Refining an Architectural Image Using Subtle But Powerful Color Corrections in Capture One and Photoshop

Although composition may be king, a strong second in separating mediocre architectural and interior images from great ones is often reproducing the colors and tones of the materials and finishes within a space accurately and without contamination. In this latest video, I share my process for toning down competing color temperatures in a large, complex space consisting of large volumes clad in warm, natural materials and varying light sources.

One of the bigger challenges we face when photographing architectural and interior spaces is learning how to balance a variety of light sources with competing temperatures. In smaller spaces, we can often have full control of the light that we allow into our camera, whether by shaping the existing light sources using flags and diffusion, or by layering in our own lighting in order to represent a space as truly as possible. When we start getting into larger spaces, we are often left at the mercy of the existing lighting and can employ a few key techniques to balance out the mixture of lighting conditions. In this example, which is of a beautifully designed space at Texas A&M University designed in tandem by BORA and Perkins + Will. When you enter the building, you are greeted with a very large double height space consisting of large drum like volumes that contain large classrooms. These drums are clad in warm, natural material giving the space a particularly inviting presence that feels very connected to the lush campus the project sits on. Due to some of the level changes present in the space and the compression designed around some of the more intimate functions above and around these volumes, we began to encounter some issues with color casts in parts of the frame as we photographed it. Throughout the processing of this image in particular, I utilize a couple of techniques to balance the colors throughout all spaces to end up with an image that I think represents the feeling of being within the space. The main methods used here are controlling the neutral tones through a combination of saturation control and color layers, the latter of which helps to keep the natural tones of a material by overriding colors cast onto them from light sources such as daylight and incandescent fixtures.

Using Patience and the Pen Tool to Create a Clean Interior Composite

For my latest video, I returned to an earlier screen recording (partly due to some more recent screen recordings being in the wrong format) of an image we created for IA Interior Architects in 2019. This particular example helps to illustrate how Photoshop’s Pen Tool can often be the best way to create a clean transition between the exterior and interior, particularly when it comes to a large workplace interiors with a darker interior core and perimeter of floor to ceiling windows.

Making selections in Photoshop can be an incredibly powerful mechanism for isolating specific areas, whether that be to assist with color corrections, blend exposures, or incorporate models and other portions of individual frames where the lighting might not allow for simply brushing in masks. Though I employ a large variety of methods when creating selections, the one that I’ve come to lean on the most over the past several years is the Pen Tool. The pen tool, though very tedious at first, can provide the most accuracy in a relatively short amount of time once using it is mastered and becomes second nature. One great resource for learning the ins and outs of the tool is a website called The Bézier Game, which walks you through using the pen tool to create increasingly complex shapes. After honing my skills at the tool, it’s now one of my most used and is often something I reach for when beginning to create a selection of any kind.

Anyone who photograph’s spaces, particularly commercial spaces, knows that there are certain ones with the potential for great imagery, but whose challenges jump out at you from the moment you encounter them. This image is a perfect example of that. Upon entering this space which serves as a break area for a workplace, it was immediately clear to me the potential that it had - warm would ceilings with great depth and texture, a variety of great furniture that are rich in color, unique lighting design and interesting geometry. Also very apparent the moment I entered was how each of these elements along with the wall of glazing that enclosed the space on two sides created a very challenging scenario for an image that shows the entirety of the space cleanly and with the lightness that you feel when you’re inside of it.

In order to tackle the variety of challenges within the space, we had to mentally break the space up into sections in order to cleanly light the furniture and finishes to best reduce color cast and reflections from the outer perimeter. A circular polarizer was also used to create ambient frames that cut down on that reflective glare as well, knowing that all of the above frames would be combined strategically in post-production in order to create the final result seen below.

Balancing the Lighting Behind a Translucent Wall Installation in Post-Production

Some of the spaces that we are tasked with showcasing as architectural photographers are inherently trickier than others. During a recent shoot of a very thoughtfully designed children’s museum in Corpus Christi by Page, one of these spaces was a waiting area outside of the hospitals PICU. The waiting area features a translucent wall with an installation on it which separates the area from an adjoining corridor to allow for some privacy. Walls like this make a major impact on a space, but can be particularly challenging to photograph accurately for a variety of reasons, so we had our work cut out for us. Opposite the corridor from this glass wall is another large window that looks down on a lightwell/atrium connected to the hospital’s main concourse which further complicated any attempt at getting a clean backlit shot of the entire wall in one image. As a result, we wound up taking a series of shots where we backlit the wall in sections in order to clearly see the wall itself free from reflections and color contamination from within the space that we were shooting.

