Tecovas Waco Architectural Photography
Tecovas Waco Architectural Photography
Tecovas Waco Architectural Photography. Tecovas western wear and accessories opened a new store in Waco, Texas. I had about 2 hours before the doors opened to set up and shoot store architectural photographs without people wandering around. This store is beautifully designed and a dream come true for the western wear man or woman.
Tecovas Waco architectural photograph of the entrance
Tecovas Waco architectural photograph of boots and accessories
Architectural Photography and Aerial Drone Photos for Barshop & Oles
Architectural Photography and Aerial Drone Photos for Barshop & Oles
As a professional architectural photographer in Austin Texas, I am always looking for ways to improve my photographs. For Barshop and Oles Company I recently had the chance to think outside the box. For this photograph of HEB at Lakeline Mall in Austin, I decided to merge 10 photos of people walking in and out of the store and mask each of the customers in so that the store looked even more busy than it was. Since the sky was an ugly hazy gray I replaced it in Photoshops with the new SKY REPLACEMNT tool which is absolutely a lifesaver when editing exterior photographs.
Architectural photograph of HEB Lakeline BEFORE EDITING
Architectural photograph of HEB Lakeline AFTER EDITING
The client also wanted two aerial cityscapes – one of Austin and one of San Antonio, and asked me to try to blend the two into one photograph. The composite image has Austin on the Left and San Antonio on the Right. And of course I added a pretty sky to the blended image.
Austin San Antonio Cityscape blended
BEFORE EDITING Aerial Cityscape of Austin
BEFORE EDITING the composite of Austin on the left and San Antonio on the right
Some Recent Austin Architectural photography of Roscoe Property Managers
Some Recent Austin Architectural photography of Roscoe Property Managers.
Roscoe Property Managers asked me to photograph interiors and exteriors and drone aerial photos of several multi family developments here in Austin. These images show some the outstanding designs that Roscoe can achieve. Most of the ground photos are on a Manfrotto Neo Tech Tripod with a Canon 5 D Mark III and a TS-E 17, f/4L Tilt Shift Lens. The aerial photos are with my DJI Mavic Pro 2 Drone.
Arise Riverside Architectural Photography Austin
Arise Riverside Architectural Photography Austin pool at twilight
WILDER Apartments Architectural Photography Austin pool at twilight
120 Ninth San Antonio Apartments Courtyard at twilight
THE BRIXTON Multi Family Apts Drone Aerial Photograph
Part 2: Portrait Photography: All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Part 2: Portrait Photography
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
I like to start my training off with Abstract which was covered in the last blog post. I do this because the subject matter is not talking back to us. I tell my students that Portrait and Wedding photography are a totally different beasts. Portrait is especially gruelling because the subject is looking dead at the camera (often), meaning staring at you the photographer, and waiting for you to finish this grueling experience of having to get their photograph taken. The more the subject is sweating, the more you sweat. More often than not, we as photographers are required to entertain the subject while navigating the controls on our camera (that we cannot see clearly because our sweat is dripping on the viewfinder) and praying to God that our wireless triggers and lighting will not suddenly stop communicating with each other (which they do). Portrait photography is indeed stressful for those reasons.
Krishan wanted to photograph an exotic car. My friend offered up his Bentley and we set up to do some spot lighting around the car which we would then composite each lit area together later in Photoshop.
spot Lighting Bentley with Austin architectural photographer Johnny Stevens
But I thought, HEY – why not add in an element of stress and pay a pretty model to pose by the car? That would be good training for a student!
Summer posing with Bentley
Summer pose 2 with Bentley
And the final edited image after we composted all the spot lighting on the house and the car and replaced the house windows with an ambient shot.
Final composition of Exotic Car Portrait with model Summer
For my Mentee Elena, we headed downtown and scouted for a spot to shoot a portrait of Lauren. Deep in an ally with homeless guys, was the back entrance to a bar on 6th street. I loved the graffitti. Elena and I switched positions holding the umbrella with a strobe.
Lauren set up with Elena holding the light
Lauren Portrait finalKrishan want
Elena needed a senior portrait done so I made her set up this scene on Barton Creek and then pose on a rock.
Elena self portrait
My friend Lane volunteered to be our subject for Nolan’s portrait exercise. Fortunately, Lane Orsak needed a new portrait to promote his new book called Dylan’s Divide and he had some new artwork he just completed. And even more fortunately, Lane’s portrait turned out to be one of my favorite ever. Nolan and I spot lighted the background and composited those behind an image of Lane which we lighted with one big soft light on camera right, and a kicker light on camera left.
