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
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
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
Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina
Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina
One of my Westlake students for whom I am a photography mentor for the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School wanted to shoot a still life. I have always admired the work of Paulette Tavormina. Her fine art photography rises above the crowd of fine art photographers. Here is an example of her work.
Paulette Tavormina Roses+and+Figs_2013
My student, Jake and I moved some furniture around in my living room and built a black backdrop to cut out the ambient light. We lit the scene from several different angles with a Westcot mini strip light and painted in the lit areas in Photoshop.
Set up for Floral Fine Art photography austin Johnny Stevens
Set up for Floral Fine Art photography austin Johnny Stevens
Here is what we ended up with.
Floral still life Fine Art photography Austin Johnny Stevens
Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait
Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait makes you think about setting up a permanent studio somewhere. I did this for my Westlake High School mentee, Krishan so he could learn the basics of portrait photography. Our set up was a 3 point lighting setup – a main light, back light and a bounce card for the fill light. Skylar was our model from San Marcos.
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Student Housing Pool Deck
Student Housing Pool Deck at 191 College
This is a great example of one of American Campus‘ student housing Pool decks. It is at 191 College in Auburn Alabama. The lighting at night is really spectacular. When shooting architectural photography like the student housing pool deck, I try to shoot as much as I can 30 minutes before sunset to about 30 minutes after sunset. When the ambient light get closer to matching the interior or deck lights, the combination is very lovely.
Architectural photo of 191 College pool deck sitting area at dusk
Architectural photo of 191 College pool deck at dusk
Architectural photo of 191 College pool deck at dusk
Aerial Drone Architectural Photography
Aerial Drone Architectural Photography
Some recent good examples of Aerial Drone Architectural Photography show how getting up just 10 or 20 feet can make all the difference in an exterior of a building. These are both apartments complexes. The Lyndon pool is in San Marcos and the 959 Franklin images are from Eugene, Oregon. In those you can see that it was raining but I had just enough time to launch the Mavic Pro and shoot these two angles. The sky was ugly so replacing the sky in Photoshop was easy and necessary.
Aerial Drone architectural Photograph of 959 Franklin angle 2
Aerial Drone architectural Photograph of 959 Franklin
Aerial Drone architectural Photograph of The Lyndon San Marcos
Austin Family Portrait Photography with kids
Austin Family Portrait Photography with kids
Photographing an Austin Family Portrait with kids is very rewarding but comes with built in challenges. Managing a nice conversation with the clients while setting up a 12 foot backdrop and a 72 inch umbrella on a 300 WS Vision 4 strobe is not easy. Especially when there are 3 kids under the age of 7 wanting to play with the camera gear. But I let them play with it as long as it is secure because it makes them invested in the 2 minutes that we are going to be shooting.
I let the kids trigger the wireless light from the camera so they can watch it pop. That’s big fun for them. But my biggest tick in the bag is being sure my wife is there to help. While I am behind the camera pulling the trigger, she has Bert and Ernie puppets behind my back popping up over my shoulder to provide just one single flash of a smile. That’s all I need. Samantha is the queen of managing kids and parents and her always profusely sweating photographer husband Johnny.
Austin Family portrait with 3 kids
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
