Shooting Muni In My Neighborhood

Photographer Mike Dillon took this photo on Clement Street, one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco. He took the time to note some behind the scenes details of this photograph:

I’ve been really fond of the harsh early evening light on Clement when I’ve been over here lately. It brings out some really fun shadows, but isn’t the easiest to shoot in. Seems black and whites come out a bit better so far, but I’ve had a little luck with both. This was taken by the New May Cheung market (home of the Y&Y Vietnamese Deli [home of fantastic Bánh mì]) Always an interesting mix of people out in the neighborhood. I’ve had fun shooting here.

This photo is a bit more processed than most of what I post. Usually I like to keep things pretty simple, but the lighting here gave me some difficulties with balancing the exposures, so in the end, I applied a few exposure gradients and some spot enhancements in lightroom to get dark shadows while still keeping some detail. I feel like black and whites are a bit more forgiving with the processing, or at least to my eyes, they are. I can usually do a lot more with these before they start to look over-processed to me than I can with a color shot.

What’s your favorite neighborhood to photograph?