Lane Orsak Portrait final
I took Morgan with me to a commercial shoot of Austin artist Truman Marquez’s Gallery. We photographed two models separately and composited them both into the final image.
Art Gallery portrait
Portrait Photography Austin
Portrait Photography Austin
Morgan also helped me arrange and execute a more complicated Portrait that I photographed for the purposes of entering for judging with the Professional Photographers of America. We hired 3 models and rented the outfits from Lucy in Disquise here in Austin. Rocky the lab was free.
Samantha helping set up the Gangster Scene
“Stalemate” Gangster photograph final
And also for Krishan we set up a backdrop and hired a model to do some 3 point lighting set ups, including main light, bounced fill light, and kicker light.
Skylar Portrait set up
Skylar Portrait final
Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students, All of my Mentees from Westlake High School
- At April 02, 2020
- By Johnny Stevens
- In Aerial photography, architecutral, austin architectural photographer, Austin photographer, camera control, commercial photography, dichotomy, Drone photography, editing, Fine Art, lifestyle photography, light painting, lighting, Photography education, Photography Mentor, portrait, portrait photography, professional, real estate, real estate photography, shutter speed, speedlights, spot lighting, student housing, student lifestyle, Tilt shift, tilt-shift lens, video, videography
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Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Abstract Photography for Students is a challenge. I thought it was time to assemble all of the educational photographic projects I have done with my senior students of the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School over the last 8 years. I was surprised when I went back into my photography archives to see some of the projects that I have forgotten about. I am doing this in 5 Posts so the reader does not get overwhelmed. This first post is about our Abstract Photography exercises. So here we go.
When I agree to teach a student, I tell them that my approach to teaching is to expose them to as many different genres of photography as possible, so they can learn how to leverage the settings on their cameras, read natural light, learn how to control flash and strobe light, how to work with humans who hate to have their photos taken, and evaluate the environment for challenges.
The photography genres I like to introduce them to are:
- Abstract Photography
- Portrait Photography
- Still Life and Landscape Photography
- Architectural Photography
ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY:
My first student 8 years ago was Elena. With her I learned how difficult shooting rising smoke is. We learned that having a flash at 90 degrees to a smoking piece of incense was better than having two flashes, one in each side. The contrast within the smoke was better and made it easier to identify an interesting moment within the otherwise chaotic billowing smoke. Then we edit the image mostly by eliminating surrounding smoke that did not lend itself to the formation we identified. More often that not (and this goes for painting too) we tend to identify with abstract formations that remind of some variation of human forms. Here are Elena’s images:
I had forgotten about this image, and today it is one of my favorite. It is whimsical and requires some time to process its intricacies.
Elena’s Abstract Smoke by Austin fine art photographer Johnny Stevens
This one I called Wisp of Elena. It clearly has some alien life forms that attract the eye….
Elena’s Abstract Smoke #2 Alien formation by Austin abstract photographer Johnny Stevens
My mentee Nolan shot this smoke image. Very often the way smoke rises and curls, it tends to show formations of vertebrae and human bones.
Nolan smoke abstract photography austin
And this one from my mentee Morgan;
Morgan abstract smoke photography by Austin photographer Johnny Stevens
For Jake’s Abstract Smoke Photography exercise, he created 2 edited versions from this first raw file.
Jake’s original raw file of smoke rising
Final edit of abstract smoke rising photograph
Final edit 2 of abstract smoke rising photograph
My mentee Krishan and I tested our reflexes at shooting water drops in a glass.
Krishan’s composition of 4 drops of water
After an hour of gruelling timing to pull the trigger at the right time we learned that we could not get the effect we were looking for which is achieved by buying a Pluto Valve Drop Regulator. It releases drops timed exactly with the shutter of the camera, but more importantly it releases 2 consecutive drops so that the upward splash of the first drop smashes into the one coming down and creates a beautiful mushroom effect. As seen in these two examples:
water drop 1 by fstoppers
waterdrop 2 by 500 px blog
To introduce my students to compositing in Photoshop, I will often give them the task of taking a series of images and composite parts of them into a master image. In this case I gave Nolan these images from my Mannequin folder of images to create a composite:
Mannequin for abstract photoshop compositing lesson Johnny Stevens Austin Photographer
Final composite by Nolan
Photographing Student Housing with the drone
Photographing Student Housing with the drone
How many times have I just wanted to get the camera up 10 feet to really showcase the exteriors of some of the student housing properties I have shot? Photographing aerial Student Housing with the drone is the simple answer because the drone allows me to get a different perspective on the property. Usually I noticed that I do get some keystoning distortion simply because I am often shooting down. This is easily corrected with the vertical perspective tool in Camera Raw in Photoshop. Here an example of the difference in perspective from ground photographs off the tripod and similar ones from the drone. These are both the same property by American Campus Communities.
