I just got a gig. My buddy Keith has hired me to come to CA and shoot some stuff for him. But first, some background…
Right. So. Keith is a commercial lighting designer. That means that when someone hires an architect to design a commercial space (store front, hotel, etc.) the architect turns around and hires someone to handle the lighting. That last someone is Keith. It doesn’t always happen, but when the client really cares about the space and the impact it will have on people, someone like Keith will always be involved.
“But Sean,” I can hear you say, “what do I care about your bush league friend?” To which I answer, “oh man, so much I could tell you”…but I won’t. Not here. As to “bush league”, well I do have an answer to that. In 1998 Keith and I happened to be in NYC at the same time. Me? I was headed to Internet World as a no-name attendee. Keith, on the other hand, was headed to the upper stories of the Empire State Building to argue with a French architect about how to deal with the lighting conditions surrounding cutting back two feet of flooring between two levels of a Rockefeller plaza building. Keith is one of those people that few outside of his profession know about, but within his profession he carries a lot of juice.
Anyway. This past summer I shot some pictures, under Keith’s direction, of residential work he’d done (hi Doug!). Keith seldom does residential work, but Doug had pictures of Keith and…well, I digress. Keith liked my pictures of his lighting…a lot. Shortly afterwards, he was presented with a price quote by a local photographer for shooting some of his lighting installations in CA. About 10 minutes after that, I got a call: “hey, want to come to CA?”
How am I going to shoot architecture? Especially with a 35mm camera (large format would work so much better)? I recently discovered high dynamic range images. The idea is that you shoot at a fixed focal length and aperture, using only shutter speed changes to take several images covering many stops of latitude. You then use Photoshop (or several other programs) to put the dynamic range of these many images into a single picture. The best explanation I can offer is in this image:
This is not my image. How I wish that it were!
Getting back to the title of this post: is it all about the technology of HDR? Or, is it all about getting the best image I can for the client? No matter who the client is, I’ve got to go with the latter.
Technorati Tags: mindlessrambling, photogrpahy
I have looked alot at the HDR pics, that you forwarded me. While I admire the discovery and the great use of technology to get the most detail possible…it is however….”High Dynamic Range”….beyond what you would see with your eye, at any goven moment.
The photo you referenced is a great example of technology “mis-applied”…the photo, in essence, has become a great etching…super detailed, but no longer real to the “human experience” of the world.
I believe any great piece of art evokes an emotion..love, hate, anger, happiness, etc. A great photo should do the same. Look at this photo, does it evoke an emotion or a mood…or is it just…”wow, look at all that detail”…..if it is the latter, like for me….then the intention of art has been overrun by the detail of whats possible. It has ceased to become a thought provoking image(there is nothing left to imagine), and is just another composite in a evermore techno-centric landscape.
I first learned of this with the heavy introduction of 3D into the “everyday designers” hands…it was everywhere….we were doing it not because it made sense, or because it looked good….we were inserting it, because…..we could. It neither added to or complimented the “intent” of the original design concept. Its a tough lesson with a new technique and even harder to resist.
Light…………..is heavenly, its love, it surrounds and embraces its focal intent……can you explain in great detail “love”, “heavenly”….no…it is felt, it is a hunch, a mood, an intent.
Ask first how Keith defines “light” as he relates to it. I’m willing to bet its more about mood and esoteric relationships than over all “detail” of what could be seen and not actually seen.
Remember that when you go to photograph for Keith…and knowing you, I’m sure you will deliver stunning images.
Bill.
comment at 24. February 2006