photographydrawing #juliaannagospodarou #instadaily #instagood #bnw_city #bnw_planet #architecturehunter #archdaily #travelphotography #calatrava #athensarchitecture
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