This is my first post, and I thought I would write about another first for me - heavy photo-shopping of an exterior architectural image I took recently. In the past, when a client has asked me to add stuff to a photo that is not there, I have been pretty quick to say NO. I find that doing this type of work well, and keeping to my high standards, has kept me from accepting this type of request. It is also a very time consuming process. In this case, the image was the exterior front photo of the London Health Sciences Lottery Home. The home was built by Bridlewood Homes, and typically, just like other Hospital Lottery Home photos I have done in the past, deadlines were tight. Really tight.
In this case, like the others in the past, they needed the finished image "yesterday", because of looming print deadlines for the promotional material. I had suggested doing an evening shot for that little extra bit of drama that these types of images tend to add. I was lucky, in that the evening weather conditions were going to be pretty good. Just hours later, another winter storm system was going to be rolling in. I checked online for the time that the sun would be setting, and got all my gear ready for the shoot. Only problem was, I did not check carefully enough, and arrived an hour later than I should have. When I got there, the sky was completely black, and I knew that I was screwed.
My only option was to get up at 5:30 the next morning, and try to get the shot just before sunrise, instead of doing it after sunset, like I usually do. The big problem now, was the winter storm was on. The only good thing going, was that the temps were above freezing, and it was rain, rather than snow I was dealing with. Winds were 30 KPH gusting to 40 KPH. The weather radar was showing solid yellow returns, with a little bit of red thrown in, meaning that I was definately going to need my large golf umbrella with me to keep the rain off my lens.
It was a real challenge to set up the shot holding my large umbrella over my camera gear with one hand, while trying to set up the camera and tripod with the other free hand. It was even harder to adjust the ballhead, and level the camera one-handed. Somehow, I managed to do this without getting any rain on my lens, and got the shot.
Here is the original image before all the extra editing:
You might notice that the landscaping is not quite complete. The gable vents on the front were still not painted, the front steps were missing, and the garage doors have been temporarily replaced with a double entry door, and a window, as this will be the entrance for the public that will come to view the home, and buy tickets on location. The driveway is yet to be installed, as well as the walkway leading up to the front steps. The front yard was literally a sea of mud and dirt, and construction debris.
About six hours later, here is the finished image, that I am quite happy with:
The garage doors and front lawn came from another Bridlewood home located just a few doors down. This was shot right after the first image was taken. Camera used was a Canon 5D, with a Canon 24-70 F2.8 L lens. Images were shot in RAW. Compositing was done using Photomatix Pro, with final editing done using Photoshop CS2.
