Base Layer

Turning more lights on

Golden hour light

Edited Image

Final Image

This is a photo I took when trying to build my architecture photography portfolio. This is Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University.

When I shot this I knew I was not going to use any external lighting on the building. I probably actually could have used lighting but I did not want to draw a bunch of attention to my self. I was also planning on doing a short time blend. Doing a time blend also allowed me to use natural light to “light” the building.

As I just mentioned I did a short time blend to create this image. Meaning I shot this image over the course of about 90 minutes. Taking bracketed photos every 5 to 10 minutes. I did this from golden hour till basically dark. I then used my favorite images with the best light from different moments in time and blended them together in photoshop. All in all I used 4-5 images to create the final image.

THE PROCESS

I used kind of a flat boring blue hour shot as my base layer. Right when the lights at the top of the building had just turned on.

Next I used a later shot when more lights had turned on to blend into my base layer. I also used this layer to remove some people and other distractions.

Next I used a golden hour shot to paint some golden light on to the front of the building. I used a soft brush at a low opacity to paint this light in. The goal with this is to be subtle. I wanted it to look like the light could just be coming from the lights around the building as opposed to the sun from about an hour ago.

Then I did some adjustments in adobe camera raw, some brightness and contrast, a curves adjustment and a warming filter. I consider this my “edited” image.

Finally, this particular blue hour and the sunset leading up to it were just kind of boring. All the colors and nice light were actually to my back. So I decided to do a sky replacement. This is very easy to do now a days and I think it really brings the image together and makes it a more interesting final image. Although, one could argue the plain blue sky is nice as well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is not necessarily the type image I would do for client. Unless they requested it. It’s just too time consuming when trying to capture multiple images. However, it is nice way to show potential clients what you are capable of and the type of work they can expect from you. And it is definitely something to consider when building an architectural photography portfolio.