Paul S. Bartholomew Photography » Architectural Photography Technical

Another Power Line Challenge In Hoboken

Paul S. Bartholomew — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:51:57 +0000

I must have photographed close to 20 buildings in Hoboken, NJ over the past 4 years. It’s a great city with incredible places to eat and scenic views along the Hudson River of the Manhattan skyline. Two things I wish could be improved are power lines and parking. I managed to find parking but I guess the power line issue poses the challenge my client will see. This building was designed by Dean Marchetto Architects. They are among my favorite people to work with and their work can be seen all over Hoboken and Jersey City. I think most of the projects I photographed for them had power lines and poles distracting the facades. We’re not always talking about straight poles but nasty crooked ones too. Below are the “after” and “before” versions of the most recent project I did touch-ups on. The new features of Adobe Photoshop CS5 do save hours of time such as Content Aware Fill but they aren’t perfect and require some learning to get the best results. I still think chopping down poles is a faster solution.

Unique Interior Lighting

Paul S. Bartholomew — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:06:15 +0000

This is one of those projects that make my brain hurt. Great subject matter but very difficult to capture. Not only was this a difficult project, but it was also the first photo shoot with this client. Lots of pressure!

Here is the situation. Daylight will ruin the lighting because of the reflections, light falloff and major color temperature issues. How do I know? Scouting. I can’t stress this enough, if the project is within a reasonable distance I always try to scout first. I found that the best option for the photography was in the evening when I can work with the situation with lighting controls, additional photographic lighting and multiple exposures. Yes, this could be photographed during the day with strobes and/or hot lights all over the place, but why would I want to kill the atmosphere?

My style and approach is to capture the subject matter in a natural way. I would like to point out that this doesn’t mean I don’t use additional lighting. Most of my interior photography requires help but the idea is to not overwhelm the lighting. Supplementing is the word I guess. Some photographers have a different approach but this is personal and the reason why some clients hire one photographer over another. Interior design and architectural clients have a vision they wish for me to articulate for the world to see. Lighting is crucial to the design’s identity, if I’m not true to the atmosphere then I feel it becomes less credible, especially to those who have seen the design in person.

The lighting in this place is extreme, especially with the glowing light panels and monitors all over. So how do I capture this as natural as possible? Sometimes you need help from Photoshop and this adds a lot more post-production time. I probably spent 2 days working on the post-production. Normally I bracket exposures in a 3 stop range, the light panels and monitors required about 2-3 extra stops darker. I always recommend taking lots of extra exposures in extreme situations, this is digital not film. In post-production I look for the image that shows the most accurate exposure. This exposure will have lots of faults but it’s meant to be the foundation. Secondary exposures that bring back highlight and shadow areas are then layered in and fine tuned. This takes lots of practice when you need to mask areas and use selection tools but experience will make things go faster and better over time.

I get a lot of questions asking if I use HDR (High Dynamic Range). I have used HDR and have a few different tools for it but it isn’t natural looking to me and I can’t find a use for it other than fine art. By using a combination of natural lighting, photographic lighting and exposure layering I get what I desire. No magic shortcuts, sorry.

Evening Interior Design Photography

Science Center Revisit

Paul S. Bartholomew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:53:44 +0000

My last attempt had some issues with lighting. The exterior lighting didn’t turn on in time and the interior lights were on motion sensors that turned off after 5 minutes. Needless to say my assistant was tired from activating the lighting on 3 floors. The end results came out fine but too much contrast for what I desired.

These lighting issues are becoming more common as buildings are designed with conservation of energy in mind. We had to find the right people to help adjust the motion sensors inside and also turn the exterior lights on earlier. The second attempt worked out well and below you will see the difference.

The choice between the two images is a matter of preference. The first image has more pop with color but the second image is more subtle and shows details that the architect may want to see.

1st Attempt Photographing Science Center

2nd Attempt Photographing Science Center

Giving Away RAW Files? Think Again.

