Studies in black and white with a basic Fuji kit -- X-T1 and 18-55mm

I particularly enjoy shooting black and white with a Fuji X-camera. I can set the camera to record both RAW and jpg at the same time,  and also set the camera to record black and white with the Q-menu. Since the camera uses the jpg image for its screen display, I get to see an actual black and white rendition of the image for viewing. I sometimes also set the contrast and exposure compensation to reflect what I am trying to accomplish with the images. Here I had the contrast set higher because I wanted a stark silhouette to use in creating my composition and I knew this is something I would probably be boosting later in Photoshop.

While I see the image as a jpg, I still retain a RAW image with full detail in case I want to change anything later in post -- something I did do in the two photos below. I format many of my images as squares, and the Fuji X-camera also allows me to show a square crop on the viewing screen or finder. The RAW version of the file preserves the entire image with the crop over it so I can still make some minor adjustments to the composition later in post processing  -- something I did to to tweak the composition of both images below.

For this composition I liked the stabbing thrust of the two triangular shadow shapes cutting into the Flatiron.and also slicing a hard diagonal line over the entire frame. I kept a bit of detail in the shadows of the foreground building because I thought it harmonized well with the general decoration of the Flatiron.

For this composition I wanted the four silhouetted dormers to present a hard thrust into the frame with their arrow-like tops.  I played the two diagonal lines of the building rooftops against each other and to form a zigzag compositional line starting at the bottom and working its way to the top where it disappears into the left corner of the frame. I kept the foreground shadows dark and only brightened up the one lone window in the right-most dormer for contrast and to prevent the eye from running off the frame.