architectural photography
DESCRIPTION
Photomontage, 3D effects and point of capturingTRANSCRIPT
What Is Architectural Photography?
The term “architectural photography” describes both the subject (architecture) and the means of capturing it (photography). The word “architecture” comes from the Greek “arkhitekton”, which consists of roots meaning “chief” and “builder”. Architecture is ubiquitous in our lives, and its primary function as shelter encompasses a great many functional uses. Architecture is practically a human’s second skin. Le Corbusier once said, “Architecture is one of the most urgent needs of man, for the house has always been the indispensable and first tool that he has forged for himself.” Architecture takes on an extremely broad range of forms, from simple, primeval huts, the ornate temples of antiquity, and the purely functional factories of the industrial revolution to today’s urban landmarks of concrete and glass. Mankind without architecture would have remained anchored in the stone age, with few options of places to live, sleep, eat, work, trade, produce, withdraw, rest, administer, and educate. In many regions, climatic conditions would make life without architecture impossible. The word “photography” comes from the Greek “photos” and “graphé”, which means “drawing with light”, and describes a technical means of optically capturing the likeness of objects and making them palpable in places where they cannot normally be seen. Photography thus propagates images of buildings into the wider world, enabling people to view them in a wide variety of circumstances - whether in newspapers, books, posters, the Internet, or in galleries or museums.
Source: https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDkQFjAFahUKEwjcx_nbl5LIAhUPGY4KHTDtC8o&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rockynook.com%2Fsamples%2F217%2FSample%2520Pages.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHNgz4u-CCyf6c4H-UL-U6sp7gMqw&bvm=bv.103627116,d.c2E
TECHNIQUES IN PHOTOGRAPHING BUILDING
COMPOSITION
You can use any one of the main compositional rules, but pay particular attention to the important
zones of focus – foreground, middle ground and background. A general view will have something in each
one of these areas that adds to the overall composition. Elements in each area shouldn’t compete with
each other and use features such as pathways and walls to lead the eye into the rest of the scene and
build up your composition as a series of layers.
FRAME IT UP
It’s one of the most obvious of photo techniques and yet one of the most widely forgotten. In our haste
to get as much of the subject in the frame, we sometimes forget to take a step back and use other
elements in a scene to act as a ‘frame’ for the focal point. Tree branches, window frames of other
buildings or even people standing in the foreground can all be used as makeshift ‘frames’ for an effective
shot of a building.
Use low angles to blow scale out of the window and place strong elements in the foreground to confuse
the viewer. Whoever said that viewing a picture should be an entirely unchallenging business? Make the
viewer work at appreciating your efforts and give your picture an edgy feel by experimenting with
foreground interest and scale changes.
USING CONVERGING VERTICALS
Buildings are tall and including a whole one in the frame can be a challenge. Tilt your camera upwards to
include the top of a church steeple and you’ll induce converging verticals where the sides of the building
lean in. Purists frown at this effect and will either seek a higher viewpoint (to avoid tilting the camera) or
use an expensive shift lens to get rid of the effect – or do it in software. But we heartily encourage their
use. Fit a wide-angle and crouch down low close to a building to send its uprights skyward.
TIME IT RIGHT
Architectural photography is like most other picture-taking disciplines – getting the right light is
imperative. The quality of light changes throughout the day, but at this time of year, you’ll be best off
shooting buildings either early in the morning or in the late afternoon/early evening.
Shoot before the sun gets up and the light will be softer and shadows less defined. Then there’s a short
period as the sun climbs into the sky when the light will be warm and directional, in much the same way
as at the end of the day. If it’s dramatic shots you’re after avoid the middle of the day as shadows will be
harsh and the lighting flat and featureless.
Whenever you shoot, an 81B warm-up filter will help enhance colours, warming up brickwork and
enriching stone. Naturally, this can be added in post-production with filter effects available in most
image-editing programs. Alternatively, shoot Raw and alter the white-balance when you convert files.
USE SYMMETRY
Being angular structures, buildings will contain plenty of symmetry if you look close enough. Seen
through a telephoto or telezoom a building can be deconstructed into a series of detailed close-ups of
curves, corners and lines. Weave symmetry into your detail shots or play a building off against its
location by placing a foreground object slap bang in the centre of the frame with the building forming
the background.
