Prior to being a full-time architectural photographer, I spent some time learning landscape photography.  I was blessed enough to learn from one of the best – Jon Cornforth.  I went to some amazing places and shot some gorgeous images.  I even did art shows at the Mill City gallery and at Dunn Bros. Roseville.  Though I received a ton of acclaim for my work, it didn’t exactly jump off of the shelves.

It certainly wasn’t all for naught.. I learned that architectural photography has a ton in common with landscape photography.  In fact, the skills that I learned in landscape photography taught me so much that it gave me a huge leap ahead in my architectural photography business.

As an added bit of window-dressing and as a homage to my brief stint as a landscape photographer, I always ‘hang’ my pieces in homes that I photograph.  As a result, my art is now hanging in some of the finest homes in town.  Sure, it’s a virtual hanging – but many more eyes are going to see my images that way than if that art was actually hanging in their home.

Because of the process that I use, televisions must be turned off when I photograph them.  To dress that TV up a little, I will Photoshop in one of my fine art pieces on to the TV.  It’s only a minutes to do – but it adds a level of realism to the scene.  I’m very happy that flat panels are popular now – it’s so much easier to make it look realistic on a flat panel than it does an old-fashioned tube television!

Once you are aware of this little Easter egg – you’ll start to see them everywhere.  Here is one of my pieces in a master bedroom:

Here is another master bedroom.  This one is in a $2.25 million dollar house.  Recognize that image?

This next image made me chuckle as I was editing it.  On top of placing my landscape print on to the television, I added a screenshot of my computer screen while editing this image to the computer screen.  It’s sort of like standing between two mirrors and seeing infinite reflections!

The home above is on Lake Minnetonka and is for sale at $1.25mil.  Also for sale at $1.25mil is this gorgeous loft in Duluth.  It has excellent architecture.. and excellent artwork..

Finally, what better way to show off some of my work than on a huge home theater screen?  This spring I photographed a home that had a wall-sized screen in the basement.. and I decorated it..

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Commercial architectural photography like this gets me very excited because I can really show off the beauty of the space.  In a large area like his studio it’s a little more of a challenge to tell the story about what it’s like to visit.  It’s important to show the work areas as well as how they are arranged in relation to each other.  Furthermore, all the amenities needed to be captured so they could be featured on his website.  Doing a great job will translate directly into increased interest and traffic into his retail location in Stillwater from potential clients that visit his website.

It’s also an interesting challenge because Judd is a total pro – he’s an incredible photographer in his own right.  You just don’t build an amazing studio like that unless you’ve got the traffic to justify it.  I needed to make sure that (like usual) I was going offer up some ‘shock and awe’ with the images to blow his socks off.  I had to deliver something above and beyond what could be done without the specialized lenses, tools, and techniques that I employ to feature the beauty of the interior details.

Here’s a quick tour of the rest of Judd’s amazing studio..

That is Judd’s Fine Art collection catering to walk-in traffic in Stillwater – a town with a ton of foot traffic.  Many of the pieces were done by Judd himself and feature the landmarks of Stillwater.

Of course, in any photo studio.. a place to photograph is required.  Here’s the room that Judd and his team use for flash photography.  It also shows the changing and preparation areas:

One of the interesting challenges of being an photographer in Minnesota is that the weather isn’t always suitable for outdoor photography.  Judd handled this challenge in an interesting way.. he brought the outside environment indoors with a huge natural light studio space on the second floor.  This space has a variety of materials and backgrounds that will suit just about any style.

I’d like to extend a big thanks to Judd and his team for making me feel right at home and for sharing their new studio with me.

Is there any way that I can help you feature your business or commercial space with high-end architectural photography?  Please contact me at (952) 373-1355 to discuss how Mark Teskey Architectural Photography can help with imagery.

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I’m going to assume that the property is already in sell-ready condition – the painting has been done, wall scuffs have been fixed, and the room has been de-cluttered.  Once those steps have been taken, we’re ready to prepare for the shoot.

