Tech Tip Tuesday- Architectural photography in tough situations.

A little behind the scenes of an interiors shoot.

Ideal in Architectural photography is not always the case. Sometimes, a client will call last minute and request images of an empty space, with little or no time available on location. The challenge is to create unique images that convey livability in a space, without making it look like some empty foreclosure(in this case the client is a home builder). Normally when shooting with architects and interior designers, time is taken to plan and prep before a shoot begins. Often a shot list is made into a treatment with examples, so that everyone is clear on how the images will look.

So for this project, I chose to shoot more detail, by implying a space. The last thing I want to do is park the tripod in a corner, with a 17mm lens, and take some warped image of an empty room. Here I will explain how I shot the shower and used lighting techniques to create mood. Light manipulation is an architectural photographers best friend. Without it, images will lack depth.

Final retouched image-

Alright, here we go-

First image. Getting the composition sorted.

As you can see...Ambient light and the overhead can light are creating a pretty lousy scene. Rather ugly orange cast on the right, and the window light is going blue.

Second image. Kill the can light and add a flash with gel(flash is bouncing off the ceiling camera right). The first image is dark but gives a good sense of the mood we are creating.

Third image. Add light on the towel. At this point it is pretty clear that we need to flag the window behind the camera, to kill that blue light cast.