Architecture « Jurgen Doom

Helsinki

18 June 2012 om 10:37 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie photographer,Photography

Helsinki

 

Helsinki

 

Helsinki

I went to Helsinki recently to do a film assignment for a company, but I had a bit of spare time in which I took a few shots of Helsinki’s stunning architecture. Herewith a few impressions.

 

Helsinki

 

 

Real estate photography

10 December 2010 om 13:10 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Architecture,Camera,Commercial,Flashlight,Photography,real estate photographer

Real estate photography – or how to use photography to sell your property.

Recently I was commissioned to photograph real estate – a house –  in order to use the photographs to sell the house.  The brief was easy and simpel: make this house look good on photographs, so we can attract potential buyers.

The owners of the house had tried to photograph their place, but without much satisfaction.  Hence their question for professional images.

In order to lift the whole look and feel of the house, I used Nikon SB900 flashes, CTO gels and pocket wizzards (to trigger the flashes).

In the following series of images the difference between the amateur in pro images should be fairly obvious.

Take this shot for example, together with the one following.

With a little help from you friends, this photograph can be changed into something appealing, with loads of warm golden light, a crisp sharp look and verticals that remain, well, vertical  …

The entrance to the house looks more or less like this …

… but, with some decent photography and carefull use of flashlights can also look like this

or like this

and the fully equiped kitchen ….

may look more appealing when photographed in another way, like this

or alternatively like this

And yes, the house has a bedroom, but due to the fact that one needs a decent wide angle, the owners didn’t dare to take a photograph.  But I did.

The light falling onto the bed is actually flash light, with a CTO gel, coming from outside.  Fill in flash was also provided, to lift the general look and feel of the bedroom.

The house was sold within a week at a price higher than the asking price.

Need I say more.

Architectural photography, the strobist way.

18 November 2010 om 11:34 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie advertising,Architecture,Flashlight,Gear,Photography

As a photographer, you want to explore every possible solution to a problem.  While I was doing architectural photography – photographing the interior of a dormitory – I was confronted with rather drab lighting inside.  Also, the sun was shining outside (it was a hot summer day) but was at the “wrong” side of the building, so it didn’t shine into the room that I had to photograph.

A room with a view - using the strobist technique of off-camera flashes to light the inside of a room.

The solution that came to my mind was to light the room with small strobes (Nikon SB900 flash light) in order to create a type of lighting that was more appealing than the available light (or the light that comes from the artificial light in the room, eg light bulbs, fluorescent light, etc ….).

Firstly, I used pocket wizards to trigger my flashes, as the Nikon Creative Lightings System (CLS) wouldn’t have worked well in this particular case.  You need a direct line of sight in order the flashes to trigger.

Secondly, I had my camera set at an exposure whereby I had a rather dark image (ISO 200, F/9 at 1/250 gives a grossly underexposed image) at the inside of the building, but it did match the ambiant light outside pretty well.

Thirdly, I positioned a flash (Nikon SB900) outside with a full cut CTO gell over it, in order to simulate the warm rays of a rising sun.  You can still see a bit of the flash at the far corner of the window, which adds to the feeling of a rising sun.  That flash casts the long shadow of the chair and table and is the key light to the image.

Lastly, I had to bring in extra light in order to lift the general feel to the image.  So I positioned an extra flash to get some light in the ceiling and some general fill to the entire frame.

The result is a double spread in the Sporta magazine , showing the viewers a room the invites to be staying over at their accomodation.

A room with a view - using the strobist technique of off-camera flashes to light the inside of a room.

A room with a view - using the strobist technique of off-camera flashes to light the inside of a room.

Architectural photography – assignment for CES

29 October 2010 om 14:01 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Architecture,Camera,Commercial,Photography

One of my passions in photography is architectural photography.  This shouldn’t come as a big surprise with my background in engineering yet it is not an easy discipline in photography.  Architectural photography is a part of photography that is often looked upon as an easy thing to do.  There is just the building and the photographer, so take the image and you’re done.

Architectural photography

Architectural photography

Not so.

When you want to photograph building, you encounter difficult kind of problems.

The first problem is, or can be, the weather.  It is a fact of life that images often just sparkle so much more when you photograph in excellent weather.  A sun-lit building is always much more interesting than that same building lit by an overcast sky.

However, the best time to photograph a building – generally spoken – is at dusk or dawn.  Just after or before sunrise, a skilled photographer is able to blend artificial light (in and/or outside the building) in such a way that those two light sources match each other well.

architectural photography - matching ambiant light with artificial light

architectural photography - matching ambiant light with artificial light

The second problem one can encounter is the problem of having to photograph from a point of view that is too close to the building.  That results in a camera that will be tilted in an angle towards the building, but with a detrimental effect to the verticals of the building.  By tilting a camera, the verticals of a building will not remain parallell, which results into an image that doesn’t hold.

To remedy this problem, an architectural photographer will always use a perspective control lens (PC lens), enabling the photographer to “tilt-shift” the lens in such a way that the verticals of a building remain vertical.

I haven’t spoken yet about obstacles, such as trees, other buildings, roadworks, even blocked access (fences, guards at gates, etc …..), which are all possible problems an architectural photographer must take into account when preparing for a shoot.

For CES, an engineering firm, I had to photograph a series of buildings of which they had redone most of the HVAC and engineering works.  CES wanted images of the building, preferably during daylight.  Nonetheless, as a photographer you try to give your client more than they expect, which is what I always try to do.

Herewith two screen shots of their brand new website (created by Jolux Webdesign).  All images are shot on a Nikon D3x (24.5Mpix) with a Nikon 24 PC lens or a Nikon 14-24mm wide angle lens.

Architectural photography - website of CES

Architectural photography - website of CES

Architectural photography - website of CES

Architectural photography - website of CES

I would also like to salute CES, who entrusted me with this project.  Meanwhile we have established a lasting relationship, which is much more rewarding than any kind of financial reward.

Looking forward to producing more images ….

Architectural photography

23 March 2010 om 10:18 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Architecture,Commercial

It shouldn’t be a big surprise that a construction engineer-turned-photographer is still in love with building and architecture.  Indeed, one of my main interests in photography lies in architectural photography.  I can always enjoy good architectural photography and I strive to, when I’m photographing buildings and architecture, seek interesting angles, compostions and colors.

One of my clients designs brochures for Philips Lighting and upon completion of a project, I’m comissioned to photograph the building with the integrated lighting.

When the new building for Mercedes in Brussels was finished, I had to photograph the interior of the building, which needed to show its lighting.  It finally ended up in print as follows.

Architectural photography - Mercedes building in Brussels

Architectural photography - Mercedes building in Brussels

Architectural photography - Mercedes Belgium/Brussels

Architectural photography - Mercedes Belgium/Brussels