Architectural Photographer | Architectural Photography

Commercial photography for Courvoisier Cognac

I was looking through one of my old portfolios and I came across a series of photographs that I thought would make an interesting post for this blog, even though it is not an architectural photography post. As most photographers who have been in business for over 30 years, I have done a great variety of work throughout my career.


In the fall of 1999 I was hired to produce a series of five beverage photographs for Courvoisier Cognac’s Millennium promotion. The typical cognac drinker was a 50+ white male and Courvoisier wanted to increase their market share with the younger crowd. I was given the drink recipes and asked to produce a stylish, colorful image of each drink.


I spent two days experimenting with different looks before I came up with the green drink with the yellow background. That gave me the look I was after and the other drinks were photographed in a similar style. Two identical glasses were used for each photograph. One glass was placed upside down on a stand and the other glass was placed right side up on the base of the upside down glass. A large sheet of white plexiglass was placed 3 feet behind the glasses and a large piece of black velvet cloth was placed between the glasses and the plexiglass. The 4x5 camera was set up, the drink was poured and the studio lights were turned off. The shutter was opened and the exposures were made for the glass and the liquid. Then the shutter was closed and the lights turned back on. I removed the black velvet, backlit the plexiglas with lights covered with colored gels, cocked the shutter, turned the lights off and made the exposures for the background. All of the images were captured on 4x5 transparency film (Fuji Velvia) and there was no retouching or digital manipulation of any kind.


I love the flexibility and control that we now have with digital capture, but there is something very rewarding about capturing a complex image on a sheet of film with no retouching.



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Photography of the Woodward Tribute

Calori & Vanden-Eynden,  one of the worlds leading firms in the field of signage design, asked me to photograph their newly installed Woodward Tribute in the fall of 2008.

 

The 30 foot tall solar powered glass tower is internally illuminated by LEDs. The controls and storage battery are housed in the concrete base. While CV&E needed both daylight and night photographs, we knew that the hero shots would be the twilight photos.  To prevent the base of the tribute from going too dark I used a wireless trigger to release the shutter and fired flash units by hand during the long (up to 60 seconds) exposures.

 

The plan was to install 26 tributes, each one mile apart, along the length of Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. The economic train wreck of 2009 has temporarily derailed that idea. Hopefully the plan will get back on track as the economy improves.

Woodward Ave. & Cambourne, Ferndale, MI





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Architectural Photography of the Detroit Art School. Part 1: The Building

While photographing the Detroit Art School a few years ago I stopped for a few minutes to talk with the principal of the school, Dr. Denise Cotton.  Dr. Cotton told me how excited she was about the move to the new facility. “The kids are going to love their new school! “ she said. Dr. Cotton told me the history of the Detroit Art School and about the terrible condition of the old building. Then she asked a favor, would I photograph the old school and some of the classrooms before the old building was torn down. “ I’d love to have photographs as a reminder of just how far we’ve come with the Detroit Art School” she said.

 

So we followed Dr. Cotton a few miles to the old school, formerly the Wilbur Wright School. After a brief tour of the old three-story building my assistant and I photographed the band room, dance studio, black box theater, auditorium, art room and a few classrooms. Having just spent several days photographing the new school, the condition of the old DAS came as a shock. It was easy to see why Dr. Cotton was so excited for her students and staff to see their beautiful new facility.

 

I did a large number of exterior views at different times of the day. I photographed this particular view on three different occasions. This twilight view is my favorite.      

 

New Detroit School for the Fine and Performing Arts


 

Old art school

 

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Architectural Photographer: Interior photography at DTW

Architectural photographers generally have a wide variety of clients. Architects, interior designers and general contractors are just a few of the many types of businesses that at one time or another will require the services of an architectural photographer to produce photographs for their advertising and marketing.

We were hired to produce interior photography at two newly remodeled retail stores at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW). So that we would encounter minimal traffic in the airport we began setting up after the stores closed on a Tuesday night. The staff were great and stayed overtime to help clean up and prepare the service and dining areas for photography. The only delays that we encountered were when a couple of late night flights arrived. Then we would have to wait until all of the passengers and crews disembarked and passed by on their way to baggage claim. Other than tighter security, shooting in large airports is not much different than working in any other large commercial or retail space.

http://www.claytonstudio.com


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Architectural Photographer: Noi to Motor Burger restaurant make-over

After running Noi successfully for several years, Gino and Jay decided that a fun, upscale burger place would do better in the recession wracked economy of Windsor than their trendy and expensive Italian restaurant. So they shut down Noi, enlisted the help of Gino’s cousin Dan, and in three weeks reopened as Motor Burger. Dan asked if I could produce some nice interior photography of the new place that he could use for marketing. In particular, he wanted photos for the new Motor Burger Facebook page to help create a buzz for the new restaurant prior to opening.