This video shows the entire post-production in Photoshop as I assembled several frames to end up with the final result - a clean, straight forward image of this colorful yet calming space. Throughout the first half of the video, you’ll see as I concentrate on this installation feature specifically, piecing together a final result that shows it evenly lit and without distraction. This was achieved by using a number of techniques from compiling those backlit flash frames mentioned above as well as creating adjustment layers to make local adjustments in areas where there was inconsistent lighting due to the constraints we were dealing with on the opposite side of the glass.

Finally, the image really comes together when we finish it off by incorporating life into the scene using a family seated in the waiting area in the foreground and a doctor at the elevator bank - all of which couldn’t have happened without the thoughtful planning and participation from the design team and end users!

Controlling Reflections in Glass

Ahh, reflections. On set, I will often joke that reflections are the architectural photographer’s arch nemesis. Specifically with commercial and workplace interiors, our objective is generally to show spaces and how they relate as clearly as possible in order to convey the design teams intent without unwanted distractions. One thing that makes this a challenge more than anything else is reflections in glass and other surfaces. Over the years, through a lot of on the job learning, skill sharing with others and trial and error, I have come up with a few techniques that I commonly will employ in order to remove unwanted reflections in order to best tell the story we are trying to convey through a particular image. These can be boiled down to essentially either controlling the offending ambient light on the camera side of the glass or overpowering it within the space that you are trying to show through it. Controlling the ambient light most often means some combination of lighting controls within the space (i.e. turning off all lights on the camera side of the glass that might reflect) or flagging it off using window shades, black fabric/plastic, and other methods. When these options aren’t enough, flash has proven to be an invaluable tool within the space we are trying to convey by overpowering any ambient light therefore removing what is being reflected in the glass from the camera side. Very often we are using several techniques for an individual shot in order to get the best results.

Cockrell Foundation by Kirksey

Firmspace Austin by Page

Zebra by IA Interior Architects

Page Materials Lab by Page

In the video below, I walk through four different scenarios where we were shooting single point perspectives through glazing systems that presented challenges with reflections that we had to troubleshoot in order to get the best shots possible. One thing that helped me greatly over the years is developing an understanding of how reflections work. In the study of photography, we are often taught about the angle of incidence, which is a way of describing how light sources and other objects will be reflected in a subject matter back into the camera. In the case of this topic, it is one of the things that helps me think of what is needed to control objects being reflected into a surface that we are trying to show as transparent. The diagrams below are my attempt at illustrating the angle of incidence when shooting similar shots to the examples below from my video. I have found that our instinct is often to think that all we need to do to control a reflection is build a flag the same size as the surface of the glass area, when really it is far larger. In my career, I’ve done a lot of work photographing for the art community and shooting framed work behind glass was one thing that really helped me get a grasp on this due to the more controllable scale of artwork versus that of architecture and interior spaces. The angle of incidence can be thought of as the reflected angle of that of the projected line from the point of the camera lens to the outer most portions of the reflective surface (glass). This is a complicated concept to describe in writing, so hopefully the diagrams will illustrate this clearly. The import part is to understand that not only are we having to consider what’s directly behind the area of the glass, but also above, below, left and right of that area relative to the camera position and angle. For example, the diagram below shows that the two lights nearest the wall will not be seen in the camera view, but the subsequent to will show up, as will a similar portion of the floor below.

Diagram of the angle of incidence when shooting a single point perspective of a wall with a window in it.

A similar diagram, this time with a flag behind the camera.

Hopefully the above information and below video give some insights on how you can go about troubleshooting similar challenges in your own work and help result in cleaner images for yourself and your clients.

Behind the Scenes: Post-Production with Perkins+Will of their recently completed ShareNow office project in Austin

Austin has proven to be an ideal location for tech companies to office, whether it be as their main headquarters or as a regional location. As a result, there has been a drive to create fun and dynamic work spaces in the area that foster creativity, flexibility and fun for the companies employees and it has been a pleasure to be a part of showcasing many of them.

One of the last projects we shot in 2019 was this great space in East Austin designed by the local Perkins+Will office for their client, ShareNow. ShareNow (formerly Car2Go) has located their new offices right in the thick of East Austin, a thriving neighborhood that encompasses much of what Austin is all about just minutes away from Downtown. The office features a variety of dynamic spaces, but none more fun than this employee lounge, featuring some beautiful furnishings and a balcony overlooking East 6th Street.

When we arrived at the project, there was a beautiful mid-morning light streaming into the space, so we knew that we had to start with this shot first, leaving us to scramble a bit to fine tune the staging of all the furniture and related objects. In this case, because the office was still fairly new, this also sent several of the design team members scrambling throughout the space to collect a few additional objects from around the office in order to help populate the shelves in our view. While they focussed on those items, my assistant and I focussed on the big picture items such as the placement of furniture and rugs, and how everything related to one another. Lighting wise, we added some touches of lights to help shape the furniture and large light fixtures as well as clean up the color of the ceiling and other warm finishes. The end result shows a bright, inviting area for employees to have a break from their day, change work environments, have informal meetings and more.

