Studio Livingston

Maison & Objet

David — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:04:50 +0000

Eiffel Tower

Ponte Vecchio

Above The Bar

Medy Pisa Five

Medy Pisa Four

Ocean Beach With Blue Streak

Silver Lake Florence

Silver Lake Rowing

Silver Lake Three

Big Beach One

Black Sand Wainapanapa Aquamarine

Hana Waters One

Hana Waters Two

North Shore Four

North Shore Three

Waikiki Rolling Waves

Waimea Navel

Waimea Wave Break

Kailua Bay Three

Photography: Lighting Interior Photographs

David — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:31:51 +0000

A photograph holds a composition and captures light. Throughout the years, the lighting style in my photographs has been soft, natural and light handed. Whether working with digital cameras or film cameras, the need is the same: to reduce the contrast between the highlights and shadows. I like the analogy of what we can see versus what a cat can see. A cat sees in the brightest of day and the darkest of night whereas we need sunglasses at day and a flashlight at night.

For the camera, the photo print or the monitor, we need to compress the light range of shadows and highlights to a narrower range. Compressing this light range can be done by filling in the shadows or controlling the highlights. Lighting for photographs needs to first address this compression.

The second part of lighting is capturing the fall of light into a space, making the photo inviting. Working with the sun, I watch how the light plays in a room and I seek to be shooting when a natural glow is present. I often still need to bring my own lights to fill in the shadows and maintain a “natural” lighting feeling.

The third part of lighting is defining form and keeping color rendition true.

Here are examples of photographs that have a natural, available light quality yet all needed some of the two hundred pounds of equipment that I bring to my photo shoots.

Art Direction: Cropping

David — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:47:13 +0000

Re purposing photos for the web requires making the perfect crop. I have always taken pride in my balanced compositions and how they would stand on their own. For many years I sought to make vertical compositions that worked great for the covers of books and magazines and excelled as a full page bleed. Now with website templates favoring square and horizontal compositions, vertical photos need to be re-cropped to fit these templates.

Like the principals of a good painting, re-cropping a photograph seeks to maintain balance, create quiet tension and keep a strong focal point. Years ago I would visit the great museums and study how old masters dealt with the edges of the frame, a skill I use today.

Andrew Fisher and Jeffrey Weisman make up the very chic San Francisco design firm Fisher Weisman. In their wine country home above the Russian River in Sonoma County they bring city elegance to country casual. Here I have made examples of photos from their original vertical format by cropping them into a horizontal format with a 3 to 4 aspect ratio. Vertical or horizontal this home is always a treat to see.

These photographs were seen in the San Francisco Chronicle and Paper City magazine.

www.fisherweisman.com

Here are the original vertical images before they were cropped into a horizontal 3x4 format.

Portraits on Location

David — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:34:52 +0000

Often as a part of telling the whole story or the story in itself, my portraiture work cares the same natural feeling as my interior photographs.

Shooting people on location for magazines, companies and corporations I create my portraits in situation and with the context of the environment. The subjects are captured with positive, open expressions, that are welcoming to the lens and viewer alike. I strive to maintain a similar lighting style as the rest of the photos from a given shoot. Art direction elements involve selecting the location of the portrait and helping with wardrobe selection, ultimately making it all look effortless.

Hotel Renew Honolulu

David — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:21:17 +0000

The hotel photography of this Waikiki boutique property wanted a clean departure from the traditional Hawaiian mindset. Situated a block off the beach, Hotel Renew is providing a modern oasis in the land of tiki torches. Less than a year after it was re branded as Hotel Renew the property ran at the top of Tripadvisor’s picks for Honolulu hotels.

Hotel Renew has an urban vibe of a W Hotel without the attitude. The smallish room plates from the seventies were kept but the room interiors were fully outfitted with precision mill work. The interior designer Jiun Ho’s elements are sophisticated and simple with a nod to the understated principals that might be found in a Kyoto Ryokan.

