Basic Interior Post Processing

Hey,
I often get asked by clients and vendors how I process the photos, especially when I'm showing them the results of a shoot on the back of the camera. As far as Photoshop goes what I do is fairly straight forward but I have picked up a few tricks over time...

If you don't know Photoshop bits of this wont make much sense... it isn't meant to be a tutorial, but it should give you a rough idea of what is involved in Post Processing.

Here is a photo from a shoot I did for Peter Schaad last week who is a Design and Decorating Consultant, it contains most of the steps I use when processing.

Step 1. I always shoot in RAW mainly because of the control it gives you over white balance. Most homes have a mix of tungsten, enviro, fluro and daylight in them, all of which have different colors.

I shoot multiple exposures from each angle usually with one image for the shadows (over-exposed), one image as the base image (usually meter-as-read), and one or two images for the highlights (under-exposed, usually with fill flash to light up the window sills and frame).

 These are the four exposures straight out of the camera with no processing. Obviously it is important that the tripod/camera doesn't move at all between each shot and this includes focus not changing.

Notice how the exposures are different, meaning different parts of the images are lit optimally in each.

In this one Peter and I agreed the back wall needed something to give the room depth, there was a painting but no hook, so I got Peter to hold it in the right place and later will place this onto the final image.








So Step 1. is processing these RAW images into jpegs or psds.

 You will notice slight tonal and white-balance adjustments between the above 4 images and these 4. I am thinking about what zones of each image will make it into the final image and making sure these zones will match each other.

For example, Step 2 will be blending these first two images. Notice how the top and RHS of this one is a bit red and over-exposed?

 Where-as in this one the floor and bottom of the tapestry of this one is a bit blue and under-exposed but the top of the tapestry/ light fitting/ ceiling look good.

 Similarly, this one will be used for the window and sills/ frame and even slightly for the floor and RHS wall to add a bit of contrast, (by slightly I mean by adjusting the opacity of that layer so it is slightly "see though".)

Here I have tried to match the wall in image one where this painting will be over-layed.












Step 2. This is image 1 and 2 blended together.

Step 3. This is the above image with the window "zone" dropped in. Because I'm a bit of a drongo sometimes I forgot to include the bit that is in the reflection of the mirror... duh.

Step 4. Here I have dropped in the painting. Selecting around a painting like this is fairly easy, but it is important to include in the selection the drop shadows the frame puts on the wall... with out doing this it looks obviously photoshoopped. This would have been much trickier if the plant on the table had been much bigger because I would have had to select around it too... in this case I just asked Peter to hold it a bit higher up the wall. After placing it there I just had to clone over where his fingers were on the frame.

 

Step 5. By now I have realized that the window in the mirror needs fixing... again duh... but that wall also needed tweaking so I grabbed a layer from the window exposure again and got it looking better.

Final Image. Here I dropped in the floor from the window exposure again to get rid of the overexposed and blue floor under the window... which meant selecting around the chair legs... usually I try to avoid that but sometimes it is unavoidable when shooting at daytime. I have also tweaked the levels and dodged and burned mainly on the tapestry just to fine tune.

And that is how I do a fairly standard interior... this is just one way of about a million but I hope it gives you an idea of what is done in post production.

Cheers,
Brad.

Blatant Sledging!

Hey,

Been too busy so far this week to add any original content but... here is a pic a friend sent me today... real life screenshot and on realestate.com right now.

Yes, that is a person, presumably, asleep on the couch... for fun I enlarged it.

Is that how you present something that is worth $600k? What does it say about the agent, property and vendor?

I know I have made my point, and I know it is a cheap shot but just for comparison here is one of mine with a similar setting... please note the lack of, presumably, sleeping people.

Cheers,
Brad.

"1806" Bar Shoot

Hey,

I'm being quite post happy this week, but I thought I hadn't put up any clients photos yet and have just finished a couple of shots from 1806 Bar on Exhibition St for the "Laneways and Rooftops" book... it was easy shooting such a classy venue... go down and say hello to Merlin for a good cocktail and laugh.


Cheers,
Brad.

 

www.bradhillimaging.com.au

www.facebook.com/bradhillimaging

More Melb@500

Hey!

Here is installment 3 of Melb@500mm... enjoy!

www.bradhillimaging.com.au
www.facebook.com/bradhillimaging

Fruit Exploding From Water

Hey,

My project de-jour this time is trying to copy a image I saw online...where it looks like a piece of fruit is punching or exploding out of water. I've seen it in ads for flavoured water etc. As an exercise it ended up being learning about flash sync speed and ninja like timing.

Anyway this is one of the better results...

Here is how I did it...

The set up is fairly straight forward... macro lens, white back-drop, back-drop light, big vase, front light, water and fruit. I moved the front light all over the place trying to avoid shadows on the fruit and reflections on the glass. In this photo it is up high but better results came from putting it almost directly under the lens. In a perfect world another speed light in front would have been good to play with.
 

Because I have only just started playing with proper studio lights the first thing I learnt is that they have limited functionality if you're shooting fast moving things unless you have special power packs. This is what happens if your lights aren't quick enough... the fruit is blurry because it is moving.

So I switched to my speed lights and this froze the action but clearly I had a bit of work to do to get the exposure right.

Also I needed to fine tune the focus.

This got it about right so it was time to cut up the fruit.

Lesson two was ninja like timing... since sadly I am not a ninja I had to settle on taking about 100 photos to get one or two with the fruit in the right place and an attractive splash. There were a lot that ended up looking like this.

Finally, I got enough that looked ok and here is the un-photoshopped result of the above final image.

As you have guessed rotating the image 180 degrees makes it look like the fruit is coming out of the water not going in and after removing the background and tweeking contrast and saturation I had a result.

Here are some others that turned out ok too.

 

 This one is probably my favorite mainly due to the closer crop and twist in the water splash.


That is it for this post... it is of some coincidence that one of my clients is 'Fruit Property'... is there an ad campaign in this Jon?

Cheers,
Brad.

After all this wine I need a beer.

Hey,

I've been practising shooting wine bottles today... probably the most exacting product you can do. Most of the day... only 8 photos and two styles! But it is all about perfecting and replicating the different styles in the future.

Style 1. Bottle Side lit and label front lit with the front light highlights on the glass removed in photoshop and minimal perspective distortion.

Style 2. Front and back lit at 45 degrees with a reflector filling the label and a bit of perspective distortion for 'animation'.

This is the setup for Style 2... (I occasionally convert my studio into a loungeroom).

I know... boring post... but I'm gaging for a beer.

Cheers,
Brad.

More Melb@500

Hey!

I am always sceptical of abstract photos by people who have not spent years studying... it is too easy to take a really crap photo and call it abstract. That said here I go... in two groups of two images a here is my attempt.


Not totally abstracted but these two (in my mind anyway) are using hard lines, negative space and simple composition tricks to suck the eye around the image.

Gotta love reflections in windows... these are two of about 40 I took in QV where the low sun was bouncing funky light around a narrow glassy laneway. I started by getting at least one of the figures sharp but then thought that part of the photo dominated the frame too much. From then it became an exercise in composition and color, I also thought the highlights around silhouettes started to add interesting shapes in their own right when short focused like this.

As mentioned in the last post, I would love to have company of others with their cameras (point and shoot, SLR or large format) while randomly hunting light in the city, just let me know.

Feel free to comment... all feedback is good.

I have also almost finished my Facebook business page on which you might be reading this... make sure you "like" it...!

Thanks!
Brad.