Making Photographs, Solving Problems

Potential clients often ask what is it that I do that they can’t with their digital camera. One thing: solve problems. Here’s an example.

One requirement for the OASIS Hospital assignment was a panoramic shot of the lobby. A relatively routine technique, you shoot several individual images turning slightly after each shot — and “stitch” them together with software for an extreme wide-angle view. Yes, there’s even an iPhone app for that!

A couple of problems to be solved:

• The bank of windows on the right side of the lobby let in so much light that it risked flair (below right). I tried blocking it with my hand, without much success.
• The OASIS name over the reception desk was made of chrome, and it reflected the dark area by the elevator (below left). It didn’t look like a bright and shiny logo.

To put the sparkle back into the Logo, I hung a piece of WHITE cloth so the chrome would reflect white back to me. My assistant (below left) is holding a flash which is putting extra light on the sheet.

To reduce flair from the windows, we covered as much of the window as we could with black plastic (below right).

Now we were ready to make the panoramic shot. In post production, I stitched the images together, balanced the different colors of light (bluish near the front windows, yellow with a little green under the mezzanine, etc. Then I layered in the shot of the now-sparkling logo. Click on the image below for a larger view.

Can your iPhone camera do this?

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