I love doing twilight shots. However, it is not often that conditions are ideal for these, in which case extra Photoshop work is required. The idea is to wait until the interior and exterior light is perfectly balanced. However, often the interior lighting is very uneven, and elaborate supplemental interior lighting for these shots is often not in the budget for real estate photography. In addition, even when the sky is blue in real life, with the best overall balance, the sky may appear dull and greyish in a photo, so enhancement or replacement of the sky with Photoshop is required. For both of these photos, I replaced the sky. In the top photo, I also added a little supplementary lighting to the upstairs. In the bottom photo, the upper windows were not lit because I didn't have access to the attic, so I had to manufacture some light with Photoshop. With both photos, I had to do some selective modification to the color and brightness of individual windows to balance them out, in addition to a variety of other retouching. It is partly because of this extra processing work that I charge more for these kinds of photos.
Nice work, but I can't help but think these don't feel light twilight shots. They actually seem like daylight shots that somehow have enough illumination from the house lights. Darker with a cooler, more saturated color tone seems like it might be more realistic.
ReplyDeleteMaybe before replacing the skies, darken and saturate them further... and possibly shift the light blue clouds to orange/pink to simulate a sunset.
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ReplyDeleteMatter of style. These seem perfectly realistic to me. Just early, rather than late, twilight. I don't always want ultra dramatic twilights. Sometimes I like things more subtle. If you want drama, you will find some of that in my current portfolio on my website.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the mansion goes, waiting any later for more drama would have been too late for this, because I would have lost detail in the dark wood, unless I want to add a lot of supplementary lighting to the building exterior, would be another kind of look entirely.
Personally, I like these earlier twilight shots. Yes, the later ones can be more dramatic, but at the cost of clarity of the building. I see way too many too dark twilights that shout, "look at me...I'm a night shot", including some of my own. I think I'll start shooting a little earlier.
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