An Exploration of Black &White PhotogrophyBy:Bryan Calabro

Mirrored Vanity

Best Photo:

In my opinion, this was the best photo that I took on my black and white photo adven-ture.

This picture portrays the lofty yet-elegant glow of a pearles-cent mannequin head posi-tioned in an untidy window.

The reflection in the glass merits my love for this picture (Bell Furniture) but my in-ability to capture the whole mannequin’s head and thus cutting out the bottom half is an amateur mistake. Even if I didn’t like the way the bot-tom half looked, I could have cropped it out with many of the softwares supplied to me by my University.

Building Set 1 of 12

Wily Wind Gusts

In this picture, I wanted to capture the essence of femi-ninity alongside a massive masculine bulding in the background.

I had a couple problems with this picture. The wind never blew her hair perfectly straight, and cars kept pass-ing by in my frame.

To fix this picture, the wind would have to have blown her hair perfectly straight, and I would want to have more of her body in the pic-ture. To spice the picture up even more, I would want her to be taking a picture of the building with a camera.

I only had one problem with my crop, it included the little piece of a parking garage, so I took it into Photoshop and used the “Content-Aware” automatic fill to fix the building. I was pleased with the results.

I took this picture because the reptetous nature of the buildings was intriguing to me. I couldn’t get a good angle on the shot of the building so I took multiple pictures from different angles and I was not satisfied with any of them. Instead of scraping the picture, I found a portion of the picture that I liked and cropped it.

Trippy Towers Building Set 2 of 12

Balconies To HeavenI loved the angle of this picture as soon as I took it.

As soon as I converted the picture to black and white, I also relished in the fact that the top of the picture slowly disap-pears. It is almost as if there is no end to the picture and the towers go forever.

Building Set 3 of 12

The mistake with this picture lies with the branch hanging haphaz-ardly over the picture. I got rid of it in my second picture with Pho-toshop

Circles To Heaven

Building Set 4 of 12

In this picture I wanted to convey the same concept of never-ending circles to heaven.

Sadly, I didn’t take the picture at the perfect angle that I wanted but I did manage to get an alright shot. I had to elimninate the branch once again to get what I wanted.

A Bent Proposition

I like this picture because it looks like a ramp of some sort

shooting toward the sky.

If I included more of the sky in this picture it would have

been better.

Building Set 5 of 12

Balanced InequalityWhen I first took this picture and cropped it, I was a bit disgruntled because it came out unequal on the sides. The unequality of the photo made the rep-resentation of my final product all the better.

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Tunnel Vision

Balanced Inequality

Buliding Set

7 of 12

Tunnel VisionI perceive this picture to be like looking through a tunnel into another world. A world of gray death, and dismal beauty.

Passan HallThe best part of this picture is the repeatetive white windows on the left side of the building. It would have been better if got the whole building in the picture, but nevertheless this picture is still satisfying.

Building 8 of 12

Passan Hall View TwoThis shows another angle of Passan Hall. The tree in this picture adds to the voyeuristic approach toward the overall outcome of the picture.

Building 9 of 12

Building 10 of 12

A Day In the LifeI took this photo outside of my apartment window. It was all crooked when I took it so I turned the picture and used content-aware to fill in the missing parts around the picture. The final product was definitely worth it.

CrossI decided to take a close-up picture of the top of the Church because I wanted to get a glimpse of the cross on the top.

Building 11 of 12

Building Set 12 of 12

Funnel Shapes

With this picture, I used the content aware feature in Photoshop to fill the middle. You can see where the two pictures come together to create a funnel-like shape in the middle. I love all the randomized boxes in this picture.

Tower Set 1 of 5

Simple ObservationLove the concept of this picture but I did not get the perfect shot. I didn’t get the clock tower fully in the picture and I cut the bottom of my “observer’s feet”. I am satisfied though with my final result.

Tower Set 2 of 5

Tilted Tower

For this picture, I was trying to capture the point of the Tower in the corner of my lense. I captured it, hence succeeding in my mission.

Tower Set 3 of 5

Time TurnedTo fix this picture, I would want to have taken it more on center. Also, I would need to show more sky above the top of the tower to bal-ance the photo out.

Eye On Time

Tower Set 4 of 5

For this picture, I wanted to get up close and personal with the clock itself. I turned the picture in Photoshop because it was crooked and made it straight.

A Simple Water TowerI love water towers and when I stumbled upon one of them in Wilkes-Barre, I had to take a picture of it. This picture is perfect, I wouldn’t fix anything with it.

Tower Set 5 of 5

Exit Strategy

Hallway Set 1 of 4

I love the striated shadows that formed when I put this photo in black and white. Without the black and white color filter, you couldn’t see how pronounced the shadows were on the walls.

Mirrored QuestsHallway Set 2 of 4

This is my second favorite picture in this whole black and white col-lection. I love this picture because it conveys a “Twilight zone” kind of vibe. By mirroring the picture and putting it along side the original, it balances the crooked nature of the picture.

Concept Locking

Hallway Set 3 of 4

This is another reflection picture. I like how the paths connect at the middle to pro-duce a united picture. The creepy outline of a person in the background is my friend Luke Brady.

Concept Locking 2 Hallway Set 4 of 4

Door Set 1 of 2

A Bent PropositionThis picture didn’t turn out as best as I wanted it to but I fixed my crooked door by making a duplicate copy of one side. The only problem was that it lead me to a bent proposition. A proposition I took up and succeeded on...

Hinged Idealism

Door Set 2 of 2

With this picture, I wanted the viewer to see the precise nature of the hinge on the door. Instead of blowing the pic-ture up, I thought that a repetetous nature of pictures would should the perfection of the hinge better.

Random Set 1 of 4

Baby Chick On The Roof

I have a pet electronic chick that makes noises when you put him in places. The edge of my apartment room seemed like an adequate place to prop this baby furry animal overlooking the buildings in my town.

Drain DreamsRandom Set 2 of 4

I am going for an illusion of lines with this picture. I love how all the lines collect in the middle to produce a greater more intricate picture. Sometimes taking random pictures does have it’s benefits, when I first looked at this picture I was bored but now I am amused with what I managed to do with a simple picture.

Crooked Destruction Random Set 3 of 4

I love the emphasis of the dirty bucket-like object in the front portion of my picture. To make this picture better, I would definitely need more of the sky in the picture.

Candy Cane BenchRandom Set 4 of 4

I really like how the separation of red and white was even more apparent when I changed this photo to black and white. I also like how the picture kind of bends with the bench.

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Hello, my name is Bryan Calabro. I am currently attending Wilkes University and double majoring in both Communication Studies and Integrative Media. Digital Art is by far my favorite concept of study. This love grows from my constant obsession with the computer and the many facets this single tool has to offer. With a computer, I now believe that I can make anything that I can imagine. There is no limit and technology is pushing this realization even further.

I have amateur experience in a diversity of software; Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe In-Design, Gimp, Zbrush, and 3D Max. With these soft-wares, I realize that there is exponential room for improvement. Improvement that can only come with practice and hard work.

I hope you enjoyed my book, thank you!