Ryan Landis - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

This photo was taken with an iPhone 5 IOS 7.0.2. and was edited with the snap-seed application as recommended by the professor. This app allows you the ability to put your photos in black and white and adjust both the contrast and the brightness manually at ease.  The shot was taken in an urban setting in New York City while there for the movie premiere of "The Identical". I took multiple photos at different angles to see what worked best for me.


I was attracted to the opportunity to take this photo instantly, it was simply a shot i couldn't turn down. I've always thought of myself as a risk taker and this situation was no different and I'm glad i took the shot because it ended up being one of my favorite black and white photos. Its always more fun to go against the grain and break the rules but to do it and end up with a cool picture made it even better. The barbwire and the background makes the picture look edgy like its somewhere you wouldn't want to be. I shot the photo at an angle so it wasn't just the typical head on shot, something I'm trying to get away from as i expand my horizon in photography. This is the first photo class, or art class at all for that major so its been a learning process seeing what i can do to make my photos better. The picture cam out clear and being able to adjust the contrast gave me a rich deep black color while keeping the white areas from washing out.