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
Architectural Photography for Students – Part 4
Architectural Photography for Students – Part 4
As a professional architectural photographer in Austin, one of my most important lessons is Architectural Photography for Students. Often I will let them use their own equipment which usually includes at least a 28 mm zoom lens, and occasionally a 16 mm or 17 mm lens, which is about as wide as you want a lens for interior architecture because after that structures start getting very warped and there is significant keystoning that has to be corrected in Photoshop. Our general strategy is to shoot 5 bracketed exposures and blend those exposures in Photoshop. Nolan decided to use my lens since it is a Canon 17 mm tilt-shift lens which is an architectural photographers best friend because a tilt shift lens allows you to shoot your scene honoring true verticals and at the same time shift your lens up and down to your liking for the best composition. Here is what Nolan achieved shooting the new Public Library of Austin.
Austin Public Library architectural photography
Austin Public Library architectural photography
Austin Public Library architectural photography
As an architectural photographer, Student Housing is my strong suit. I travel the country photographing luxury housing projects that are newly built, or that have been renovated. I was asked by national student housing developer to photograph two project on the University of Texas Austin campus. This one is Rio on West. I took Jake with me to do the shooting. I made him wait till twilight knowing full well that these scenes would scream 20 minutes after sunset. This is what Jake ended up with for two of the exteriors.
Nine at West luxury student housing photographer Austin Texas
Twilight Pool at Nine at West luxury student housing photographer Austin Texas
Floral and Scenic Photography for Students – Part 3:
Floral and Scenic Photography for Students -Part 3
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Regarding Floral and Scenic Photography for Students, Some of my male students roll their eyes when I suggest shooting floral, including natural light as well as lighted still life and light painted floral arrangements. However they quickly realized how complicated it can get when we get into lighting and light painting arrangements. Chloe and I hung this orchid cluster from a cross bar and painted it with a flash light over about a 10 second exposure and then we masked in the spot lit areas in Photoshop.
Chloe Orchids Master fine art photography austin
Eleana and I drove to the Austin Botanical Gardens to photograph water lilies in natural light. The sun was just low enough to cast the edge of shadows to give this lily a bit of POP. In photoshop we duplicated the base layer and changed the blend mode to soft light. We duplicated it again and change the blend mode to multiply. Then we selected the flower, reversed the selection and masked in a water and lily pad background from a different shot.
Elena’s Lily master floral photography in natural light
AFTER EDITING Elena’s Lily master floral photography in natural light
The reason I like roses and orchids so much is because the petals are translucent, so they let light through them. This make them prime candidates for back lighting. This rose that Morgan and I photographed, is a great example. There is no front light. It was lit only from behind. You can see the flashlight Morgan was holding behind the rose in the first shot.
Morgan back lighting orange rose floral photography Austin
After editing Morgan back lighting orange rose floral photography Austin
I introduce my students to the different rules of composition early on. In this Gerber Daisey photograph, we used one single flash with a soft box on the right. Morgan did a great job of cropping the images so that the flowers fell perfectly into the 45 degree rule.
Gerber daisy one light cropped to 45 degree rule of composition
Nolan and I also photographed some blue orchids. This image is a combination of 3 different front spot lighted areas and two backlit areas. He did a great job of honoring the rule of thirds when he did his final crop.
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
After Editing Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
And one more Orchid arrangement with Krishan. He also did front and back lighting and masked in spot lit areas to create his master image.
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple orchid final after editing
Nolan and I attempted to emulate the still life floral style of Paulette Tavormina. I shopped at Central Market for the props, and my wife Samantha Stevens carved out some time from her Austin based job coaching day and built this gorgeous arrangement. Actually there is very little editing in this final image, just a couple of spot lit area on the right that the key light on the left could not reach.
Samantha Stevens building still life Floral arrangement for photograph
Floral still life photograph after editing
One of my favorite locations for introducing my students to landscape and scenic photography is the Pennybacker Bridge over Lake Austin. It is iconic, and the students always have something special to print up and take home with them. With Elena and Jake, the lesson involved learning how to evaluate a panoramic scene, leveling the camera to shoot 5 or 6 bracketed exposures and overlaping each shot so that Photoshop would be able to merge them all together into one scene. Here is what they came up with. Elena was delighted when friend of mine offered to pay her $100 for a 30 inch print of her panorama.
