NCWCD Lobby

A new client needed a photo of an older project.  This is the lobby of the Norther Colorado Water Conservancy District.

In order to get the complete lobby in, I had to shoot with a very wide angle lens.  This, of course, distorted the vertical lines.  In order to get them parallel, I thought it too much of a "stretch", and would lose too much of the dome, so I had to leave the verticals largely as photographed.

A bit of fill flash and HDR work, and these are the results.

I like the final.

Thanks for reading.

Greg Sprenger
Constructed Images LLC

Another example of a "Constructed" Image

A recent client wanted a nice image of a fence sign for a new building.  The problem was a large flag pole, very close to the fence.  I also wanted to create a more dramatic image, at sunrise, along with supplemental lighting.  With the flagpole so close, the supplemental lighting would create distracting shadows across the sign.  With the "constructed image" method, we can eliminate the distracting shadows.

Photoshop has technique(s) to combine multiple exposures to create images that simulate multiple-light lighting, while using only one light.  This reduces complexity, location time, and equipment needs.  And creates a blended image that is better than an image captured in one exposure.

Image A shows the fence if 3 lights were used, and one exposure was taken.  You can see that the multiple lights can reduce the shadows caused by the flagpole, by "filling" in the shadows.  However, this "flash fill" technique doesn't actually eliminate them.

You can see two vertical shadows of the pole.  So while this isn't too bad, it can be much better.

Using a single flash, and the different exposures with the flash in the same 3 locations, we end up with these three exposures.

Here it is easy to see the flagpole shadow, and the fact that only one flash was used.  (The background building shows the effect of the rising sun.)  The goal was to get the fence to be a bit brighter than the background building.  

So now we have our three exposures, and we can blend them to get the image we want.

Note that you can still see just a bit of flagpole shadow in the concrete below the sign, but it is quite subtle.  But there is no sign of flagpole shadows on the fence itself.

The client was happy, and so was I.

Thanks for reading.

Greg Sprenger

Constructed Images LLC

www.constructedimages.net

Doors Open Denver - 2013

This year I decided to just see one venue; the Elie Caulkins Opera House in Denver.  This venue was remodeled a few years ago, and the architect did a great job.

Sorry to say, the opera house itself was off-limits this day, so I took some photos of the very nice lobby area.  This is a multi-level lobby, with bridge walkways, and a very large mural of Colorado history.

Thanks for taking a look.

Greg Sprenger
Constructed Images LLC
www.constructedimages.net

The Treehouse - Highland Haven - Evergreen, CO

Highland Haven is a B&B located along Bear Creek in Evergreen, CO.  It has a variety of rooms, most quite unique.

My wife  and I recently won a night's stay at their luxury suite called the Treehouse.  It was designed and built by Gail Riley and her husband Tom, based on their fascination with treehouses.  It contains lots of very interesting history and graphics related to treehouses.  It is a free-standing building, with various "tree" features.  The accommodations are built on the 2nd and 3rd story of this structure, and therein lies the treehouse reference.

I am always on the lookout for interesting architectural spaces, and this was certainly one.  I offered to photograph the Treehouse for my own portfolio, and provide the images for their use as well.  So here are the images I captured in a long afternoon and early evening of shooting.  I hope you agree it is quite a unique space.

Thanks for reading.

Greg Sprenger
Constructed Images LLC

3D Photography - Is it finally coming of age?

3D photography has been around for many years.  The essential part of it is taking 2 photographs at the same time, with 2 cameras separated by about 2-1/2", which is the average width of adult eyes.  This provides 2 images, which differ just a bit.  Then, you place one image in front of each eye, and you will then see "depth" in the set of 2D photographs. 

The historical problem has been how to get those 2 images in front of your eyes separately.  In the old days, you would use 2 small prints, with a separating paper between them.  More recently, we've combined the images into one image, and used special glasses.  The glasses are either polarized to mate with polarized prints, or different colored filters are used to mate with blue and red-colored sections of the print.  We even have lenticular prints, with the two photographs"separated" into thin alternating strips below a lenticular sheet lens.  This creates different images for each eye, as we look through the lenticular sheet, creating a number of graphic options, including 3D. 

