Interior Photographer San Francisco » fresh

Architect Andrew Skurman

David — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:46:56 +0000

Andrew Skurman carefully proportioned this pre-war town home with his repertory of classic details. By adding elegant arches to the home, a peaceful repetition quietly defines the space.

Jeffry Weisman and Andrew Fisher, of Fisher Weisman, brought in a calming palette and a wonderful modern mix of furnishings.

Photography: Lighting Interior Photographs

David — Tue, 25 May 2010 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.

Hotel Renew Honolulu

David — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 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

Art Direction: Ironies Furniture

David — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:55:15 +0000

Ironies is a California based luxury furniture manufacture always at the design forefront. Here they show off not only great furnishings but also a clean modern take on styling.

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.

Samantha Lyman Video

David — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:41:38 +0000

Samantha Lyman is an interior designer in Ross, CA and this case study is of a home in Pacific Heights (San Francisco). Samantha designed the living spaces, the kitchen and the bath.

Taking the limited still photographs from the day of shooting I created extra vignettes from within the photos and later interviewed her in her studio for about an hour. Filming, production, editing and titles took eight hours.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Published: California Home & Design

David — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:06:54 +0000

This tree house of a home is atop a ridge in Belvedere with wonderful views. Diane Einstein enlivens a fifties period home with freshness. Having seen these photos, California Home & Design will be running the story this spring.

Ken Fulk Eclectic Design

David — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:03:43 +0000

Ken Fulk brings fresh style, drama and personality when creating his interiors. Here is a home in the Cow Hollow district of San Francisco that Ken and his team transformed.

Published: California Homes “Uncluttered…”

David — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:21:44 +0000

A full floor Pacific Heights home gets a complete make over bringing together tradition and urban chic in a timeless update. The photography would feel at home among the pages of Elle Decor. Listing agent Deborah Svoboda.