Lastly, in this video I touch on what’s coming next on the YouTube channel, which will feature a behind the scenes look at the composition, staging, photography and post-processing of an interior vignette that I’ll be doing from my home during the stay-at-home orders put in place under the current circumstances.

Behind the Scenes: Post-Production with Page of their recently completed Baker Ripley East Aldine Campus Project

Page’s Houston office recently completed a very engaging campus project for Baker Ripley’s East Aldine location. The project includes many unique spaces intended to help the surrounding community with support facilities for projects and businesses that members may otherwise not have access to including a fab lab (think makers space), commercial kitchen and much more.

For the second video in my YouTube series, I thought I would share a technique that many architectural photographer’s employ, which is the stitch panoramic. A stitch pano is a way to create a larger viewing area than available from a particular focal length by combining different frames using the movements that are possible with either a technical camera or tilt-shift lenses on a DSLR. One challenging part of employing this technique that those of us who are using a DSLR with tilt-shift lenses experience is a slight misalignment of those frames due to parallax which results from the movements happening in the lens while the sensor remains in one place. With technical cameras you are able to shift the sensor around while the glass remains in the same place, allowing for much simpler aligning. I mention this because some people will likely notice this slight discrepancy in the video, which I later went back and corrected for the final image.

This image was created in order to show a community room and its relationship with a couple of the other buildings on the campus and the courtyard that separates them. The space had great, large windows that provided lovely natural light. We aimed to emphasize the natural light a bit with the use of strobes while also cleaning up some of the color cast. Adding a couple of models (which included one of the designer’s from Page and the expert billiards hand of my asssistant, Spencer Young) provides a sense of scale and more emphasis on the spaces functions. The room was a little cluttered from daily use when we arrived, so we spent a fair amount of time clearing some unwanted items out and getting things just how we wanted them for the image. Staging also meant getting the pool table just where we wanted it so it would anchor this one point perspective, creating some symmetry in an otherwise asymmetrical space.

Introducing Our New YouTube Channel!

For some time now, I’ve been sharing some timelapses of my post-production process on Instagram as a way to share a peak behind the scenes at what my process looks like after a shoot has been completed and moves into the computer. As camera technology has evolved, so too have the techniques that many of use to create the final product that the world sees. Throughout the development of my career, I have benefited greatly from other photographers willingness to share their techniques and processes, whether it be through online tutorials, informal conversations or working together in person via workshops or assisting. I am creating this channel as an outlet to give a little more insight into my own process in effort to help other photographers who may find it useful and also to allow those outside of our industry to see some of what is often a largely hidden aspect of our job, despite being crucial to creating our end product. Outlets such as online forums, in person meetups and social media platforms like Instagram have allowed architectural and interior photographers to be connected like never before and I continue to be amazed at the camaraderie we have developed across the globe that offers tons of encouragement and ways to evolve within our business. Hopefully this channel can help to add to that sense of community and openness in some small way.

For this first video, the image is of an entry vestibule of the new Whole Foods offices in Austin, Texas designed by IA Interior Architects. The space was very tight, resulting in a rare interior shot using a very wide angle in order to capture the important elements of the design that myself and the design team wanted to showcase. The scene has several challenging aspects to it that anyone who photographs commercial interiors will be very familiar with including challenging reflections, several interconnected spaces, varying light sources and of course, those pesky exit signs. As far as staging and preparation goes, the shot was fairly simple, requiring only minimal staging of the furnishings in the main break area beyond the glass doors and a chair in the phone room. Since most of the items in the lobby are relatively fixed, we just had to tweak a few things so they looked right in camera and then were off to the races to capture the space.

Since this is the first video in the series, I thought I would give a little insight on the process we use when we’re on set in order to answer some questions that I’m sure will come up. Generally speaking, when approaching a commercial interior space, the first thing we do after identifying the angle that best describes a space we are capturing is to stage any existing or temporary furniture and objects so they look best in camera. This can often be meticulous work and requires an understanding of how objects relate to one another and how people might interact with them in an image while not causing distractions or clutter. Once this is complete, we will run through a series of frames using ambient light, sometimes employing techniques to control the available light so that we can get the best result. After that is when we’ll usually bring in artificial lighting if needed to clean up unwanted color casts, better shape objects and sometimes create daylight when it’s not there. The next and last step is to bring in models when they are being used, which is a great way to give a space some life while also showing the scale and intended use. With this and subsequent videos, I hope to shed some light on how I then bring all of these pieces together to create a final image. For a little more insight on my process, visit my interview with Veeral Patel with AP Almanac.