How I shot this #1
This is the first post of a series where I share some background information on how I shot certain photographs you can see on Instagram or on my website.
This is the photograph:
The location
This is a historic railway station in Budapest, Hungary. It's the Keleti station, a big hub, where not only many trains depart and arrive, but also a few steps from the station, there are two metro stations and numerous bus stops around. So, as you can expect, it can get very busy; you only have to wait for the minimalist shots. If you need many people, you can always find them there. I very rarely like it if there are too many people there, so I patiently waited around fifteen minutes until I got the shot. The photograph was made from inside the station; this is the historic main gate.
Budapest, Keleti pályaudvar
The plan
I know this station as I have different shots from here. I had this shot in my mind already. To take this one, I needed a light plan to arrive at the perfect time and capture the shot when the sun was in the right position. I used Photopills to make this plan:
Photopills plan
Of course, as soon as I decided to go there, we had cloudy days ahead, but luckily, one day the sun came out. I grabbed my camera and headed out to this station.
The shot
I took a few test shots to see how much I need to underexpose to protect the highlights and have enough information in the shadows, while keeping the rich black in the photograph. I knew I wanted one person in the shot. Tried to take the same shot with many people in the picture, and I just did not like it. At this hour of the day, a metro arrives there every 3-4 minutes from both directions, so I knew I was going to have ample opportunity. And after 3 metros, this guy was so much faster than the crowd, he was alone, and I got the shot.
Settings: ISO400, 1/500s, f8, manual focus
The only strange thing was that to the right (which is not in the picture), there's a small shop, and the owner was so curious about what I was doing there, she stood next to me and stared at me for a few minutes from really close. No questions, nothing, just staring. This is not a strange behaviour in Hungary; people are curious and concerned when they see a camera.
Editing the raw file
As the plan was precise and I had the chance to take test shots, the exposure was just perfect, so the whole editing took a minute, literally. I straightened a bit, lowered the blacks slightly, and added some highlights; that's all.