Elena’s panoramic scene of the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin Texas Floral and Scenic Photography
Jake’s panoramic scene of the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin Texas Floral and Scenic Photography
Morgan and I photographed a City-scape of Austin. You can tell that this was a few years ago – 2014 to be precise because the Frost Bank Building is featured and visible. Today, it is hard to find an angle where you can see any of that building.
Frost Bank building Austin cityscape circa 2014 Floral and Scenic Photography
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
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
Family Portrait in Zilker Botanical Gardens
I was recently asked to help with a family portrait in Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin. I was a anxious as there were 11 members of the family and 4 of those were kids under the age of 5. Fortunately I had my wife Samantha available to entertain kids and goof around behind the camera to get them to smile. But it worked out. In Photoshop, I had to replace only 5 heads in the group with other shots. I was really happy with the background textures in the Botanical Gardens!
This is what the client wrote on Google reviews:
I was looking for a photographer for a family photo and found Johnny online. I didn’t think that most of the other sites with wedding photos would be really relevant to what I was looking for. I liked Johnny’s portfolio of family pictures. I also figured that since he had heavy commercial experience, he would be a pro. I figured correctly. He did a great job on an extended family of 11 in an outdoor setting. He was also great to work with, very easy-going and flexible. His wife also helped out at the shoot, coaxing cooperation from 4 grandkids under 5. I thought I might have to resort to serious bribery but didn’t have to. Finally, his prices were very reasonable. I really appreciate his efforts and the results and would highly recommend him to anyone.
Family portrait in Zilker Botanical Gardens in the jurrasic area
Fusion – abstract photography
It is not often that I print my Rust Rapture pieces on paper – normally I print on canvas because they print up so well in large formats like 2 x 3 feet. This client asked for a large format print on epson luster paper so they could frame it for their front foyer. This piece is called Fusion. It is from a 1940 Buick Rat Rod. These abstract photographs are all derived from the exteriors of old vintage hot rods whose exteriors have been left to the demise of mother nature – the heat, rain, sun and belt sanders. The resulting patinas are spectacular. Often these print can be hung in any direction but on Fusion, there is a door knob – yep that is a door knob in the top left which sort of need to be in the right place.
Mosle Installation of Fusion Abstract Photography
Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply Composite Portraiture
As my architectural photography work slows in the winter, it lets me enjoy my next favorite passion – composite portraiture. When I saw the Austin American Statesman article about Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply closing after 72 years in business, I was inspired to ask the owners, John and Ken Bushong, if I could shoot their portrait for posterity. The shop was ideal for a photo shoot since it has iconic items like a 1920’s cash register:
Buck Moore 1920 era Cash Register
a 1930’s adding machine, and scales that are over 50 years old. I knew this setting would be perfect for a composite portrait where I light and capture the people first, then remove them and the lights from the scene, and then go around the room and pop a light on different areas and paint in those spot lit areas layer by layer in Photoshop.
Johnny Stevens spot lighting at Buck Moore
Spot lighting the portrait scene at Buck Moore
I love the drama that spot lighting gives you because each light pop comes from a different direction.
John and Ken Bushong composite portraiture
Portrait session and making a composite portrait
For Nolan’s final training session of the semester for the Independent Study Course for which I am a mentor, I had Nolan conduct a Portrait session and making a composite portrait with my friend Lane Orsak. Lane is an author, artist, collector and marketing consultant. We wanted to create an image that would represent him as an author – maybe even to use in his most recent book. We lit Lane with a key light with umbrella and a kicker light behind him with a Westcott softbox. Then I went around the room behind him and lit several angles on the couch and painting on the wall and we layered all of those spot lit scenes into the master Lane image.
Lane Orsak formal male portrait session making a composite portrait photograph in Austin
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library
As a photography exercise and as part of the curriculum for my mentee from the Westlake High School Independent study course, I decided on an Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library. Nolan and I spent the day there and I taught him my methods of shooting real estate architectural interiors. You can find no better photo ops than the new Public Library. It is a spectacular feat of contemporary architecture. Nolan shot 5 brackets of a top image and the same for a bottom image and then we photo-merged the two together to get a portrait aspect ratio and then we painted in the exposures we wanted from each bracketed image. Here are the 2 images that make up the final master image.
Austin Public Library Architectural photo bottom half
Austin Library architectural bottom half
Austin Library architectural final image
Additional architectural images Nolan shot on location at the library:
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library bookshelves
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library breezway
The new Austin Public Library breezeway 2
