Photographing Architecture: Lighting, Composition, Postproduction and Marketing Techniques

160 Pages·2011·22.47 MB·English

by  John Siskin

PhotograPhing
architecture
Lighting, Composition, Postproduction,
and Marketing techniques
Amherst mediA, inc. BuffAlo, nY
pAublmishehr oef rphsoto gMrApehyd boioak®s John Siskin
DeDiCation
This book is dedicated to my father, Sheldon Siskin. He taught me to ski and surf and how to live on
planet Earth. He got me my frst camera and my frst job in photography. Thanks, Dad. I love you!
Copyright © 2012 by John Siskin.
All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved.
Published by:
Amherst Media, Inc.
P.O. Box 586
Buffalo, N.Y. 14226
Fax: [phone]
www.AmherstMedia.com
Publisher: Craig Alesse
Senior Editor/Production Manager: Michelle Perkins
Assistant Editor: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt
Editorial assistance provided by John S. Loder.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60895-300-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011904397
Printed in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior written consent from the
publisher.
Notice of Disclaimer: The information contained in this book is based on the author’s experience
and opinions. The author and publisher will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the
information in this book.
Check out Amherst Media’s blogs at: http://portrait-photographer.blogspot.com/
http://weddingphotographer-amherstmedia.blogspot.com/
Contents
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Analyzing the Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Shooting Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Key Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Part one: the eSSentiaLS The Existing Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Image Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
introDuCtion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 In Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Importance of
Architectural Photography. . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. ChooSing the right gear. . . . . . . . . 14
Why Interiors? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Cameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Using This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Lenses and Angle of View . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Tripods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1. PLanning for the Shoot . . . . . . . . . 11 Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Contents 3
Light Modifers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Sidebar: Working around FuLL Sun 41
Light Stands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Sidebar: the ForeCaSt 42
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Developing the Lighting Strategy. . . . . . . 42
Positioning the First Light . . . . . . . . . . 45
3. the Shooting angLe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sidebar: dayLight, tungSten, and
Positioning the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 FLuoreSCent Light 46
Focal Length, Shooting Distance, Balancing Mixed Lighting . . . . . . . . . . 46
and Spatial Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Fixing Color Imbalances in
Preventing and Eliminating Keystoning . . 33 Photoshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Reviewing the Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 A Test Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
In Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Additional Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Sidebar: PhotoShoP’S Battery-Powered Strobes . . . . . . . . . . 50
LenS CorreCtion FiLter 38 Umbrellas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Bowl Refectors and Cinefoil . . . . . . . 51
4. Lighting interiorS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Sidebar: a heLPFuL Strategy. . . . . . . . . . 53
Special Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Bare Bulbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Analyzing the Existing Lighting . . . . . . . . 40 How Many Lights? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Identifying the Dominant Establishing Balanced Power . . . . . . . . . . 55
Color Spectrum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 In Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4 Photographing architecture
Sidebar: anaLyzing your teSt ShotS . . . 57 Part two: the PortfoLio
5. PhotograPhing exteriorS . . . . . . . 58 PreLuDe to the PortfoLio. . . . . . . . . . 94
Waiting for the Right Light . . . . . . . . . . . 58 riDge toP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Changing Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Stage roaD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Black & White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Stone Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
the CreSt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6. PoStProDuCtion enhanCeMentS . . 63 oakS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Useful Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Magnavino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 warehouSe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Basic Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 SounD StuDio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
HDR Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 night Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Big wave Dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
A Simple Fix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 hoteL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
CatheDraL of our LaDy of
7. the CLientS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 the angeLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Ensure a Good Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Canyon exterior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Potential Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Passive Advertising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
The Yellow Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Portfolio Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Bidding Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Craig’s List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Active Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
HTML e-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Social Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Live Social Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Referrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Postcards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Cold Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Visiting Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Communicating with Clients . . . . . . . . . . 83
The Details of the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Pricing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Sidebar: SamPLe eStimate . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Contents 5
about the author
ohn Siskin is a fne art and commercial photog- Library, 2nd City Art Gallery, Harold’s Gallery,
Jrapher who often works with landscape and ar- Farmani Gallery, and The Atelier. He has been a
