FStoppers’ Mike Kelley – Where Art Meets Architecture
After years of perfecting his unique “light painting with speedlights” technique, Mike Kelley has quickly become one of the most sought after architecture and interior photographers around. Mixing artificial light, natural ambient light, and high powered strobe light, Mike’s images create a hyper realistic mood that has become a staple in the commercial and advertising world. Unlike traditional techniques such as single long exposures or high dynamic range renders, Mike’s light painting technique allows him to have the most amount of control over every light source seen in his images. It is only after you have seen Mike’s before and after examples that you can really appreciate just how impressive his work truly is.
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Fstoppers.com has teamed up with Mike Kelley to produce Where Art Meets Architecture , a 7 hour long digital download on how to photograph real estate, architecture, and interiors. In this photography tutorial, Mike will explain each and every technique he uses to produce his stunning images. The full photography tutorial is broken down into three chapters, each covering the tools necessary to succeed in the different niche markets within the field of interior photography. So no matter if you are an experienced photographer or have never taken your camera out of auto mode, Mike will teach you the most basic steps to get started as well as walk you through some of his most complicated photo edits. From simple on-camera Real Estate photographs, to twilight exteriors with 20 layers of Photoshop, this tutorial will help you get on the fast track to making your photos of homes and architecture look as good as those seen in publications and commercials.
What is covered:
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Real Estate Photography : In the Real Estate section, Mike will teach you everything you need to know about this genre so you can kick start your career and start producing images for real estate agents, listing agents, and general property management. All of the basics will be covered in this chapter including:
How to get started with minimal gear
How to bounce flash effectively
Using natural light to your advantage
Properly composing your frame
Choosing the correct focal length
How to retain exterior window views
Two, three, and four light setups
Correcting pincushion and barrel distortion
Fixing converging lines in Photoshop
Creating a final image completely in camera
In addition to “building your foundation”, Mike also talks candidly about how he found success in the real estate market, and how you too can build a money making business shooting properties for sale.
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Architecture and Interior Photography : This chapter focuses on how to create photographs for higher paying clients like architects, home builders, interior designers, and magazine editorials. With the ground work already laid down, Mike focuses on streamlining your workflow and pushing your images into actual works of art. While on location at an actual architect’s personal home, Mike walks you through eight flagship images from initial capture all the way through the final photoshop editing process. We have also included a full Photoshop PSD file of a twilight exterior images so you can follow along as Mike teaches every step in creating his signature look.
Mike’s Twilight Exterior Technique
Advanced light painting and compositing
Tethering to an ipad/iphone
Using scrims to control reflections/specular highlights
The “Moody Interior Twilight Shot”
Faking warm sunlight
Staging furniture for strong compositions
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Commercial and Advertising Photography : In this final section, Mike takes you on the set of two commercial spaces and demonstrates how to produce perfect images for restaurants, hotels, wedding venues, resorts, and other commercial clients. Emphasis will be placed on meeting your clients needs and lighting images according to the use of the space.
Creating twilight images while a restaurant is open for business
Incorporating people into your photography
Lighting multi room locations
Replacing details in Photoshop
Lighting large banquet halls
How to create an inviting atmosphere
Additionally, Mike will also cover the business of commercial and advertising photography including how to market yourself, how to build residual income through image licensing, finding and maintaining clients, and pricing your work.
