Pro Techniques

Street Level; Jon Ortner’s Tale Of Two Cities Page 2

Jon also played with the camera’s white balance to warm up or cool off the look of a scene. “I’d usually start with auto white balance, then I’d switch to individual Kelvin temperature settings and start to play. I’d do all kinds of weird stuff—I’d go from 4000 to 7000 Kelvin, from cool versions of a scene to normal to warm. I’d do a test shot of a location and see what it looked like; then I’d know whether I’d want to warm it or cool it. This was on-the-fly creativity inspired by color and motion.”

A boutique in the Meatpacking District. “Sometimes I’d press the lens up against the glass for steadiness, but I was a few steps back for this one.”
© Jon Ortner

Jon used two Nikkor zoom lenses on his D700 for all the photos—a 14-24mm—“I love the great color rendition and contrast”—and a 24-70mm. He shot only Raw format, made some small adjustments for vibrancy and contrast in Lightroom, and did some sharpening and contrast and color correction in Photoshop.

“Those windows go through a cycle of changing colors. I shot a few versions of this building in the Meatpacking District.”
© Jon Ortner

“It was a dream job,” is how he sums up the late spring into early summer shoot. “Great neighborhood, great opportunities, and the chance to be as creative as I wanted to be.”

The Chelsea Market. “I’m walking and changing my shutter speed as I go, testing and adjusting and sometimes zooming slightly as I shoot.”
© Jon Ortner