Here is an example of the separated color image.

While all these attempts have been successful in their day, over the last few years science has offered newer methods.  With the creation of lasers, which use monochromatic light (light of one wavelength), the invention of holograms now offers new methods.  Holograms have been around for a number of years, with their use on credit cards likely being the most popular use.  The latest holograms offer 3D viewing without the need for special glasses, or even monochromatic lighting.  However, the hologram images haven't been created from photographs; up to now.

With the advent of 3D modeling software, the capability now exists to convert a set of photographic images into a 3D model.  Once we have that, there are now proprietary laser printers that can create a hologram from that 3D data set.

I'm investigating this newly developed capability for architectural photographs.  Of course, now with 3D computer modeling, most of  architecture design is done in the 3D computer world, but the finished building can only be captured in 2D now.   I think the idea of seeing 3D in a photograph of a COMPLETED building would be of great value to architects and others in the building industry. 

So, for now, stay tuned.  I'll update you with any positive news in the coming months.

Thanks for reading,

Greg

Mission San Jose - San Antonio

My wife and I recently spent a few weeks in Texas and New Mexico, over the Christmas holidays.  During that trip, we stopped by Mission San Jose, in San Antonio.
I used to live in California, and visited a number of the missions there; this one is similar in timeframe and architecture.

Below are some images my wife took while we were there.  I think she is coming along as an architectural photographer.

Thanks for taking a look at her work.

Greg Sprenger
Constructed Images LLC

Better Interior Photography using P&S cameras

I recently sponsored a joint event with Creston, an environmental controls company with a branch in Denver.  This event was targeted at interior designers.  My presentation focused on how to create better interior design photographs, using a few simple techniques that interior designers could use.

First, I provided some characteristics of good interior photography.  I offered some examples.  Then some camera suggestions to make it easier to utilize the techniques I would offer later.

Two techniques were presented;  Fill flash and HDR.

Fill flash is a technique to use the camera's flash to fill in shadows, and balance the lighting.  This gets a bit tricky, since many interiors have a mix of tungsten light and daylight coming through windows.  Here are a couple of slides from the presentation showing that.

Both of these photo series show how flash fill can provide better lighting to the dark shadow areas of the room.

I then moved on to the most powerful photography technique to come along in a long while:  High Dynamic Range photography or HDR.  This technique combines different exposure captures of the room, and combines them using software into one image, with proper exposure sections from the different captures.  The real intent of the technique is create a photograph that looks more like what your eyes see.  Here's a condo I photographed a few months ago:

Here you can see that the circled sections of each of the captures were used in the composite HDR image below.  So we ended up with a better exposed kitchen, along with the view out the window.

Here is the same kitchen as above, comparing the fill flash with the HDR composite:

The HDR image looks pretty good, and eliminates the flash artifact on the refrigerator door.  These HDR composites were made post using computer software.

Well, the amazing thing now is that HDR can be done automatically IN THE CAMERA now.  Using a camera setting, new P&S cameras will take a quick sequence of 2-3 captures of different exposures, then blend them together in a split second, to create an HDR composite that looks quite good.    Here is an example:

Note the light fixture and view out the windows;  we get detail in both now using the HDR blend.  And the amazing thing is that the children in the lower left are still sharp in the HDR blend!  HDR is an amazing thing!

Now, you may ask why would I show interior designers how to take better photographs themselves?  Doesn't that take business from me?  Well, not really.  Many (most?) interior design projects don't really have the budget to afford a professional photographer, so that really isn't business I'm losing.  And really, we professional photographers just like good photography, rather than the "good enough" photography that seems the standard these days on the web.  And maybe they'll think of me when they have a bigger project.

I think the presentation was welled received by those in attendance.

If you want a copy of the full presentation, just email me;  I'd be glad to send it to you.

greg@constructedimages.net


Again, thanks for your reading and interest.

Greg