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Edward Porter's picture

Northern Facades in Daylight

A common challenge is figuring out how to make north facing buildings pop during daylight. Normally these facades are entirely in shadow, while the surrounding environment is in full on direct sunlight. Unedited, the architecture appears cold and unwelcoming. My current solution is to remove the blue hues in the shadows and a few layers of localized D&B (curves adjustments with layer/vector masks). Seems to do alright, but not fully satisfactory. Does anyone else have any different methods that work for them?

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2 Comments

Can you post an example? To deal with the blues I would use one exposure with a warmer WB for the face, and blend that in with whatever makes the rest of the scene look good. You might think of the sun as the kicker/rim if you are looking at the building from an angle.

For smaller structures and houses, you could do some light painting with a monolight. I've used an AB 1600 with a mini vagabond for this, and it's plenty of power, usually don't get it to full. The result is more dramatic and not exactly natural, but I think it looks very cool when done well.

Here's an unreleased raw as an example. The walkway is very dim and doesn't draw you into the home. Not sure a whole lot could be 'recovered' to fix this so I never attempted. I can see how a powerful flash slightly above the doorway facing the camera could help. My tri-bracketed speed lit octa doesn't quite have that power though...might have to be my next upgrade. Thanks for the suggestion, Adam!