I've long been fascinated by the work of Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou. Those two are among the pioneers of a popular editing style for black and white architecture photos that is very graphical and introduces strong contrasts and lighting that feel surreal. In this fantastic video by Ben Harvey, you learn how such images are created.
He recorded it more than four years ago, but it just popped up in my YouTube recommendations. Watching it was eye-opening. The time and dedication that goes into editing such photos are more than I suspected, and Ben explains very well how it's spent. You'll also learn that much of the lighting in the final images is all an illusion.
In the video, he shares a set of images he took in Glasgow and then edited over the course of an entire year. He explains not only the how but also the why behind those edits. What struck me the most was the amount of time spent on selections. My typical edits take between one and two hours. But that time wouldn't even get me past the selection phase if I was after results as detailed as Anna's, Joel's, or Ben's.
Even if you're not a fan of such photos, I'm sure you'll learn something from this video because the principles Ben shares can be applied to any photography. And beyond that, it's always interesting to learn about extreme post-processing styles and techniques.
This video is almost four years old and Ben has moved on from this style but I remember how impactful it was on my own work. He explained very clearly his version of Anna Gospodarou's style. Unfortunately the market treated this style as a trend and many of the architects I sell to are over it.
I very much recommend following Ben Harvey's YouTube channel. He never stops experimenting and sharing his success AND failures.
I took a workshop from Joel over 10 years ago. Since then he has created a panel to speed up and enhance the black and white coversion process (I own this) and he has created a software package the takes the masking effort from hours to minutes (I don't own it but believe it). I would encourage anyone to go to his YouTube channel and explore some of his tutorials.
I remember seeing this video a while back and subscribed to Ben's channel immediately. Loved these architectural edits