Arm-R-Lite photoshoot
Arm-R-Lite door installation at new Starbucks interior
Arm-R-Lite door installation at new Starbucks
Arm-R-Lite photoshoot
I was just recently asked by a company in Minnesota that manufactures rock solid commercial doors.
Arm-R-Lite is a leading manufacturer of commercial overhead sectional doors and commercial roll-up doors. Each one of our commercial garage doors is built to withstand the daily rigors of the most demanding installations. Arm-R-Lite doors have been installed on firehouses, artist studios, corporate buildings, restaurants , car washes, car care centers, gas stations, dealerships, museums, marinas, private homes, and countless unique applications.
This commercial photo shoot was different because for several of the shots I used my new Neewer Vision 4 battery powered strobe lights and had to shoot into the glass with them. I could avoid the glare by carefully considering the angle that I directed the lights.
The location of the door installation was the new Starbucks at Barton Springs and Lamar.
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
Architectural Spot Lighting saves the day in student housing photo project
While shooting at NEIU in Chicago, I took the time to do some spot lighting on this scene. In this first image you can see what the camera sees and there are lots of lighting problems. The window is easily 8 stops hotter than the couches in the foreground. The windows are almost blown out and couches are dark. I could have fused 5 bracketed photos as I often do, but I wanted to test this approach to lighting.
The Nest at NEIU architectural photograph out of the camera image
I walked around and used a Canon 600 ex rt speedlite with no modifier on it to spot light 6 areas. I triggered the camera from my Ipad which was loaded with the Cam Ranger software. The camera had the Cam Ranger unit attached to the fire wire port. This gives me the freedom to walk around and spot light and change the settings on the camera or on the flash without having to walk back to the camera.
Spot lit scene of The Nest
Then I painted in those lit areas in Photoshop. Even with no modifier on the flash to soften the shadows, I ended up with a much more appealing architectural photograph.
Final image of The Nest with spot lighting done in Photoshop
Residential Real Estate Photography special technique
Though I don’t do much residential real estate photography , since I am so busy with commercial architectural photography, I was hired to shoot a home to be listed on MLS, and it immediately got a full price offer in just a day on the market. The living room of the house had a vaulted ceiling so to show as much of this room as possible, I chose to photomerge two shots in Photoshop. This require that I shoot one lower and one higher image. I can do this because when I shoot with my Canon 17mm Tilt Shift lens, it allows me to maintain the true verticals in the images, allowing Photohop to be able to merge the two images into one. This provides a nice wide shot but adds the dimension of height so the viewer can see lots more of the room. I hope this stacking approach helped sell this house for my EXP Realty client!
Real Estate architectural photography of vaulted ceiling living room
Vaulted Living room with 2 stacked images in Photoshop
Architectural images that take a bit more work in Photoshop
Some architectural images take a bit more work. Occasionally as a professional architectural photographer it is necessary to dive into Photoshop to do painstaking hours of retouching. Here is an example of one of those architectural images that requires just sitting down at the computer and digging in. Knowing the nuances of Photoshop helps. Here are some of those tricks. First a single exposure of the building right out of the camera.
1200 West Marshall UVA singe exposure out of camera
The after shot after fusing 5 exposures, cleaning up the wires and poles, adjusting color, cleaning up the pavement and replacing the sky.
1200 West Marshall after retouching
Telephone pole wires are easy but not easy. The look straight but they are not – they droop. With the spot healing brush set to just a bit wider than the diameter of the wire, if you click on an edge of a window or some type of hard edge and then click as far at you think the wire will be straight enough to be contained in that healing path, and click on a final spot that also has a clean edge, you can make lots of progress cleaning up wires – even wires that cross windows and other parts of the building. Invariably there will be spot runs like this that will not work and you just have to pull out the clone stamp tool and do your best to match the length of the wire. Telephone poles will need the clone stamp tool – they are too wide for the spot healing tool. The spot healing too works as a content aware tool so it is looking for information around it to replace the selected area. Unless your telephone pole is sitting right over a nice clean stretch of brick, none of the healing or content aware approaches will work. Replacing the sky in this image is not too tough because there are no trees poking up over the roof line. A clean roof line is easy to select and then drop in a new sky.
Architectural Accent photography can be more alluring than the whole room.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up about shooting my conventional architectural angles and scenes that I forget to look around me for accent photos. Architectural Accent photography often tells a more intriguing story than the entire room in which it is featured. In this first example, this vintage bank vault door in Houston makes a loud statement about the gobs of money and cash happy history of the old oil days of south Texas.
Vintage Bank Vault Door
This accent photo is one I saw while shooting at University Crossings in Charlotte. It is in the entry way to the leasing office of the property.
