Constructing a photo vs. taking one
With few exceptions, the best architectural and interior images aren’t simply taken. A better term is constructed. Aside from composition there are many considerations, including time of day, lighting style and placement, staging and propping. The best shots result from a combination of a detail-oriented set up + post-processing.
Photographing grand-scale architecture during the day can be as simple as waiting for the sun to move to the perfect place…if indeed it will. The same shot at evening will require an extensive lighting set up, if the decision is made to add supplemental lighting…which will likely result in a more dramatic image.
July 15th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Can you tell something about the lighting you added? It’s obvious that that the pooollights and the lights in the rooms of the opposite building were put on. Did you use any flash?
July 16th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Thanks for visiting John. This image required the most lighting of any shot I have taken before, due to the scale of the architecture. Without revealing my exact methods, I can tell you that I use a variety of lighting equipment ranging from tungsten hot lights to high-powered strobes. The benefits of using hot lights (at night) are that they are often focusable, usually match the color temperature of the available lighting, and “what you see is what you get”. Strobes on the other hand are exponentially more powerful, run cool, and can freeze any movement unlike hot lights which require time exposure. I have used them at night when there is a strong enough wind to blur the vegetation. The down-side to strobes is that they are not focusable without specialized accessories and it’s trial and error to determine a lighting effect.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:13 pm
That made my day. Love your blog.