• De-clutter.  Then, de-clutter again.  Less is more.  The collection of shot glasses may mean a world of memories, but they’ll detract from the picture.  At most, one or two things can be used as decoration on shelves or on tables.  Once the de-clutter is done, look into the room and see what attracts attention.  If the attention-grabber does so because it’s bright or busy, it’s probably too busy for the picture.  The focus of the room should be the room, not the ornate candlesticks on the mantle.
• Get rid of any evidence of pets, including cages, bowls, leashes, and the pets themselves.  Pets are a polarizing thing – people either love them, or they think that the pets make the house stink.  Why take the chance?
• Next, clean the room like it has never cleaned it before.  It’s amazing how much dust, lint, or footprints show up in the final image.
• Be sure that all light bulbs work.  I do all of my shots with the lights on – and it’s pretty obvious when one is burned out.  I also have a very strong preference for incandescent bulbs over compact fluorescent bulbs – the quality of light is a lot better.
• Make sure all linens are arranged – and the bed linens are smoothed out flat.
• Hide hand towels, dish soap, cleaning products, and so forth in the kitchen.  Make it look as if the kitchen has never been used.
• Arrange all curtains/blinds to be consistent.  I prefer them about 3/4 open so that there is a good view outside – but the blind can still be seen.
• Put the garbage cans in the garage.  This includes the outside cans and recycling bins.
• Finally, mow and rake the lawn.  Having the lawn freshly watered also gives it some extra sparkle and the colors from wet grass pop out even more.
• A couple of winter tips for those of us in northern climates: Make sure the walk is freshly shoveled and de-iced.  If you have big icicles or ice dams – have them removed.

To really make a home look the best it can possibly be, consider enlisting a stager.  There are basically two types of stagers – one that comes in to arrange your furniture and another that places their own furniture.  They are experts in placing decor and furniture in such a fashion to attract buyers.  A hundred or two dollars to have somebody arrange things can really make a difference.

It’s the little things that sell a house – and good photography along with good staging and good preparation will help you get maximum return on your house in the minimum time on the market.

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Jack Cotton, a luxury real estate marketing expert, recently wrote a blog post called “How Far Would You Go For the Perfect Listing Picture?“.  The entire post centered on how critically important it is to not only hire a photographer – but hire the best photographer in town to photograph your properties.  Jack states:

When presenting a luxury listing, you want more than one picture. You also want the right photos, shot in the right way, by the right person: an experienced pro who knows how to photograph high-end properties. With more and more people starting their search on the internet, your photos must be flawless.

I couldn’t agree more!  I continue to be amazed how many self-shot pictures are on luxury listings.  Just because you own a scissors doesn’t mean you’d do your own haircuts, does it?

Jack goes on to say:

Don’t spare the expense; hire the best real estate professional photographer in your area. Here’s why:

Potential buyers will often eliminate your listing from consideration immediately, based on poor photography. If you have to skimp on marketing your listing, professional photography is not the place to do it.

Since 95% of target buyers will visit your property on the Internet before ever considering walking in the front door – a potential sale may never even reach the front door if the property isn’t appealing in the photographs.

Please check out the remainder of Jack’s article on his website located here:

How Far Will You Go For the Perfect Listing Picture

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The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home.

This old adage is true in many ways.. besides being one of the primary work spaces, it ends up being one of the primary gathering spaces in a home.  I can’t count the number of times that I’ve seen everyone at a party packed tightly into the kitchen leaving the rest of the home virtually empty.  To take advantage of this tendency, modern homes are being designed with much more open floor plans to allow the kitchen to be included in the social space.  Often, only a bar or counter separates the kitchen from the dining or living areas.

When I photograph a kitchen, I want to be sure that the viewer gets a feel for what the space is like.  Is it cozy?  Roomy?  Warm?  Modern?  I also want to showcase the features.  A wide shot will show the general style of the room and the style of the appliances.  It will also give a feel about how traffic will flow through the room and how the workspace is situated.  I also tend to show more of the flooring in a kitchen shot than I normally do since many owners put more thought and detail into the kitchen flooring than in other rooms of the house.

Showing more detail in the cabinets and the appliances is important since the viewer will want to see the type, style, and condition of these key components.  Ironically, it’s not actually important to include all of the appliance in a photo.  Showing half of a stove tells the viewer many things about it: where it’s located, the style, the configuration, and the general condition.

I love the previous shot because it says a lot about that kitchen.  It shows off the style well and gives the viewer a strong feeling that it has a classic look.  The cabinet style is displayed as are the beautiful granite counter tops.  The high-end appliances can also be seen by the range top and by the reflection of the stoves in the mirror.  The best thing about the photo is that the client – who happens to be a staging company – has their work shown off well.

There are several unique challenges that I face when photographing a kitchen.  Because there are a lot of points of interest in a kitchen, it can be tough to have a picture that doesn’t have too much detail.  If too many things are brought into the picture, the net result is a cluttered image that makes it tough to focus on any one aspect of the room.

Another challenge unique to kitchens is the large number of highly reflective surfaces.  I take pride in not being in my own pictures – and in some kitchens that is nearly impossible.  Even if there aren’t any mirrors like in the image above – I am frequently surprised with how clearly a reflective microwave oven door shows off reflections.  That’s a challenge to Photoshop out if it’s a complex reflection.