The front of Motor Burger has floor to ceiling windows and faces south. I wanted to highlight the interior lighting so we started photography in the early evening when daylight would not effect the photographs. My objective was to produce very realistic, natural looking photographs of the interior.

When I had finished the interior photography, Gino asked if I could photograph their new outdoor sign. I prefer to photograph illuminated signage at twilight when I can blend daylight with the lighting of the sign. Since it was almost midnight when Gino made his request, a different approach would be required. I’m not a big fan of the “HDR look” for architectural photography, but I thought the technique might produce a very nice image of the sign. I made a series of exposures to capture the full dynamic range of the scene and then selected 5 of those captures and loaded them into Photomatix. A little tone mapping and some tweaking in Photoshop produced the final image. If you’re in the Erie Street area, be sure to stop in and ask Martene for one of their amazing “Spiked Shakes”!  http://www.claytonstudio.com


 




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Interior Photography: Bob-Lo Island

Once the home of a major amusement park, Bob-Lo Island is now the home of an exclusive residential development with large single family homes and condominiums. We were hired by the developers to produce interior photography of the Harbourview Condominiums.

Since views of the surrounding waterways are an important feature of the condominiums, we needed nice sunny days a lots of flash for the interior photographs that featured exterior views. The interior photographs that did not have views looking outside could be done after dark.
On the last day of the project I stayed until well past midnight in order to finish the last of the interior photography. By the time all of the cameras and lighting equipment had been packed into the van it was after 1:00am. I drove down to the dock to catch the car ferry back to the mainland, only to find that the ferry had stopped running at midnight. Fortunately I still had the keys to the condominiums and I was able to go back inside and get a few hours sleep before catching the first ferry off of the island at 6:00am.  http://www.claytonstudio.com

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Architectural Photographer; with or without people?

I was recently contacted by Metropolis Magazine regarding photography that I had done at the Rosa Parks Transit Center (aka: the bus station) in Detroit. The magazine was doing a feature story about the transit center and wanted to use my photographs. The problem was they also wanted photographs of people in the transit center and I had done all of my interior photography without people.

 

After a few emails to negotiate fees and usage, I headed back to the transit center to produce a few interior and exterior photographs with people in them. Since the photos would be for editorial use, model releases would not be necessary. Because of very tight deadlines I would not be able to wait for good weather and would have to shoot on a very gray, rainy morning.

 

When I photograph interiors I am concerned with achieving maximum sharpness and the desired depth of field and long exposures are the norm. Photographing a public space while people are coming and going presents anew set of challenges. If the exposures are too long, anyone walking becomes along streak across the photograph.

 

In years past the majority of interior photography has been done without people. There is now a trend toward including people in the photographs. This trend is being driven by publications that in many cases prefer to run interior and architectural photographs containing people. This is because studies have shown that people will spend more time looking at photographs that have people in them. More people looking at their publication for longer periods of time means that they can better attract advertisers and charge higher space rates. Since architects are always anxious to have photographs of their projects published, they feel that having people in the photos increases the chances of their work being published. 

 

My personal preference is toward not having people in the photographs. Our eyes are always drawn toward images of people. With my photography I am trying to show the space and I would prefer that people look at the architecture and interior spaces, not at people who populate the space.Of course if I were a portrait photographer rather than an architectural photographer, I would no doubt see this differently.



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Wil Armster's "Bridge House"

One of the great benefits of being an architectural photographer is the opportunity to work with some very talented people.

Connecticut based architect Wil Armster combines his deep passion for architecture with a truly unique vision.



He designed the 240 ft. long “Bridge House” to sit on the property without disrupting the natural flow of the land. Viewed from the road in mid summer, the house seems to float atop the tall grasses. Since the natural drainage of the land has not been altered, spring thaw transforms the surrounding snows into a river three feet deep flowing beneath the house.

