Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 01

The next photo had us moving right into the dining room. Since most of our lights were set up, we just
turned them around to light the dining area. You can see the raw file here and its need for lights and
PS work. We started by setting up one large umbrella on camera right about 3:00. It was sitting on the
edge of the kitchen. We next added a fill on the right of the camera and a small strobe on a floor stand
and grid was placed right behind this wall and column on the left.

The purpose of the

grid light was to
place some light on
the back of the
chairs and also light
the tops of some of
the chair seats,
something no other
light would do for
me. The last light
was another large
umbrella on camera
left and was used to
light the short wall
on the left.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 02

This image shows the shot after all lighting is in place.

Here is the Photoshop example. We have

our base layer as the background and
layer 1 with mask is the darker light fixtures. I drug that exposure on top,
added a mask, and painted in the darker
exposure. Layer 2 is the darker window
which was also painted over. The last
layer is a Curves adjustment layer and it
enhanced contrast slightly and brightened the image.ing is in place.

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Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 03

Next we moved to the staircase. I wanted to light for

an effect and show all the detail with more of a spot
lighting effect. First, notice the upper stairwell and the
picture on the wall. We started with a grid pointed at
the picture.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 04

To control the contrast, there is also an umbrella up

there to prevent the rest of the upper stairwell from
going dark. Remember, the grid in front of the umbrella? Now notice the props on the lower right of the
stairwell? At about 2:00 oclock is another grid spotlighting that area in the foreground. Also on camera
right is a soft white umbrella to again, control contrast. On camera left is an umbrella that fills in the
shadows on the stairs. It lights the wall and door on
far left as well as the hand rail and front of the
steps. And then we turned on the lamp in the rear
for more visual depth.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 05

As I study the shot on the laptop screen I think my

image on the right may be done, but yet something
seems missing and it is snap in the shot. It needs a
little more contrast. Then it dawns on me the steps
are to dark. I have my assistant place a strobe on a
floor stand and with a grid at the top of the stairs and
pointed back down the stairs creating a highlight on
top of each stair step.

This is an excellent approach to creating more creative lighting. When I went into PS, all I did was add a
Curves adjustment layer and add some subtle contrast for more snap.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 06

House 2
The client then had us move to another house and we started in the kitchen. This kitchen is the same
layout as the previous home, but had natural wood and lighter floors.

I chose the same approach, a large umbrella outside to send light into the kitchen. However, this time
the sun was also coming through the kitchen window and creating hot spots, so I used a large diffusion
panel clamped to a light stand and leaned against the house to have a totally white window diffuser. I
then removed the umbrella and shined the light right through the diffuser. This approach is only to
bring the brightness level up.
All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 07

You can see the kitchen is brighter. I

placed one large umbrella next to the
camera on the left to act as fill and
brighten the chairs and cabinets on the
right.

One thing the client said they had to have was the etching in
the glass on the front of the pantry door. So we placed a light
inside and tried several placements before settling on bouncing it off the ceiling inside the pantry. It actually is readable
without the light inside, but has no depth and gives the feeling
that the pantry is a dark hole.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 08

You can now see light inside the

pantry. The other issue I had was
there is a hot area on the cabinets
(red arrow) from the window creating a reflection.

So as I do in every assignment, I shoot bracketed exposures without the strobes on.

Whether I will need them or not, you just
never know. This shot shows that image and
the darker cabinets.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 09

In this screen capture of the Photoshop layers, the first layer is a Curves adjustment layer.

This was used to get rid of some of the color. The image was quite warm from the ceiling spots so I
added some blue/cyan, and just a hint of it. In this image the center light in the three hanging lights
was burned out, so I copied the glowing yellow of a different light and pasted it into the center and this
is layer 2. The top layer is the hot cabinets and you can see this with that layer turned off.
All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
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Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 10

I opened the best image

where strobes were not
used; using the move
tool I drug it on top of
this image. I created a
layer mask and using a
soft white brush, I
painted the darker cabinets in as shown here.

The final image shows the proper cabinet exposure,

foreground, and pantry and is corrected using the
lens correction tool.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 11

The Bathroom
Our next stop was to shoot a bathroom. Oh my gosh! There was no room to work in here at all. In fact
you can see where I had to be to get the shot. I was squeezed in here so tight that I could not come
out for fear of bumping the camera. My assistant moved everything. You can also see the main light is
in the doorway and another light is next to the camera.

For lighting we used the three lights. The one in

the door was the key light and much stronger
than the fill. I also had the assistant place another light in the shower stall and bounce into a
rear corner and set at a power just to add
brightness and keep it from going dark in there.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 12

Once I had the lighting looking as

good as I could, we raised the power
on both strobes +1 stop and shot
again without touching the camera
and again at +1.5 brighter. The reason will be apparent shortly.

Then I turned off all the lights and shot just

the fixtures bracketing the exposures.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 13

In Photoshop, I opened the base image and then opened the +1 brighter exposure.

Using the move tool I drug it on top of the base exposure, added a Hide All mask, selected a soft white
brush, and painted the darker wall above the bathtub. This brought in the lighter wall. I also painted
over the cabinets and rug on the floor. Then I opened the lamps exposure, drug that over, added another mask and painted those in. Next was a Curves Adjustment layer to add a hint of contrast and
brighten the image followed by a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to pump up the color.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 14

This was all followed by the Lens Correction tool to straighten the edges and then delivered to the client.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 15

Master Bedroom
The last photo to be shot inside this house was the master bedroom. This was also the most difficult of
all the shots. The first consideration was how to light and where to put the lights since we were showing the whole room. The first light we tried was placing a light behind the TV stand on the left to add
light to the bed.
We tried this and
you can see the hot
spots it created behind the TV stand. I
tried a few options
using black Cine foil
around the light to
stop the light spillage on the wall, but
it did work, so we
removed it. I next
placed the behind
the curtain at the
far window. With a
grid on it, it was
pointed at the pillows on the bed
and this worked
fine.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 16

Look at this close-up and you can see the light head behind the curtain.

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express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 17

The next spot to consider was the foot of the bed which was a bit dark, so we placed a light with grid
on a floor stand and placed it behind the couch to light the foot of the bed. On camera left is a large
umbrella pointed at the couch. On camera right there is a light box aimed at the bed and a grid aimed
at the right side of the couch and right side of the table. You can see these in the lower right corner.
One more umbrella was added as a fill from the cameras position. The windows did not appear to blow
out so we did not shoot another exposure for them, but we did bracket for the lamps just in case.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 18

Once in Photoshop, the first problem was to eliminate the shadows on the ceiling cast by the lamps hitting the bed frame. The first step I took was to use the Polygonal Lasso tool to make a wide selection
around the light shafts. My primary reason for this step was to protect the ceiling edge right above the
bed and not have any retouching drop into there.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 19

Duplicating my background layer, I went inside this selection and began using the Clone Stamp and
Spot Healing Brush, switching back and forth and very carefully blended the colors all together.
The next step was to add one of the bracketed layers that was brighter by +1 stop. Using the Move
Tool I drug this image on top and created Layer 1. Adding a Hide All mask, I painted the front of the
nightstand just to lighten it a hair since there was no place to put a light to brighten it up. I followed
that with a Curves Adjustment Layer to add a hint of contrast and then a Levels Adjustment Layer to
set Black and White points.
All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland

Photography For Architecture and Real Estate

Page 20

I next saved my PSD layered file, flattened the image and use the Lens Correction Tool to straighten
the image.

All photos and text Charlie Borland, all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the
express written permission of Charlie Borland