I was originally in this picture.  I could see myself clearly in the reflections on the microwave door.  Fifteen minutes in Photoshop was required to make sure I wasn’t in the final picture.  I’m sure that’s not a completely accurate reflection shown in the picture now – but the reflection is believable and that’s what is important.

Color balance is more challenging in the kitchen than in other rooms – especially kitchens where there is a lot of woodwork.  The reflected light from the cabinets always has a strong color cast from being reflected off of the wood.  Care has to be taken to get a good white balance reading that has wall-to-wall cherry cupboards (everything gets very orange/red) or oak (yellow).  If everything is white – the camera metering is fooled into making everything very yellow and dark.

I always spend extra time in the kitchen making sure that I have the best pictures that I can because kitchens are often the signature room in the house.  If it doesn’t display well, the entire property won’t get the attention that it should.

Next week, I’ll be taking a look at the other big social space in a home – the living room.

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The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is often one of the better decorated rooms in the house.  A lot of work is put in to selecting fine furniture, beautiful linens, nice mood lighting, and decor.  All of this is done to create an environment much different than any other room.

For this reason, master bedrooms aren’t often as well lit as the rest of the house.   The soft, indirect lighting from the nightstand lamps sets a mood that would be ruined by flooding the room with light.  Therefore it is important to preserve that glow in the pictures so that it portrays the proper environment.

In the above photograph taken in a beautifully remodeled South Minneapolis home, the master bedroom was the showcase for the home.  The owners created a living space within a living space where they could retire for some quiet time.  I wanted to show this gorgeous room in its entirety to give the viewer a sense of the space that they had created.  In doing that, I had to manage the bright lights from the cathedral window, the reflections from the shiny wood floors, the warmth of the end table lamps, and the muted linen colors.  All of these are details that draw the eye around the room and reveal more interesting details about it.  Often I’ll try to eliminate reflections such as the one in the center of the room – but in this case, it draws the eye in to how clean and shiny those floors were.

This bedroom was an exception in many ways – rather than going for cozy, the owners went for airy.  The owners called this room “The Sun Room”, and it was also plainly the center of their life for many years.  How do I know this?  They left a placard stating as much.  It was also a later addition to the home.  Most of the walls were windows – and this brought in strong natural light, dark shadows, and rays being cast on everything.  Since the light and the view was beautiful, I wanted to capture it rather than just let it all go to white in the image.  This required blending a large number of images together to get the correct mix of light to show this scene.  I also purposely left some negative space in the foreground – the mood of the room is open.. and I wanted the picture to show the openness.

Whenever possible, I like to show the transitions between rooms as well.  It tells the story about how the home flows – and in this case, it gives just a peek into the luxurious master bathroom.  This luxury home on Prior Lake manages to bring a cozy mood while including a lot of natural light.  I also was challenged with making sure the color of the lighting was correct – there is always a risk of making natural light too blue or incandescent light too orange.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the Master Bedroom – next week, it’ll be the most expensive room of the house.

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BATHROOM WEEK!

Bathrooms are easily the toughest room in the house to feature.  When you’ve got a palatial marble palace like the bathroom shown above, it’s fairly easy.  Most homes don’t have water closets that are quite this large or well-appointed.  A more typical example is something like this:

Large or small, fancy or plain..  what are some of the challenges that I face on a daily basis when photographing a bathroom?

1) Size.  More often than not, bathrooms are small, narrow rooms.  The door is often at the narrow end of the room opposite the fixtures, creating one and only one useful and attractive view of the room.  To portray the beauty of the bathroom, I use my widest lenses and I photograph vertically if it’s a long, narrow bathroom.  This usually allows a view that shows the fixtures, the tile, and the lighting all in the same image.  For most people, that captures the ‘essence’ of the room.

2) White Balance.  My Canon (and pretty much every camera on the market) gets it wrong every time.  Since most bathrooms don’t have a lot of natural light, the camera sees all the white tile and incandescent light and makes everything very yellow.  Fortunately, it’s easy to fix by manually setting the white point at 2800K in post-processing.  The vertical example shown above needed a significant white balance correction to get the colors right.

3) Mirrors.  I don’t ever want to appear in one of my architectural photos.  I get a really good laugh whenever I look at a photo on MLS and see the photographer or his gear in the picture.  Normally this isn’t a big problem in most rooms – but it gets nasty in bathrooms where the mirror is located opposite the door.  Sometimes I can do a crazy billiards shot to get the picture – but it’s usually impossible.  In that case, there’s no recourse other than using Photoshop to edit myself out.  Here’s a classic example of a potential reflection nightmare:

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to feature a different room of the house each week.  I’ll be taking a look at some of the tips and issues involved with photographing each room to get the best possible images.

