Photo Friday: Black and White and Red All Over

As the end of 2019 draws near, I have been preparing my annual year-end blog post of my favourite photos that I've taken over the year, and this year has been pretty light.

While I carry my D-SLR almost everywhere I go, I haven't actually pulled it out of its bag as often as I have in previous years. And when I've used it, instead of taking the files off the camera and processing them as soon as I can, I've let them sit on the data card. And, by the time I get around to importing them onto my computer, I just stash them in a file and barely look at them.

That's going to have to change in 2020.

More times than not, even though my camera bag is slung over my shoulder, I've opted to use my smartphone to capture the images. Even though the quality of most images isn't as good as my Nikon D7200, it's a lot faster to use if I plan to share the images on social media.

While I've been using Snapseed for many years, I'm always on the lookout for other apps to give my photos a fresh look.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded an app by a company that DW looks to as the competition to her company. I've told her that because Corel doesn't offer PaintShop Pro as an app for the smartphone, her company isn't even in the competition.

The newest app that I've added to my arsenal of photo-editing tools is Adobe Photoshop Express (I know, it's not a new app, but it's new to me).

While I still like Snapseed for enhancing the sharpness, contrast, and saturation of a photo, I like some of the effects that Photoshop Express offers, such as the many filters; in particular, the Splash filters that let you show a particular colour only, rendering any other colour in black and white.

I've experimented with some photos of fireworks I shot over the summer, but last Friday, when I was in Toronto, I took some photos with these filters from Photoshop Express in mind.

They weren't perfect, especially since I was shooting hand-held in low light (Queen Street, at night). I chose to keep the colour red and exclude all others, and it wasn't until I rendered the image with this filter that I noticed that this colour was thrown around quite a bit. Traffic lights, brake lights, and signs in shop windows. Red was also reflected off street lights and cast a red glow on the buildings.

While I hoped that red would be limited to the passing TTC street car, I liked the overall effect. It's a cool urban night scene, in black, white, and red.

What do you think?

Happy Friday!