Apply the same techniques indoors. The interior of a church, for example, is perfect for symmetry with
pillars and a boat-like roof shape.
GLASS ACT
Best photographed on a bright but overcast day, stained glass is a great subject. If you want to include a
whole window, meter carefully from a bright area, set the exposure using the manual mode and then
recompose. For detail shots, you should be able to leave the meter to its own devices. If it is really
sunny, look for areas where the window’s colours are projected onto stonework or the floor. In both
instances, a tripod is essential.
REFLECTED GLORY
If you’re shooting a location on or near water, take a step back and see if you can capture a reflection
shot. Ideally, you should attempt this type of shot when the weather is calm – ripples in the water will
dilute the effect. Remember the rules of composition and place the building in the top third of the
frame. If it is windy, try going for a more abstract result, concentrating solely on the reflection.
Whatever the prevailing conditions, take a polarizer filter to boost colour on a sunny day, but be careful
how much you turn it as you don’t want to remove the reflection effect altogether.
TRY INFRARED
The ethereal quality of an infrared image takes some beating in imparting a classic ‘haunted’ feel.
Infrared images used to only be possible with specialist film – Rollei IR820C and Ilford SFX’s extended
red sensitivity film are still available – but, thanks to digital, it’s got a whole lot easier. Some compacts
are even infrared sensitive. One such camera is the Fujifilm FinePix IS-1, which is sensitive to infrared as
well as visible light. Using an opaque filter with this camera, you can shoot handheld, because you get
normal shutter speeds, but as always using a tripod is best practice, and the effects are impressive.
With a DSLR, you’ll need a tripod because exposures will be long, even in bright sun, and an opaque
infrared filter such as a Hoya R72 or B+W 092. Compose before putting the filter in place, then position
the filter and take the picture.
If you’ve recently upgraded your DSLR body you may like to know that you could get the old body
converted for infrared photography. It costs upwards of £205. Once converted, you can’t go back, but it
does mean you get infrared images without using a filter. You can snap away as you would with a
normal camera and then do some work on the computer afterwards – this also applies to IR images
taken on compacts and the IS-1. ASC offers an infrared conversion service in the UK
GO FOR DETAILS
Architectural photographers have their work cut out when it comes to shooting details – there is so
much choice! But the beauty is you can do it in almost any lighting conditions, from bright sunshine to
overcast doom and gloom.
Both the exteriors and interiors of older buildings are littered with details, it’s just a question of spotting
them and, crucially, making them photographically interesting.
Shooting a gargoyle through the long end of a telezoom isn’t enough. Instead, look for shapes and
patterns in brick and stonework or go for more abstract compositions that’ll challenge the viewer to
work out what it is. Details don’t have to be small. The grandeur of a church roof, cluster of turrets on a
stately home or clock face on a town hall are all options.
SHOOT AT NIGHT
A building might look imposing by day, but it’s at night when the real fun begins! Floodlit by powerful
tungsten lights at ground level, it will take on an altogether more dramatic persona thanks to stark
shadows thrown up by the lights. Seen at night under floodlights a building will tower above a city and
lends itself to being photographed from a distance with an object in the foreground such as rooftops or
statues placed in silhouette. Expose for the highlights and watch for changes in white-balance. See PM
next month for more on night photography and how to use your camera’s B (bulb) setting.
Source: http://www.photographymonthly.com/Tips-and-Techniques/Architecture/10-Techniques-for-taking-brilliant-shots-of-buildings
20 BEAUTIFUL PHOTOSHOP MONTAGE TUTORIALS
HOW TO, RESOURCES · MAR 6, 2009
Photomontage is a technique widely used by graphic designers and consists of cutting and joining multiple photographs in order to create a unique image, using graphic applications such as Photoshop.The idea here is to create the illusion that all of the photo elements are parts of the same photo.In this article, we’ll look at 20 beautiful Photoshop montage tutorials that teach you step by step how to create these amazing photo composites.Follow these tutorials and mix them up. The possibilities are endless and the results can really stretch anyone’s imagination.