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One of the biggest challenges with photographing interiors is taming the light.  There is a massive difference in light levels around a home – especially near large picture windows.  Even with the windows wide open, the interior is so much darker than the exterior that it is very difficult to get an image that has the right exposure for the inside and the outside.  To make matters worse, on a very bright day hard shadows will be created by the window frame or anything that blocks the light streaming in.

Without techniques to control the light, the above picture would either be a bunch of zebra stripes from the curtains.. or the outside view would be a blown-out mass of white.

To remedy the problem, the inside light and the outside light has to be balanced with each other.  That means that there are essentially three choices:

1. Darken the outside
2. Lighten the inside
3. Make a blended image that takes the best of multiple images

Darkening the outside isn’t really practical unless all shots are taken at dawn or dusk.. or at night.  Lightening the inside is frequently done by adding flashes – but unless it is done with multiple off-camera flashes, the net result looks like something done by the DMV.  Shooting with multiple flashes takes time to do well.. walking around with a camera with a flash pointed at the ceiling (though better than nothing!) doesn’t deliver pro results.

The third option is the one I favor.  There are a lot of different ways to achieve the same thing.  I shoot six images of every shot at varying exposures, then I blend them in post-processing.  The process I use is in the HDR family, but it’s not Photomatix-style tonemapping.  Photomatix was the first thing that I tried, but quickly rejected it due to the images being too surreal.   A Photomatix-blended HDR sticks out like a sore thumb because it doesn’t look real.

Instead, I use exposure blending.  This technique delivers the most realistic images of an interior.  It gets the interiors right, and it gets the exteriors right.  Best yet, it doesn’t introduce halos, noise, or unrealistic shadows from flashes bounced in strange places.  The net results are just plain beautiful!  It also does a spectacular job with reflections.. sometimes a little too good.  I’ve had to Photoshop my own reflection away when I realize that I can see myself in a reflection on the microwave oven.

See all the delicious soft reflections on the wood floors?

Today’s featured home is a gorgeous mid-century modern located in the Northwestern corner of Minneapolis.  It’s in an upscale neighborhood with a large yard, lots of trees, and great views.

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Unknown to many – even many in the industry – there are two distinct styles of photographing a property.  The two styles (as you can guess by the title) are: Architectural photography and Real Estate photography.  Both have a purpose and a market – but it is important to understand the differences.

Here is how I define each style – though I concede there are differing opinions and there are certainly shades of gray between the two.  I’m also going to skip over any discussion of film vs. digital since I’m no expert on film.  I’m sure there are some still shooting film – especially medium format film.  For the most part, digital is the clear leader today.

Architectural Photography

Goal: Present the property in the most appealing possible fashion.  Make every property look extremely desirable by picking pleasing angles that draw a viewer’s eye into the image.  Worry about small details like glare, wall smudges, cords, and other unattractive details.  It’s all about sweating the small stuff!

Camera: High resolution, full-frame DSLRs or Medium-Format cameras are the norm here.  These cameras deliver a maximum amount of resolution and dynamic range.  This is important if the images are ever to be used for larger than web page sized reproduction.  The improved dynamic range helps to tame the extreme differences between light and dark that occur when doing interior photography.  It makes the difference between being able to see detail in the shadows vs. having them be a black blob.  Typical cameras: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 1D Mark III, Nikon D3x, and many medium format by Phase One, Hasselblad, etc.

Lenses: Wide angle, perspective control lenses in the 17-24mm (35mm equivalent) range are the norm.  These lenses are also called ’tilt-shift’ lenses due to their ability to tilt and shift the lens in relation to the sensor.  These lenses do some unique tricks that standard lenses simply cannot.  By shifting the lens vertically, converging perspectives can be straightened out.  With an ordinary wide angle lens, vertical lines can tip as much as 45 degrees from vertical near the edge of the frame giving a very strange perspective.

Notice the fireplace?  It really doesn’t lean 20 degrees to the left!

Tilt-shift lenses also are some of the very sharpest (and most expensive!) lenses available for a camera platform.  Some examples include: Canon 17mm TS-E f/4L, Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5L II, Nikkor PC-E 24mm f/3.5D ED

Lighting: Controlling the light and presenting the existing natural and artificial in the most flattering fashion is a key differentiator between the styles.  The goal is to make a picture look exactly as the eye sees it.  It’s like the old adage:

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.

Flashes, used improperly, can absolutely be the Devil – and the architectural photographer’s job is to make the lighting perfect while making it appear that no lighting was used whatsoever.  Any ability to see the existence of a flash is a fail.