  

In presenting Mr. Armster with a merit award for his “Bridge House”, the Connecticut chapter of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) had this to say, “ The building is all about careful, artful siting. It has a taut simplicity. The way it sits in the landscape and the landscape itself are perfect. It is all about place. It looks like a big slab of granite, but one that is not hitting the ground. The building illustrates the fact that you do not have to spend a lot of dollars for an excellent project”.

Very well deserved Mr. Armster, congratulations! Visit Wil's website: http://www.armster.com

 

*Here is a very interesting New York Times article about Wil Armster and his “Space Ship” in Guilford, Connecticut.

NY Times Article


 



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Black & White Infrared Architectural Photography

This photograph of the University of Windsor’s Dillon Hall was probably shot in 2000. I used Kodak’s 4x5 High Speed Infrared black and white film and a Schneider Super-Angulon 72mm XL lens.

 

No longer produced, this film had excellent sharpness and the look of the final image could be varied tremendously by the use of different filters and by adjusting exposure and development times. I rarely used the opaque infrared filter and preferred the look produced by a medium or dark red filter.

 

One of the most beautiful and unique characteristics of this film (both 4x5 and 35mm) are the glowing highlights that result from the film not having an anti-halation coating. Prints made with this film have a beautiful, glowing, ethereal look that other infrared films cannot duplicate.

 

Today’s digital sensors are very sensitive to infrared radiation and are covered with an IR absorbing filter. With many digital cameras it is possible to have the IR filter removed (only by a professional, do not try this at home!) thereby converting the camera to an infrared digital camera. Different looks can be obtained by using different filters over the lens. While I prefer medium or dark red filters, an opaque infrared filter can produce very dramatic images

 

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Architectural photography of the Rosa Parks Bus Terminal

The Rosa Parks Bus Terminal, Detroit, MI

Built by DeMaria Building Company

 

    As an architectural photographer, I enjoyed the challenges that this project presented. We broke the photography down into three categories, each with it’s own issues.

 

Interior Photographs

    The challenges of the interior photography were the huge expanses of glass combined with the high intensity discharge lighting (minus red) used inside. Also, the seating areas are lit with florescent lights, which are also minus red. The highly reflective ceiling looks awesome but added to the difficulty of the interior photography. Shooting in the late afternoon/evening proved to be the best solution.


 

Twilight Exterior Photographs

    Always the most dramatic images, we did the twilight exterior photographs both at morning and evening. The huge contrast range between illuminated fabric canopy and the interior was a major issue. When the skylight level was low enough for the interior to look its best, the brightly lit canopy was burning out. And when the skylight balanced well with the illuminated canopy, the interior was too dark. There were three possible solutions; add supplemental lighting to the interior, reduce the light levels on the canopy or use layer masking in post production. If we were doing only one photograph, adjusting the interior and/or canopy lighting would have been considered. But since we were doing a large number of views on different days, layer masking was the best solution.

    Another challenge was the dreaded orange construction barrel!  We arrived at 5:00am on a Sunday morning to do the twilight views of the southwest corner (Michigan Ave and Cass Ave.). Lined upon the sidewalk were about a dozen orange barrels. In the darkness before sunrise, my assistant and I received more than a few odd looks as we dragged the barrels along Michigan Avenue. A police officer driving by did stop to ask what the in the *&%* we were doing, but apparently believed our story that we were not stealing the barrels and needed to move them for the architectural photography. We did decline an offer from one of the more ominous looking street people to “guard” our camera equipment while we moved the barrels. It’s surprising how many interesting characters are out in the pre-dawn hours!


 

Daylight Exterior Photographs.

    Because of the taller buildings to the east, south and west, the only sunlit views that could be done of the bus terminal were of the southwest corner (Michigan Avenue and Cass Avenue) and the south side (Michigan Avenue). Shooting at the beginning of August, we needed a clear sunny day from approximately 1:00pm to2:00pm. Earlier or later and shadows from surrounding buildings would be a problem. We had moved the orange construction barrels a few days earlier when doing the twilight photos and only two barrels had been moved back to the intersection. We dragged those out of the shot and made our exposures moments before clouds blocked the sun for the rest of the afternoon.

    When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white bus passenger in Montgomery, Alabama she could never have imaged that a beautiful new bus terminal in Detroit would be named for her. 



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