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I was shooting Black & White wrong- this ONE setting won me 2 National awards.

The Shoestring Photographer

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This one image won me 2 national awards — the Guild of Photographers Urban Image of the Year 2024 and then overall Image of the Year runner-up across every genre (beating wildlife, landscape and portraits, everything). And I shot it with one setting your camera probably already has.

In this video I head back to the Glasgow street where I captured the winning shot, then go on to reveal the results of on an hour-long urban photo walk through the city's hidden lanes — all on a mid-range Nikon ZF and the 24-70mm kit lens that came with it.

If you shoot urban, street or architectural photography — or you want to get into black & white — this one built-in feature could take your images from ordinary to award-winning.

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 The image that won 2 national awards
0:34 Back at the location in Glasgow
2:34 The ONE setting that changed everything
3:51 Why it works so well for black & white
4:30 Urban photo walk: Images of Glasgow's hidden lanes
8:53 My potential pick for the next competition
9:35 Final thoughts

🎥 Budget-friendly gear used:
• Nikon ZF
• Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S kit lens

📷 The Shoestring Photographer — professional-level photography without the professional price tag. Subscribe for weekly photography tips from Scotland.

#blackandwhitephotography #urbanphotography #streetphotography #photographyforbeginners #nikonzf #budgetphotography

20 Comments

@shoestringphotographer Creator 3 months ago Pinned

How many of you have a camera feature you've barely touched that might be sitting there ready to transform your photography? The B&W viewfinder was mine — and it won me two national awards. Drop yours below 👇

@aaronhayman8558 3 months ago

If you came up shooting B&W film, you may be accustomed to looking at a scene and imagining what it will look like in B&W. This is what I do. I leave the screen color and depending on the shot, I'll previsualize it in either B&W or color. With the images I intend for a B&W treatment, I'm confident that I can manipulate the tones to where I want them when I process the RAW image later...

@jonathanholloway1915 1 month ago

Love your images. This type of photography is right up my street ! Keep up the good work mate.

@SteveKleinheider 3 months ago

Nice photos and congratulations on the awards!

@webersteve1547 3 months ago

I use this all the time. Especially for manual focussing, makes it much easier

@JayhawkBBallFan 3 months ago

Outstanding. Congrats.

@paraveterinary 3 months ago

Great photos! And congratulations for your awards!!

I always view black and white for my bnw photos. It gives you a much better view on light and shadows.
Thank you for the video!

@Timetrends-n5t 3 months ago

90% b&w with various presets, ZF is a b&w monster with the dedicated switch! Good pictures mate!

@whipsnadepoacher 3 months ago

Thank you. Very interesting. Subscribed.

@boxiedog 3 months ago

Thanks for the insight into your shooting. I won a few Guild awards but left as I lost my photo mojo. Trying to get it back. Cheers

@lylestavast7652 3 months ago

you have some really nice shots in there :)

@willfotograf1 3 months ago

Very cool photos.

@sonofoneintheuniverse 3 months ago (edited)

Made my own post processing preset from the 1960s conversion of television color to B&W. Now my digital files look like panchromatic film.

@kai_jae 3 months ago

Congratulations 👍

@charliejg 3 months ago

Lovely images! I shoot BNW in my viewfinder as well with my Fujifilm X-T3. I usually have it set to the Acros + R film simulation. I addition, for about the past year or so I've been shooting almost everything with vintage lenses. It's been so much fun.

@philhetrick4955 3 months ago

Very nice. The image at 6:03 caught my eye and something made me want to view it by rotating it 90 degrees counterclockwise. It think it works nicely. Do you teach/show your editing working flow? I just found your channel so I will explore your YouTube channel for starters. Again, beautiful work! I’ve had my camera in the black-and-white setting for a couple years now and I’m finding that if I introduce any color it’s usually subtle.

@islandbrowncoat 3 months ago

I mostly shoot black and white on my Olympus em-10. I often use my screen rather than viewfinder, partly because it allows me to shoot at different angles. I do jpeg raw pairs, just so I can have all the information, but my goal is always straight out of camera usable jpegs.

@carlmcneill1139 3 months ago

I shoot black and white a lot with my z6 II. I don't have a switch like the zf does. I shoot in raw so I can decide later if I want color or keep it black and white. Viewing it in black and white at the start helps you visualize the scene better.

@joaquintrigueros 3 months ago (edited)

Window cleaners are fab! Please crop out the rhs... WYSIWYG is the way to go with mirrorless.

@pannac0tta 2 months ago

Thanks for the hint at the b/w viewfinder. I think this is a point where restriction can help inspiration - reduce colours to b/w, or maybe dedicate to a specific focal length. Or train manual focusing by using a manual lens wide open... Many options to reduce options..
I wouldn't call a Zf exactly "budget-friendly", though :-)