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:02:48 +0000

It doesn’t happen very often but when it does I tend to go on my rant. Recently I had a situation where the potential client asked for the RAW files. Knowing this term tends to be misunderstood I proceeded to ask more questions and explain the importance of the RAW processing being handled by the photographer. I also mentioned that I don’t give away my RAW files. Unfortunately it didn’t get through to the potential client and they went with another local photographer. I didn’t even get to gather the full details of the project and send an estimate. It basically ended with the RAW file issue.

Some questions come to mind. Are we to be hired as technicians that can operate a camera and hand over half finished work? Or are we technically savvy artists who care about the entire process and utilize RAW file conversion and post-production to achieve our vision? I personally would feel like a hack if I handed over RAW files for someone else to work on. Especially since the process isn’t simple and part of the strategy during the photo shoot is carried over to the post-production side such as layering images together.

Here are some sample images from one of my favorite photos. This is to demonstrate that the untouched RAW files before conversion look terrible and need work such as color balancing and tonal adjustments. Also take note that I photograph with many different exposures to recover blown out highlight areas and blocked shadow details. This will explain the extremely dark and the extra light photos.

Underexposed RAW Image Used For Layering

Overexposed RAW Image Used For Layering

Average Exposure RAW Image Used For Layering

My method is to layer all the images together into one. I do this one layer at a time and carefully select and add what I want for a nice readable image. This was a high contrast situation that required both highlight details and shadow details brought back. After I have everything adjusted the way I like, I then fine tune the image with more tonal and color adjustments as needed. Sometimes this involves more layers. After all is done, I’ll flatten the layers and save the image as a master file using TIFF or PSD as my preference for file format.

Here is the final worked image. Of course much more can be covered with the RAW conversion portion of the workflow but I think it’s good to go beyond that and show the layering. It may have more impact on persuading the importance in leaving the RAW files to the photographer’s discretion.

Vanishing Point Issues With Tall Buildings

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:13:46 +0000

Thought these two photos may be interesting to show in comparison. They are both photographed from distances not too far from each other but make a big difference in vanishing points. Tall buildings may get a sharp pointed angle to the rooftops if photographed close up and from the ground level. The best solution is to photograph from a vantage point about half the height of the building. This places the vanishing points in a position where we don’t end up with such severe angled rooftops. I often try to get access to a nearby building but in this case it wasn’t possible. No buildings were nearby because it’s near the Hudson River with boats docked everywhere.

The other solution is to back up but I had limited area. The areas I could back up to had issues such as power lines, fences, sail masts and lots of other distractions. On top of the distractions I had one big request from the client and that was to show the rail station. A compromise was in order and in this situation I feel it’s best taking the shot requested by the client and also doing extra variations to demonstrate how perspective changes the image. The farther back view had the most natural look and feel but showed less of the rail station.

I like both views for their own strong points and the client seemed to like having the option to perhaps use both photos together.

Retouching For Architectural Project Part II & Shadow Issues

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:54:25 +0000

This is project is related to my last post that showed extensive retouching. Same client and same city but different building with slightly different touch-ups.

Once again the power lines and poles had to be removed but we had a distraction with the background. That huge building in the background is also my client’s design but he didn’t care to see it pop up behind the one that is featured. The building removal was rather simple. The lack of trees allowed for nice clean lines for selecting the roof. At least that was easy because the poles and lines took about 5 hours to remove.

Here is an additional note not related to the touch-ups. See the shadow on the left that covers a small portion of the building facade? Also, see the shadow in front of the building toward the bottom right? This was a timing issue. At 7:00AM or earlier the shadow along the bottom cuts across the front of the building facade. Not good. On the other hand, we have the shadow on the left that only get worse as the morning light shifts. This all came down to the perfect timing to minimize the shadows. We couldn’t get it perfect with a clear shadowless shot but it’s the best possible.

Just another thought. I could have made a shadowless shot by doing multiple exposures during the different times but the client wanted some options with angles. This would have involved many camera and tripod setups to cover 3-4 views like this. I hope this makes sense.

Before Photo of Architectural Project

After Photo of Architectural Project