Union Photography Blog » Wedding, Portrait, Maternity and Lifestyle Photography by Jon Thorpe

For many years, black and white photography took a back seat to the advancement of color imagery, along with the vibrancy and excitement that it brought along. Some will say that B&W was never left far behind, but it is also true that much of the art in it’s processing was lost to the “Convert to B&W” tool found in many photo editing programs.

Hand finished black and white photographs can give your moments an nostalgic feel by simply removing the distraction that color can sometimes bestow on an image. You can feel the emotion, the romance and timelessness of the subjects. The effort of dodging (brightening) elements of a photo can bring out life and energy in a subject, while a light burn (darkening) can provide a needed separation from the background, enhancing texture and balancing the tonal relationships within.

Each photograph ordered through my studio receives this loving and detailed treatment. If a picture is worth a thousand words, those words should be spoken with clarity.

For 2011, every photo that leaves the studio will be receiving a hand finishing that includes retouching, tone adjustments and more. It’s my dedication to quality service and to the art that photography is.

Below is a selection of imagery from this past season, showing how proper, subtle editing can further enhance great imagery.

Toronto’s Entertainment District was the venue for a sunny day, spur-of-the-moment engagement shoot with a super fun couple! Conrad & Rebecca were extremely easy going and an absolute pleasure to work with. Seeing as I didn’t bring my car in, we decided to hoof it down King Street to see what we could find! I actually really like walking, versus driving from spot to spot, as you see things quite differently and often find beautiful little locations which would have been overlooked otherwise.

For the sake of mixing things up a little, I decided to process most of this set in black and white to give it that classical and timeless feel. I really love hot the tonal ranges pop out when the images are properly processed (vs. just doing a B&W conversion).

Enjoy!
- Jon

This was my first engagement session for 2009 and it was an absolutely fabulous one at that! It was an absolute pleasure to partake in an afternoon of fun shooting with Richelle and Mark who will be having their wedding later this year (stay tuned – it’s going to be great!). One of the many great things about this couple was that even before meeting them, I knew they were going to be fantastic to work with as they were a reerral from another fun couple, Julie & Brian. Referal couples are always great!

We decided to hit the town and stop in at some of my favorite venues, including the Historic Distillery District (okay, so I went there to buy chocolates from Soma – I am addicted!). I felt that this set of photos really worked well when treated to a little bit of magical black and white post processing.