Last week I got a call from fellow photographer Dave Ward. He had a client who needed some special photoshop needs. I met with Dave's client and heard her grand plan. In selling this real estate property, she wanted to give her perspective buyers a remodeling idea. "Open this up. Take this out. Add french doors. So when you walk in to the house, you have a sense of openness and light streaming in," she said. On initial inspection, it sounded like a lot and I wasn't sure I could pull it off. I took a lot of pictures and when I got back to my studio I created an image of a room that wasn't really there. Once I had a room, I made adjustments to the perspective of the walls, floor, and ceiling. Then I needed french doors. Everything I saw on the internet was lo-res and didn't look like what the client wanted. So, I trekked out to Central Mass where my parents live because they had the french doors that I thought would look good. I set up lights and shot another 20 or so images. Then, back at the studio, I plopped the doors in. Looked okay, but not real enough. Adjustment layers in Photoshop, burning, dodging, layering, adding cast light where there was none, and WHA-LA! An open room with french doors and light streaming in, just like she wanted. I emailed her and asked for her thoughts, expecting there to be a lot of revisions. "That's exactly what I was thinking in my head!" she said. THIS NEVER HAPPENS ON THE FIRST TRY, but I did it. What I liked about this job (besides pleasing the client on the first attempt), was that I not only used my photography and photoshop skills, but a lot of this was based in drawing and painting from my Art education. To know where light and shadow fall, one must draw and paint from life quite a lot. So thanks Art school! We saved the day!
Until next time,
Duncan