Architectural Photographers’ job is to produce impactful images after the completion of a project.
Often I hear the phrase “ It looks like a million dollars “, while it’s our job to make the photos impeccable and glamorous it is not always the case.
While luxury homes and buildings can cost to build millions of dollars, a one snapped a shot (one click) will never showcase the true visual value of the space and this is where our true talent shines.
In this series of articles, I want to take you behind the scenes of architectural photography work.
Yes, I am going to show you how those perfection of creation looks in real professional images and how it looks after we put our own special sauce on those images.
Ascaya Inspiration Home (USA)
We must start with one of our most known pictures for an inspiration home luxury development.
This is a complex shoot for numerous reasons. First, the home is very wide compared to other homes due to its complex plot that was master planned by world-renowned architects SB-Architects.
The second reason this is my personal task is to combine the architecture, the environment, and the views that bring this property to its glory.
In this composition, I choose to climb on a 50ft rock landscape feature to allow me to capture the entire home in one shoot. It was important for me to showcase the rear view of the house to the mesmerizing Las Vegas Valley and the Famous Las Vegas Strip.
These two images took almost 4 hours to capture and composite in post-production as I had to creatively light the day shoot and compose it from many different images.
The night shoot was even more complex as I had to incorporate the partners for this beautiful development Range Rover into the photo.
So we ended up with a great architectural exterior photo and also incorporated a Car Photographer job as well.
Golden Home
One of the most surprising shoots I ever had photographing this home exterior.
This is a gated community, this luxury home is situated across other homes and also has traffic. This required me to position my camera in the middle of the street where the car passes every minute or two.
While I am used to working in an active environment, this is not an easy task while neighbors stop to see what is the action all about.
Luckily I am well prepared and had several flashing lights to make sure my camera is visible to bystanders.
This picture took over two hours to create starting 20 minutes prior to sunset to capture some ambient light, taking dozens of pictures both natural and with artificial light to create the glow of the brick stones and the landscape.
While running around creatively lighting this beautiful architecture, someone forgot to close the irrigation system of the front landscape, leaving me running around trying to avoid the water splashing all over.
Finally, we waited for the sun to set to capture some of the landscape and interior lighting, and voila
The Mansion
This mansion was in the last stages of restoration, with few construction ladders and lots of construction messes on the main road that are waiting to be cleaned.
This complex shoot includes again a very wide home with a bridge to the guest’s house and an indoor spa.
It was important for me to incorporate the inside villas as well in the shoot, this was done by opening the main gate and providing a peek.
While the gate can’t stay open, we had to re-open it more than 25 times to showcase the view.
