For this two day photo shoot I brought my gear to the Las Vegas World Market and Brownstone’s showroom. On the last day of a trade show we set up 12 foot wide seamless white paper and created a photography studio on location. Working quickly with a couple of guys, the furniture was placed on the paper, I then worked with the lighting and camera to frame these compositions

Working in today’s compressed product to market cycle, the photography is crucial to marketing efforts. By bringing the studio to the product we shaved of weeks getting these photos to Brownstone’s clients.

For me the elements of scale, color and texture need to come together supporting the balance and harmony of the space.

Samantha, who has had her practice for three years in Ross, wanted me to create photographs that would be paired together on her website samanthalyman.com. She sought to showcase the broad strokes and tasty details that make a room.

Careful consideration was given to the aspect ratio of the compositions so the photographs could work in a one third two third arrangement as tall verticals and horizontal rectangles. With pre-planning and attentive art direction throughout the day we created these perfect takes.

Here are some of the tasty offerings with more seen at lecolonialsf.com

Photographs for the website, magazine stories, and ads were created with close attention to capturing the feel of freshness and wine country casualness. Over two days of shooting, the tricky art direction required the same photographs to stand alone as either wide panoramic banner for web use or a traditional square/rectangle for print.

David Gingrass sought out my abilities to work collaboratively, be versatile and make fresh inviting photographs quickly.

www.brix.com

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.

Here from Sub-Zero are styling guidelines that are right on the money and a great help in prepping for a photo shoot.

Photography should look warm, lived in, fresh, approachable, natural, and inviting. It should not convey a contrived, dramatic, or perfect image. Propping should follow the same approach.

Overall Objectives:

Less is more. The composition can be simple and still luxurious.

The purpose of all our photography is to:
Inspire readers
Make the room feel inviting
Convey informationReveal how the kitchen functions
Explain the layout
Show the relationship of kitchen to adjoining areas

Props should:
Look realistic
Be logical
Reflect a level of accessible good taste
Use only natural flowers, and in moderation
Bigger is better and less is more is our desired look

Props should not:
Be moved from one shot to another
Use lighted candles in day shots
Be too messy, crowded, busy, hectic or overwhelming
Combine incompatible objects (e.g. onions and bananas)
Be cliché, such as the dish towel draped on edge of counter

Details should:
Show something not easily seen or not clear in an overall shot
Use scale effectively
Guide the eye to important features

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

The principals of Ironies and I took a great monochromatic assemblage of forms and textures and used a lighting and photography style to create a soft mood.