Snap Shot #1

The time and space of architectural photography as it exists today.

The snap shot has evolved quickly in the digital age.  I find it exciting and sometimes overwhelming.  This quickly changing technology affects my world as a photographer quicker than many other fields.  The digital imaging revolution, that is well under way, offers a major change every few months in the equipment and software.  I need to keep up with advancements without losing focus on the goal of producing great imagery for my clients and myself.  No matter what the advancement, it still boils down to the fact that these are all tools.  A pencil is a tool and the in the right hands it can yield amazing artwork, the same can be said for a digital camera.  I thought it would be interesting to take a snap shot of my workflow today.  It is ever changing and evolving and is nothing like what I was doing two years ago.  My hope is that this peek behind the curtain will be helpful to photographers and clients alike.

The completed image above was taken for Northwest Home magazine recently.  This image is a composite of 7 images.  This is a fairly standard image in terms of the number of exposures and the Photoshop processing required.  First it’s important to remember that the human eye can record 22 stops of light and high-end digital cameras can only capture only 12-13 stops.  With each stop being a doubling or halving of light the camera is a long way off from what the human eye can record.  Architectural photography deals with incredibly high contrast ranges, particularly images such as this one.  The interior light was 5 stops darker than that of the exterior. 

            

Above is the finished image along side the “straight shot”.  You will notice the exterior is "blown out" which means there is little to no information because it is to bright or blown out.  In the next post I will show the Lightroom settings and start combining the images together into the final product.