1. SURREAL PHOTO MANIPULATION
2. DRAMA IN VENICE
3. THE WATER MAN
4. URBAN CITY MONTAGE
5. SCARED PHOTO MANIPULATION
9. SNAIL RACE PHOTO MONTAGE
10. THE MAKING OF MYSTIC
12. FIERY DEMON MONTAGE
13. DARK SURREAL MONTAGE
14. FANTASY PHOTO MANIPULATION
15. DRAMATIC WINGED DRAGON
16. ALIEN INVASION
17. DRAGONS ATTACK
18. CHILDREN ACCIDENT MONTAGE
20. 3D IMAGE MONTAGE
What do you think of these composites? Is this a technique you use for your design work?Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/20-beautiful-photoshop-montage-tutorials/
Another tutorial
Photomontage Tutorial
By Teofilo Pardo
Teofilo Pardo currently works with his uncle in there new architects office based in Merida, Yucatán, México. He has
been using SketchUp for about 5 years now and V-Ray for about 3 years. Teo believes that making photomontages
is probably one of the hardest things to do successfully in postproduction. With this tutorial Teo will show us how to
get better results and maybe pick up some of his tips and tricks in the process. This is a relatively detailed tutorial by
Teo and the software used was SketchUp, V-Ray for SketchUp and Photoshop.
In this tutorial I am going to show you how to blend a render to a real photograph. This is my post-processing method.
It is not perfect maybe but I hope it will help you with this kind of work. You will need some basic knowledge in
SketchUp Photo Match and Photoshop.
1. Import the image you are going to work on as a Photo Match.
Step 1
2. Model the new proposal using SketchUp. In this case I worked on a new facade for a building in my city.
Step 2
3. Once you have your model finished, render it and remember to try to match the sun position in your model with the
one in the photo the best you can.
Step 3
4. For the reflection in the windows I used a photo of the building, but you can do it more accurately taking a photo of
the street in front of the future project. In this case for me it was just fine like this.
Step 4
5. This was my render result, done with V-Ray for SketchUp. Remember to save it as a png.
Step 5
6. Next we will start working in Photoshop. In this case I open the render and the original photo file.
Step 6
7. Open a new file and name it Photomontage, with a size of 900 x 620 pixels as we don’t need a very big resolution.
Step 7
8. I open a new page and I click and drag the two images, the render and the photo to the new page.
Step 8
9. I will try to be quite specific with these next few steps as maybe some of you do not use Photoshop, so for those
who know how to use it, please be patient. Now as you can see the photo is too big so we will scale it down so it can
fit to our work space.
Step 9
10. To scale the photo we will go to Edit > Free Transform. When you use the Free Transform tool, press Shift so you
do not lose the scale proportion.
Step 10
The result should be something like you see in the picture below. Now we need to blend the render to the photo.
Result of Scaling
11. In order to do this I set the Opacity of the render layer, which I named Render, at 70%.
Step 11
12. Next you go to Edit > Free Transform and modify the render until you are happy with the result.
Step 12
13. Then set the opacity again in 100%.
Step 13
14. Next create a Layer Mask. This will help us to delete any part of the render or the photo that we do not want to
see or want to hide.
Step 14
15. Select the Brush Tool and right clicked to choose the Master Diameter and Hardness of the Brush. Once we set
this we can start passing the brush over the parts we want to hide. To unhide just press the ‘x’ key and pass the
brush again over the hidden part.
Step 15
16. As you can see in the next picture I use the brush on the Layer Mask to hide some parts of my render so that the
Chinese restaurant blends into the adjoining building like it should.
Step 16
17. I recommend you use the Zoom Tool for the finer details in some areas, to be more accurate with the work and
make sure to set the Master Diameter of your Brush as it is needed.
Step 17
Here is the result after using the Brush and the Zoom Tool on the Layer Mask. Remember to select the correct
Layers when working in Photoshop.
Result After Brush and Zoom Tool
18. Then I did the same on the Layer Mask to unhide the cars.
Step 18
19. Now as can be seen in the next picture we have a little problem with those boxes because we do not want them
to be in the scene. So we are going to make them disappear. First we need to select the Rectangular Marquee Tool,
and select an area of the sidewalk, because this selection will help us cover up those boxes.
Step 19
20. Once we have made our selection we need to go to Edit > Copy and then go to Edit > Paste and a new selection
will appear in the Layers Window. That new layer is the selection we made with the Rectangular Marquee Tool.