Ground photo from tripod of the pool at Townhomes at Newtowne in Lexington
Aerial Drone photo from Mavic Pro drone of the pool at Townhomes at Newtowne in Lexington
Architectural photography for RollFab
Architectural photography for RollFab
I was recently asked to do some Architectural photography for RollFab in Austin. They are based in Phoenix. RollFab makes metal panels that look like wood. They offer a full line of the highest quality metal roofing systems, siding and metal wall panels for architectural, commercial, industrial, and residential projects of every kind. Architects, contractors and installers appreciate the quality service from their professional staff. They are ready to answer any question, and help devise custom solutions to individual project needs. This project is located at the Village at the Triangle in Austin. It is pretty cool stuff so I thought it would be nice to toss in a few drone shots of the building too because actually getting up an additional 15 feet higher was very helpful in showing the vertical side panels of the RollFab product on the building.
Architectural photography in Austin for RollFab
RollFab products installed at Village at Triangle architectural photography Austin
Aerial Drone Architectural Photography
Aerial Drone Architectural Photography
I was asked by an architect named Humphreys & Partners Architects who have offices in the US, Vietnam, China and Uruguay, to photograph some twilight aerial drone architectural photographs of a property in Austin, called ThinkEast Austin. Student Housing photography is my main forte so this apartment complex was a familiar project. As a professional architectural photographer in Austin I have learned that the drone is my best friend. Just to be elevated 10 to 15 feet to photograph a structure can make all the difference. The rain had just ended and I launched the DJI Mavic Pro in pretty heavy wind. Getting a fast enough shutter speed with the lowest possible ISO is always the challenge when shooting in the dark. You cannot shoot from a drone with a shutter speed higher than 1/30 especially if it is windy. My ISO was pumped up to 1000 but it worked out well after I did my adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw. The lighting on the building was not very attractive so I had to create my own light in Photoshop. I had to push and pull the shadows, highlights and white quite a bit to get a nice looking final image. Here is the before and after.
Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro Austin AFTER editing
ThinkEast Drone architectural photo before editing
The Mavic Pro drone perfect perspective
The Mavic Pro drone perfect perspective
How many times have I been shooting architecture from a tripod and wishing I could get just 10 feet higher? The Mavic Pro drone adds the perfect perspective for those situations. The drone does not have the vertical perspective adjust-ability as the TS-E 17 lens does, but once you are up 10 or 20 feet, you don’t need it because the verticals are true at those heights.
Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro photographer Johnny Stevens
Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro Austin
Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro Johnny Stevens
Testing the Crop loss with Canon TS-E 17mm lens on Canon Mark iii versus on the Sony A7R with Matabones V adapter
Testing the Crop loss on with Canon TS-E 17mm lens on Canon Mark iii
and on the Sony A7R
The Canon 5D Mark iii with TS-E 17 mm tilt shift lens professional photographer austin
My buddy Marc Swendner and I got the idea of testing the focal Canon TS-E 17mm tilt shift lens on both my Canon Mark iii and with his new Sony A7R with the Metabones V adapter ring. Both of us shoot architectural photography and since he bought the new Sony A7R he wanted to see if the new Sony camera would support the TS-E 17 mm tilt shift lens that we both depend on for our work. This 17 mm tilt shift lens is absolutely the cats meow because it is dead on sharp and it allows us to control the perspective of our interior and exterior photographs. Our hopes were that the Sony AR7 could deliver the same focal width with the adapter ring on it. Here are the results. The adapter ring on the Sony does crop the image significantly. It renders the TS-E 17 mm lens to be equivalent to about a 26 mm lens after the crop effect.
Austin photographers Johnny Stevens and Marc Swendner testing the TS-E tilt shift 17 mm lens with the Canon and the Sony
The Sony AR7 with adapter ring
Image from the Canon 5 D Mark 3 with 17mm tilt shift lens Johnny Stevens photography
Image from the Sony AR7 with Metabones V adapter ring on the 17mm tilt shift lens Marc Swendner photography
