Man in a Hat, Mahon

Taken with a Huawei P20 Pro smartphone.

Birmingham Street in Winter Light

A dash of smartphone photography for your perusal today.

The light was stunning on this crisp December day, crystal clear and casting characteristic winter shadows. I had arrived at Birmingham in a high-rise car park and was stopped by the view. My mobile phone provided the tool to take advantage of the scene.

I converted the file to black and white in Lightroom and made a few modest tonal adjustments. I added the black border to stop the lighter edge tones from getting lost. The shape of the striding man in the middle puts me in mind of Louis Daguerre's photograph Boulevard du Temple of 1838, which is often cited as the first ever photograph to contain human beings.

Alliums against a wall

I did a little smartphone photography the other day.

The original file was in colour. I imported it into Lightroom, converted it to black and white, and cropped it to a more agreeable shape. I then spent a bit of time working on the tones, ensuring that the alliums stood out against the background. I used mainly the basic sliders in the develop module, along with some neutral density filters to even out the tones. This was the biggest challenge because the original has some subtle but visible shadows and I wanted to neutralise them somewhat. A useful tip is to squint to see if the tone works. You can also try standing back from the screen to see if anything looks uneven.

I've included the original shot below so that you can get a sense of the processing. It's wonderful to have such smartphone technology. It was one of those occasions where I was without a camera, on my way to an appointment, and just happened to spot the wall. Having my mobile with me gave me the option to exercise my creativity and see if my visualisation of the black and white image would work.

The original file before processing.