Step 20
21. Next drag the selection over the box and the grass on the sidewalk to cover them up and use the Scale Tool or
the Perspective Tool in Edit >Transform > Scale or Edit >Transform > Perspective and Transform the sidewalk
selection so it will cover the unwanted box and the grass.
Step 21
22. Now you can adjust the size of the selection with the Scale Tool and cover the unwanted box and grass.
Step 22
The next picture is the result of your hard labor so far. Remember you can be more accurate with this by making
some new layer masks and getting sharper results, but for this one I think it should be fine.
Result of Editing so Far
23. Here I have created a new Layer Mask on the selected layer so I can sharpen some details.
Step 23
24. Now I want to erase the street post and some wires. I am going to make a new Layer Mask on the Photo Layer.
Step 24
25. I hide them with the same method by selecting the Brush Tool and selecting the new Layer Mask and passing the
Brush Tool over the street post and the wires. Remember to unhide, change from black to white on the Set
Foreground Color.
Step 25
26. Now open a new image for the sky. This one is from CG Textures and is the sky I am going to use for the image.
You need to click and drag it into the file you are working on.
Step 26
27. Once you drag it into the Photoshop file, the sky would look something like this and we need to use the Layer
Mask on the Photo Layer to hide the white spots.
Step 27
And this is the result.
Result so Far
28. Now scale the sky so it can fit on the image, until I get a nice result this is done with the Free Transform Tool.
Step 28
29. Now let us start working on the color and brightness adjustments so the sky, the photo and the render can blend
nicely together. First select the Photo Layer and go to Image >Adjustment >Hue/saturation.
Step 29
30. With this option set the saturation on -22 because for me the colors in this particular photo are too bright.
Step 30
31. Now select the Sky Layer and go to Image >Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.
Step 31
32. Set the Brightness at +120.
Step 32
33. Next go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color.
Step 33
34. In the window that appears, choose the Cyan and the Blue color and change both to -100 in the Black selection
slider. The blue color was to much and I wanted the sky to be more white like in the picture.
Step 34
35. Now select the Photo Layer and go to Image>Adjustment>Brightness/Contrast and change the Brightness to +11.
Step 35
36. Next comes an interesting part. Go to the Render Layer and change the Color Balance. This can be done with the
Color Balance option, but I do it another way. Go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color then choose Neutrals from
the top colors and choose in this case Cyan -10, Magenta +1 and Yellow +10.
Step 36
37. Also on the same layer change the Brightness to +24.
Step 37
Now you can see that the photo has some chromatic aberration. You can see this in some edges because they look
kind of reddish. Our render will not have those red edges because we are going to fix them.
Image has Red Edges
38. Go to Filter>Distort>Lens Correction.
Step 38
39. Next a window will appear as shown in the next picture. Go to Chromatic Aberration and set the Fix Red/Cyan
Fringe to -18 and set Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe to 8.
Step 39
Now the render blends better with the photo because it also has Chromatic Aberration.
Result so Far
40. Still working on the Render layer, go to Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter.
Step 40
41. Set the Warming Filter to 20%. This helps to blend even more in this case the render to the photo.
Step 41
42. I also use the Layer mask on the Render Layer to use the same door and window in the photo, because with this
particular project that area was going to stay the same.
Step 42
43. Next change the Contrast of the Render because it is looking a little flat when comparing it with the photo. Just
change the Brightness to +51.
Step 43
Now for the final touch, let’s open another image. This one is also from CG Textures and it’s a bare concrete.
Bare Concrete Texture
44. Go to Edit>Transform>Perspective and Scale the texture to the size of the wall.
Step 44
The next picture shows the result of this.
Result so Far
45. Next set the Opacity to 25%.
Step 45
46. Following this, go to Select>All
Step 46
47. Go to Edit>Copy Merged
Step 47
48. Create a New Page and name it ‘Final Render’ and paste all the layers into one.
Step 48
Add a frame, some more Contrast, signature and that’s it! Hope this tutorial has been helpful to you and that you may
have learned some new tricks.
Final ImageSource: http://www.sketchupartists.org/tutorials/sketchup-and-photoshop/photomontage-tutorial/