Hi everyone!
I'm a newbie here and recently purchased Mike Kelley's "Where Art Meets Architecture" workshop, which taught me a lot. I recently received a request from a client to shoot an office building of a software company. They always have people in their photos to make the space look more lively, and I like the idea. I'm a bit nervous since I haven't done this in a way that makes both the people and building look good at the same time.
Do I take a picture with the people in it and at a faster shutter speed/higher ISO and then layer it on top of one that is exposed for the room without the people? I found that if I just edited the one with people in it, their skin tones look awful - of course because you bring the clarity up/shadows down etc.
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Thank you,
Sabine
It's ideal to have the shot bracketed and flashed without people for lateral room. You're right that the eye is especially sensitive to skin tones and can easily pickup when the grade has been pushed. So I've found it best to treat them separately.
The shutter speed is really a personal preference. Some like motion blur and others don't. Don't be afraid to take lots of shots and mask in the right moments; they don't always happen at the same time ;-) If you want to experiment with complex motion blur, enfusing multiple exposures works well. I bet there's another way through Photoshop's Statistics tool, so it'd be cool to hear other's techniques besides the obvious use of NDs.
Thank you so much for your reply, E Port! Sorry, just saw this. I guess the best approach is to take a ton of pictures with different exposures, with and without people and hope for the best haha. I will experiment with this some more before the actual shoot. I agree with you, would love to hear other photographers' techniques as well!
Are these people supposed to be sharp or blurry?
I treat people like a light painted layer, and blend them in separately. I try to shoot them in a way that I can make a pretty broad mask, so I avoid any situations where I have to make a complex mask for each person.
Lighting them with strobes will make them look much better and should solve any skin tone issues. If you are blurring them with a longer shutter speed, make sure not to use any strobe, otherwise you get a sharp ghost mixed in with the motion blur.
Thank you, Adam! I have shot people with motion blur before, which worked out fine. In this particular case they are supposed to sit around a meeting table and pretend that they're interacting with each other. So I need the meeting room to be sharp, potential exteriors in window background and the people themselves. My concern is though that if you have 4-5 people and you do longer exposures, even if they all hold perfectly still, that one of them will always have their eyes closed. I'm not comfortable enough with strobes yet to be messing around with them the day of and don't really have a way to practice with a bunch of people before the shoot. What if I created one shot with f4-6 aperture, faster shutter speed, ISO 200-400 just for the people, bring up exposure etc. in PS, then use it as a layer mask just for them below the shot that is exposed for the room? Would that make sense/work?
How close will the people be to the camera? When folks are smaller in the frame, you can get away with having them hold still during a long exposure. If the people will be prominent as it sounds in your case, then you are almost certain to have motion blur, and a blinker is certainly possible, but probably not something to worry about too much.
I would not fuss with the aperture, as you might have some DOF conflicts when you're blending the elements in the final exposure. You're right that you shouldn't introduce this foreign element to your process on the day of the shoot, but I would recommend finding someway to mess around with. You could even just bounce the strobe into the ceiling to give the people some fill, and minimize the mixed lighting that can wreak havoc on skin tones. More directional lighting will give the people more 'pop', but it's also easy to overdo if you're not experienced, so a ceiling bounced strobe could be a nice compromise. It should help you freeze motion at slower shutter speeds, but always watch out for ghosts.
You might try to raise your ISO to get a faster shutter speed at the same overall exposure value for the people shot, and then minimize the noise later. Your best bet is to give yourself options, maybe try some of these new-to-you ideas, but only if you can also do what feels right, and then put it all together later.
It wouldn't hurt to jot down some notes about what steps you need to take to do all of this within the window that you have the people available, as you don't want to forget a crucial step in this method that's a bit foreign for you.
Don't forget about the "release issue" we get permission from the school office or building and then we buy Starbucks Cards ( We call SIxxbucks ) to use to be able to offer something to folks who are willing to help us. "buying" talent is expensive and time consuming but is often the only way to control things with respect to age, sex, ethnicity and also to expect people to be dressed appropriately. We have done a number of schools and what one sees as "dress" for class is really entertaining but makes finding the right people very challenging. Just some things to think about other than the shot and placement.... it all adds up in time and all amounts to the degree of success one is looking to achieve. We shoot lots and drop in after .... you can always add motion blur to figures that are too clear and static. It however is difficult to get the right shutter speed without people walking at different speeds and having what we call " the missing leg " .
In my opinion, people in the scene should be unidentifiable (motion blur, etc). It helps not date the image and makes it more generic. In other words, the people could be anyone, rather than being a specific person. Also, when details like eyes are noticeable, we tend to focus on the face rather than the architecture.
Generally I agree with you, Jonathan. Motion blur also makes it look more lively in my opinion. In this case though, the client always has their own employees in the pictures and they want them to be in focus and looking like they're interacting.
In that case, I would go for the layering option. It's what I do when I need to make a place look busier than what it is.
You mean using a higher ISO and faster shutter speed for the people and then layer them into the base picture? Do you use strobes to give them fill or just camera?
I'd create a base image and then shot a series at high ISO for the people, if the light is attractive. If not, I'd bounce some strobes off the walls for the people, trying to mimick window light.
So I played around with different camera settings and strobes yesterday and made a discovery. I learned in my photo class to always use Exposure Delay Mode at 3 seconds when shooting architecture to prevent camera shake from the "mirror slap". However, I now believe this is what has caused my people to always be blurry no matter which shutter speed I was using. I turned it off and voila! The person was pretty much in focus at about 1/10 sec with higher ISO.
Now I'm wondering though if I really need Exposure Delay Mode for my base photo. I fear that by changing the settings between photos I will accidentally move my camera. Btw. I always shoot in live view mode on my Nikon and read that this basically serves as mirror lock-up.
Is this true and do I still need Exposure Delay Mode? I'm sitting here like a crazy professor ripping my hair out haha.
Mirror slap is camera dependent, so a quick google search on your body can give an idea if mirror lock-up is needed. Regardless, it's best practice to use the optical viewfinder when composing. The eye (mirror) can see an incredible amount more dynamic range than a sensor. Since we bracket and blend/enfuse multiple exposures to recover this dynamic range, we should use the tool that represents this broader range (optical viewfinder). Live View makes sense when adding people or flash though.