University Crossings Charlotte Lobby architectural accent photography
Flying with Photography Equipment
Flying with Photography Equipment
Being a photographer with clients across the U.S means flying with my photography equipment. I prefer to keep all my camera gear on me as a carry on while traveling since my equipment is particularly fragile and valuable. I have heard too many horror stories about musicians with broken guitars or photographers with broken lenses. Since carry on space is limited to one smaller bag and a personal item, I take great care in picking the equipment that goes with me to provide the mobility I need with the quality work I demand from myself. If I am on a small plane, occasionally I have to gate check my Tamrac Speedroller bag. As tough as it is, I have indeed had some damage to my gear due to mishandling of the luggage underneath the plane. Here is an example – my backup camera 5D Mark II got a punch in the face and the top window is cracked. All works well but dangit guys, do you have to toss the bags?
5d mark II backup camera with a cracked window
So here is my travel gear:
Camera:
- Canon 5D Mark III SLR
- shoots about a 23 meg raw file
- makes it easy to bracket my exposures by setting it up in a custom function
- not too heavy
- tough as nails
Lenses
- Canon TSE 17mm f4 (tilt shift lens)
- This is a great lens for making small spaces look a bigger. The trade off is that when you shift down, items in the foreground start getting distorted.
- Canon TSE 24mm f3.5 (tilt shift lens)
- This one is great for exteriors
- Canon 24-105mm f f4.5 zoom lens
- I was carrying the 24-70 f2.8 lens but it is so heavy, I opted for this one
- Versatile and optics are great
Accessories
- Two Canon 600 EX RT speedlights
- Canon ST-E3-RT Wireless trigger for the speedlights. Though you can use one of these speedlights on the camera to control the off camera 600, it sure is nice to have the ST-E3-RT trigger to control both of them off camera. And it is lighter and easier to use as a master trigger.
- Manfrotto Neotec Pro tripod and Manfrotto with 494 ball head
- Nothing is more valuable to me than this tripod. It sets up and breaks down by just pulling and pushing on the legs. No clips to undo first! It is expensive but worth it.
- Small speedlight modifiers
- When I am spot lighting with my speedlights, I need a modifier to soften the shadows and spread the light. Otherwise I will get hard shadows as the light falls off the subject.
- Cam Ranger software on my Ipad
- For remote camera triggering. This is very helpful to be able to walk around a room and trigger the camera to shoot while I am holding a speed light to light a specific area. I can see the image on my Ipad, make f stop or shutter speed changes from the ipad and keep moving around, not having to go back to the camera after each shot to look at the results.
And of course I bring my laptop loaded with Photoshop and Photomatix so I can process the photos on the plane.
Here it is laid out:
Camera gear for traveling
And packed up in the bag
travel photography gear packed up in the Tamrac travel bag
OK so your camera hits the concrete lens first – lens damage!
What to do when your camera and lens hits the concrete floor – lens damage…
Just last week I was shooting for American Campus at one of their properties at Florida State in Tallahassee. My camera with my Canon TS-E 17mm tilt shift lens was mounted on my Manfrotto Neotec tripod. One of the legs of the tripod decided to get in the way of my foot as I leaned forward to reach for my cup of coffee. Down goes the whole rig – lens first – and of course this lens is like a huge eyeball – all round glass on the front with nothing to protect it. The front of the lens was greeted by a lovely tile floor. This is not the image you want to see when you turn around after hearing that horrifying sound similar to someone stepping on a wine glass.
tilt shift lens hits the tile
After inspection I noticed that the lens fracture was an interesting pattern. The cracks in the glass were constricted to the outside of the lens. I also noticed that I could not turn the focus ring. It was lodged tight as a coon’s ass. $2,000 buck down the drain. If the camera was damaged, I would be doubling my pain. After regaining my senses, I tested the camera and it work perfectly. Why not shoot a test shot and see what I get? Amazing! The fracture in the glass did not show up in the shot, and the focus ring had locked up at a focus of about 12 feet which for a 17 mm lens still delivers lots of depth of field. I decided to shoot out the project with that focus setting with and take a chance – with the camera lens damaged.
Sure enough, my shots were clean. Some of the exterior shots were bit fuzzy at the farthest points but a bit of sharpening in camera raw fixed that.
What I appreciate:
- The indestructibility of the Canon 5D Mark III camera. This is not the first time it has meet the earth.
What I learned:
- Carrying an extra lens was still a good idea.
- Having gear insurance was a good idea. Mine was through Professional Photographers of America.
Architectural photographer for American Campus Communities
For 11 years I have had the honor of being the architectural photographer for American Campus Communities properties and traveling around the US. It requires patience with airports and car rental lines but it is worth it to see some of the most intriguing, cutting edge contemporary architecture and interior design for high end student housing complexes. This one is from Momentum Village in Corpus Christie, Texas. This image was shot at twilight. That magic moment happens about 20 minutes after the sun sets.
Momentum Village architectural photo by Johnny Stevens photographing architecture for American Campus
In The News
- At May 23, 2015
- By Johnny Stevens
- In abstract, Aerial photography, aerial video, architectural photos, areial video, art for sale, austin architectural photographer, Austin photographer, canvas prints for sale, Drone photography, Drone Video, Fine Art, HDR, hot rods, landscape, light painting, Photography, Photoshop, portrait, portrait photography, professional, protrait, real estate photography, rust rapture
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