fbpx
Photo Essays

Faraz Azhar’s Black and White Urban Geometry is a Solitary Study of Shapes

Chris Gampat
No Comments
07/17/2017
3 Mins read
_MG_5001-Edit_fb_watermark

Last Updated on 07/20/2017 by Chris Gampat

All images and text by Faraz Azhar. Used with permission.

My name is Faraz Azhar, I’m a travel photographer based in Dubai, UAE. Although I have a fulltime job as a banker, photography is my passion. I cherish black and white photography mostly for architectural photos. I believe that an architect spends endless hours imagining a structure that he is about to build, he draws countless shapes on paper before finalizing his design and he takes care of every little measurement and detail of that building; whether it’s a cornerstone or a pillar or any piece of metal or concrete. Capturing these fine details is an art. Taking photos of architecture in color makes it overwhelming and makes the viewer lose focus of what’s important in the sceneâ€Ĥthe fine architectural detail.

Black and white photography ignores the color element, and focuses on blacks, whites and all the mid-tones in between. When the photographer captures the photo and processes it in black and white, it allows the viewer to see the two dimensional photo in three dimensions. By using dodging and burning an artist can add depth in the photo, separate the foreground and background elements, and bring out all those fine detail that the architect had imagined when he drew it on his piece of paper.

I entered the photography world in 2011, and my inspiration to become a photographer was, well, the beautiful scenic wallpapers on my computer desktop. I always wondered how people take these photos, where they go to find such great places. This led me to pursue photography and eventually travel the world. I started traveling for photography in 2013, so till today I’ve already been to 31 countries with many more to come. My passion is to capture the natural landscapes in the beautiful golden and blue hours, and the urban city in black and white.

Black and white was how photography began in the past, with Ansel Adams making the best use of it. And black and white photography will always have a strong presence in the future, especially for architectural photos, because as we step into the future, we see more and more modern and impossible shaped buildings. Capturing the beauty of those buildings in black and white is an art that photographers need to pursue. As for portraits, black and white for portrait photography is also famous and for the same reason: it brings out all the detail on face, the beautiful eyes, and strokes of hair. For me, I’m going to stick to architectural photography for now. Black and white photography shows the vision of the architect and the photographer, it excludes the extra detail from the image and presents the architecture in a unique way, bringing the viewer closer to the detail that the artist wishes to capture.

I use my Canon 6D camera for travel and architectural photography. The full frame sensor allows me to capture great detail and the excellent ISO captures a clean sharp image. My artillery of lenses include 24-70mm F2.8 II, 16-35mm F4, 50mm F1.4, and 70-200mm F2.8 II. This variety of lenses include zoom to telephoto to wide angle; which helps me capture my black and white architectural shots in the angles that I want. I also capture black and white photos in long exposures during the day time, which creates beautiful imagery in that the building stands still with moving clouds and people around it. For this I use the Big Lee Stopper kit with 10 stops UV filter. My tripod is Feisol Tournament CT-3442, with SIRUI K-40X ball head.

For more, be sure to check out Faraz’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

architecture black and white canon contrast Faraz Azhar lenses lines Photography urban geometry
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
You might also like
Screen Shot 2017-08-28 at 12.07.13 PM
Features

Opinion: Please Stop Wearing a Photo Vest if You Don’t Need to Be Wearing a Photo Vest

4 Mins read
07/09/2018

When I got into this industry years ago, one thing really confused me almost as much as how much certain older photographers tend to treat the younger generation of us: photo vests. I’m completely positive that you’ve all seen them: a photographer of a certain distinguishment (or trying to show off without having said distinguishment) wearing their vests that look a lot like safari vests. You know, almost as if they’re going to go out on an African safari at all times without being anywhere near something like a safari. Walking down the streets doing street photography? You’ll see a photo vest. In the studio? Photo vest! Hiking? Yup, A Photo vest!

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.