My hotel photography used this clean and understated approach with minimal photo styling. The collection of photographs below match the art direction style of Interior Design Magazine where these photos were submitted.

www.jiunho.com

www.hotelrenew.com

Interior Design Magazine

Trip Advisor

Hi-Def Low-Def: Two Ways of Shooting

David — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:28:08 +0000

In my videos I combine Hi-Def and Low-Def photos that become the montage of still photos. By mixing the two types of photos I am able to use more unique photos that have been taken in a day of shooting and add interest to the clip. A Hi-Def photo takes upward of an hour to create, a Low-Def a couple of minutes. By mixing the two types I am able to create a very significant increase in the number of photos from a day of photography. By being fast and flexible, more usable photos are taken in a photo shoot.

The term Hi-Def is popularly used to speak of the quality of high definition video seen in HDTV, digital TV and digital Movies. With increase computer capacity the large digital file can be used with more information this renders images with greater detail and dynamic range.

So to in my still photography practice, the term Hi-Def can be used for the process and equipment needed to give the highest quality of photos for large format uses such as a two page spread in a magazine. These large file photos have greater clarity, color saturation and greater detail in highlights and shadows. The Hi-Def image starts with state of the art Digital camera, costing tens of thousands of dollars, coupled with a studied process of careful crafting the photos composition, adjusting the styling and adding lighting, finally the photo under goes post-production back in the studio with Photoshop software.

A Low-Def photo is one that might be taken with a point and shoot camera or a moderately prices single lens reflex camera (SLR).
These photos most likely are taken quickly, without any or little additional lighting. These “handheld shots” might have digital file size 10-25 % that of a Hi-Def photo and very little post-production time will be given to these photos. Low-Def photos should not be reproduced greater than 8×10 inches and rarely would these Low-Def photos be reproduced in a magazine. These Low-Def photos however look fine within a video montage and when watched on most computer screens the viewer would not know the difference.

Following are examples of the two types of photos taken this winter near Lake Tahoe. Shooting for interior designer Kathy Geissler Best and architect John Malick the 1 ½ day shoot captured over 60 photos.

I have selected 6 of the Hi-Def photos...

And 6 of the Low-Def...

Marc Melvin Modern

David — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:47:14 +0000

The recession ends many business models and the publishing industry is one of them undergoing great transformation. Most publishing is maintained by a strong cash flow from advertising. With Ad sales down, production costs up (paper, printing, postage) and subscriptions down, publications are squeezed from many sides.

To its greatest degree ever we are finding viewership increasing online and are finding print readership in decline. Yet more eyeballs are looking at more media than ever before. Successful publishers will be the ones adapting these trends by creating revenue streams to maintain their publications.

Interior designer Marc Melvin asked that I photograph this very modern home in Marin so he could submit the project to Western Interiors Magazine. While the home had been published before with mostly exterior photos commissioned by architect Stanley Saitowitz, what I call the complete home story had never been told.

Western Interiors liked what they saw and scheduled an extensive two day shoot, the day before their shoot the magazine was sold and the project is now on hold as the new publisher takes control.

The project is still great and fresh and will find publication someday if not in Western Interiors then somewhere else. Here are some of the photos that got Western Interiors hooked…

www.marcmelvindesign.com

Jiun Ho in Western Interiors April ‘09

David — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:00:38 +0000

Interior and furniture designer Jiun Ho hired me to photograph this San Francisco Victorian that he had given a major modern makeover. Jiun submitted my photos to Western Interiors & Design magazine which became featured in a ten page spread in the April/May 2009 issue.

Best of 2008 Video

David — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:52:48 +0000

In DAY BY DAY 2008 I wanted to show the range of interiors and clients that I photograph for. In a simple hip way, the video sought to to be fun, lively and not too formal. Just a few hours of production time was available and a the collection of photographs was rather random. The change of the photo pace with the chorus is an idea that I would like to explore in other videos.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hawaii Seas Video

David — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:51:26 +0000

Hawaii Seas is a short video showcasing my fine art seascape photography. I used subtle video production techniques for transitions between frames, panning down the vertical images. My voice over tells the story with a soft ocean wave soundtrack in the background creating ambiance. At the end I bring out each photograph separately with its title so the viewer can reference each image. Production and editing time was seven hours.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can also take a look at my complete Hawaii images or visit my Fine Art blog.