chitectural images. He has done a large number regular participant in the Valley Studio Tour.
of commercial jobs, including projects for Gen- John’s frst book, Understanding and Con-
eral Motors, Disney, and AidsWalk. His portraits trolling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Pho-
for AidsWalk have been displayed on the streets tographers, was published by Amherst Media in
of Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, and New 2011. His work has also appeared in a number of
York City. He has taught photography for more magazines, including View Camera, Photo Tech-
than twenty years at colleges in Southern Cali- nique, The New Yorker, and Shutterbug.
fornia and is currently teaching classes online at More of John’s work, and some of his maga-
BetterPhoto.com. zine articles, can be seen at www.siskinphoto.com.
John’s work has been part of many exhibits.
His photographs have been shown at the Brand
aCknowLeDgMentS
This book wouldn’t exist without the help of some truly won- and need to build a house or other building, call them at
derful people. First, my wife Susan Siskin, who has been end- [phone] or visit them online at www.beelerbuildsem
lessly supportive throughout this project. Thank you! Second, better.com. You can see thousands of my images there.
Tom Ferguson. Tom is the first, and sometimes only, person Finally, I want to thank Lance Gullickson. He has assisted
who reads my words before they go to the publisher. I wouldn’t me on many of the jobs that appear in this book, and he took
have the confidence to do this without him. All the mistakes the pictures of me that appear herein.
are mine; the fact that there aren’t more is because of Tom. I would also like to thank the following for their help and lifestyle
This book is also a product of the clients I’ve worked advice: Harlan Goldberg, Terry Pobirs, Jennifer Halsworth, Bob Cole,
for. Without them, I wouldn’t have taken most of these im- David Beeler, Maureen Levitt, Gretchen Haacker, Rico Mandel, Lem
ages. There’s one client I want to single out: Terry Beeler Johnson, Cris Pendarvis, Big Wave Dave, Melanie Zimmerman, Matt
and Son General Contractor, Inc. They do awesome work, Ehrenberg, Dodie, and C.J.
and I get to photograph it. If you’re in Southern California
6 Photographing architecture
Part One
the essentials
rchitectural photography is typically client-driven. in other words, you are hired by an
individual or business—be it an interior decorator, a builder, or a hotelier—who needs im-
aages of their space. to do the job effectively, you must master the technical and artistic
aspects of the job—learning how to select and use the appropriate tools, solving problems, and
fne-tuning the image. you must also handle the business aspects of the shoot—fnding clients,
writing a proposal, providing an estimate, etc.
the chapters in this section are devoted to the nuts and bolts of the business, from analyzing
the room to fnding and communicating with clients, to choosing the right gear, placing and modi-
fying the light, and retouching/fnessing the images in postproduction.
introduction
the iMPortanCe of that most families ever own. Buildings are im-
arChiteCturaL PhotograPhy portant to people. There may be a science fction
Most people live the majority of their lives in story about technically sophisticated beings that
buildings. We start life in a hospital, and then we live outside, but you’ll fnd humans indoors. Our
go home. We spend our days in offces, factories, buildings are so important to us that we refer to
and shops. A home is the most expensive thing them as buildings rather than builts. They are
Below—a cathedral in england. Buildings like this were often made over decades.
8 Photographing architecture
ongoing creations. People have been construct-
ing buildings for thousands of years, and often
they are our most lasting creations.
Making photographs of buildings is very im-
portant to photographers and to a lot of other
people. We may take photographs of people
working on a building, or a person working in-
side, or a photograph of the building. We may
be taking photographs for a wedding, or we may
take photographs for a contractor. Regardless,
we will need to make the location part of the
photograph, or it may be the whole shot.
Photographing interiors requires a specialized
approach. There are many decisions that must be
made before, during, and after the shoot that do
not come into play when photographing most
other subjects.
This book was written to teach you the skills
you need to meet the challenges that photo-
graphing architecture presents, so that you can
provide your clients with polished, high-quality
images they can use to showcase their businesses.
why interiorS?
A photographer needs a variety of skills to be
good at architectural photography. We need
some of the same skills to shoot the exterior of
a building that we’ll need to shoot inside of it.
We’ll need more skills and also different tools to
shoot inside. So, an interior shot requires lights,
a tripod, and a wide-angle lens to do well. When
you shoot outdoors, you don’t have as much
control over light. Often, the only thing you
can do is be patient. For interiors and exteriors,
a good sense of design, angle, and attention to
detail will make you a better photographer. Top—a plastic surgeon’s offce in Beverly hills, California. BoTTom—Bal-
Most of this book is concerned with shoot- ancing the light from the strobes with the window light in this image
ing interiors, because the skills involved are was diffcult, but it worked out well.
introduction 9
complex. Learning to use lights effectively I’ve also included information on how to fx
may require considerable attention and prac- problems in postproduction. Layers and other
tice. The technical skills required can be trans- Photoshop features will help you to bring out the
mitted via the pages of a book. In contrast, best qualities in any photograph. I’ll explain how
when it comes to shooting exteriors, I am not to work with Layers and teach you how to create
sure that I can teach you to wait patiently for High Dynamic Range (HDR) captures. HDRs
a cloud to pass or dawn to come. Still, there are especially effective for situations where you
is one thing I should say about photographing a don’t have lights or can’t light a location due to
building at dawn: dress warmly! its size or other considerations.
In Part Two, I’ve provided a look at how I
uSing thiS Book made selected images—from start to fnish. I’ve
This book was created to help you understand discussed how the shot was done, what the prob-
how to build better images. It was written in two lems of getting the shot were, and all the work
parts: in Part One, you’ll fnd chapters devoted that was done in Photoshop after the shot. I’ve
to fnding and communicating with clients; se- included examples of homes, businesses, and
lecting the proper equipment for the job; choos- public spaces in this section.
ing the most effective camera position; placing So, here it is: a book that can help you shoot
lights, controlling light, ensuring proper light- buildings—from start to fnish. Let’s get started.
ing balance; and correcting the perspective issues
that are prevalent in architectural photography.
10 Photographing architecture