This is an image I took for the architecture firm that designed this restaurant. The original photo (posted in comments) was taken at night. My client wanted a dark and moody feel.
After editing the original photo I experimented with some AI presets by AI Lightlab that are mostly geared towards real estate photography. AI Lightlab works inside of Lightroom as a plug in. It was a bunch of different presets that basically can take a photo and make it look like different times of day. The name of the preset I used is called Zen Shadow, which makes sense. I thought it looked pretty cool.
As far as how I shot this, this is a panorama of 3 photos. I shot it on a 35mm tilt shift. It's made up of a shifted down photo, a shifted up photo and one shifted to the left.
4 Comments
This is the original photo that I delivered to my client.
I like the original a lot better than the Zen Shadow version. AI definitely changes the mood from a nighttime to late afternoon look, which doesn't look nearly so warm and cozy as the original. Nor does it fit the story your customer wanted to tell. I also don't care for the downward slope in the bar's countertop that was introduced in the AI version, or the black door on the left side of the image. Your original pulls the viewer into the room; the AI version pushes the viewer out the back door. For what it's worth, I gave you four stars for the original, but unless I'm missing the boat here, the AI version produced a rather uninviting perspective. I suspect the door was in your original but you cropped it out to make a square format. Good idea. AI should have thought of that.
Thanks! I like the original a lot better as well. Honestly the original is one of my personal favorites that I've done for a client. It may not look like it but a lot of work went into it.
There's a lot I could clean up on the AI version to make it better. I just did it as an experiment and wasn't sure if I would ever use it. But I agree the door isn't great and IDK why the bar seems tilted. I noticed it as well. The verticals are straight but there is something about the bar that seems off.
I appreciate the comment!
Edit: I just went through my files and apparently I did actually fix both the door and the bar tilt on the AI version I guess I just never re-exported it from lightroom 😂. O well I guess. I'm not going to reupload it at this point. I'd lose the votes and the comments. I wish you could edit your entry for something like this if you realize you've actually tweaked the photo and uploaded the wrong one.
"It may not look like it but a lot of work went into it." --- I feel like I've made a career out of that statement.
People are often quick to point out flaws, but not so fast to recognize or acknowledge how decisions made behind the scenes work toward making an excellent photograph.