Architectural photographers have two tools in their arsenal to help in this regard – off-camera strobes and multiple exposures.  I’m going to stop short of including HDR (high dynamic resolution)- because there is a technical difference between HDR and blending multiple exposures that isn’t always flattering to interior photography.  By photographing 3 to 9 images of each scene then blending the multiple exposures, an idealized version of the extreme brights and darks can be created.

NOTE: Sharp eyes will correctly realize that the ‘what not to do’ image above was created using HDR!

Post-processing: Here too, it’s all about the details.  Unflattering or distracting things in the image (cords, smudges, etc.) are cropped or edited out with Photoshop.  Multiple exposures are blended into a single final image, colors are corrected, tone curves are applied to give the image more punch or to open up some dark spaces.  Sharpening is carefully applied at this step.

Output: A small number of breathtaking images ready for publication are delivered at very high resolution

Now, the other side of the fence:

Real Estate Photography

Goal: Where Architectural photography is focused on quality, Real Estate photography is single-mindedly focused on value.   In this case, value is defined in terms of cost per image.  It’s about throughput – how many images can be captured in as little time as possible to keep costs low.  There’s nothing wrong with this approach – but it’s a distinctly different product!

Cameras: Tough to be specific here, so I’ll have to generalize.  The real answer is that everything under the sun is used.. including cell phones.

Lenses: Again, tough to pigeonhole this – but the better ones use standard wide-angle lenses.  Some use tilt-shift lenses, but tilt-shifts are more methodical and it’s tough to get the results needed in a high-volume business.  I even saw a million-dollar property photographed with a fish-eye lens!  Hard to believe..

Lighting: On camera bounce flash is typical here and the flash is generally pretty obvious.   Some will do some simple auto-processed HDR, and the best ones will combine two exposures in Photoshop to get better views out the windows.

Post-processing: The bare minimum needed to get to a 640×480 MLS image

Output: Dozens or hundreds of images capturing every nook and cranny of a property

Again – no knock on pure Real Estate photographers.  The ones I know work very hard and most deliver a good product for the price.  However, the market today demands curb appeal on the internet that sets a property apart from its competition – and an architectural photographer can better deliver that.

Most of the images from the post today were from a gorgeous farm house in Minnetrista that was heavily remodeled and expanded  It is smack in the middle of a new housing development – and it’s easily the most striking property in the neighborhood.   Somebody needs to buy this property – because it’s a gem!

Next time, I’ll talk a little bit about my approach to balancing Architectural photography and Real Estate photography to deliver top quality images at a reasonable value.

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It’s a blustery winter day here in Minnesota and the weather forecast is calling for 6-8″ of new snow on top of the two feet we already have from early season storms.  As a winter lover, I think a return to a good old-fashioned winter is fantastic.  The only downside that I see is that there won’t be many opportunities to make beautiful outdoor garden landscape photographs like the one above until spring hits again.  This set of images were from a project that I did for Axel Landscapes this fall.  It is a firepit and patio that they just completed for a home in far western Minneapolis right along the Golden Valley/St. Louis Park/Hopkins border.

Chris and his award-winning crew at Axel Landscapes in Hopkins, MN are one of the best in town at creating patios, outdoor kitchens, firepits, or any outdoor living area.  He’s done some paver work for me personally at Mark Teskey Architectural Photography WHQ in Edina – so I love his product and I jumped at the chance to photograph some of his work.  For those that follow my fine art work over at t3imagery.com – doing garden landscape photography is a natural combination of my landscape and my architectural photography.

Shooting a garden patio at sundown involves a lot of planning, setup, preparation, and post-processing.  On top of that, you have to hope for the best out of the weather.  The good shooting window is somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes long depending on the weather conditions and the time of day.  If it is too early – it looks like daytime and the fire isn’t visible enough.  If too late – there is no color in the sky and the scene becomes nearly black and white.  To bring out the full beauty of the patio, I set up multiple flash units around the garden to highlight various parts of the scene.  The strobes were remotely radio-controlled from my camera so that I could adjust the power remotely and so that I wouldn’t have to manage more than power cords.  I had to keep things very portable and work fast while the light was optimal.

During the shoot, I had Chris on hand with a garden hose soaking down the scene.  The wet reflections on the stonework makes it look more appealing – and it makes the greenery more lush.   Shortly after these pictures, the last light went out of the sky and the mosquitoes attacked and made the tear down a challenge.  I didn’t expect that many mosquitoes so late in the season – but it was a warmer than usual fall here in Minnesota.

The backyard was littered with power lines so I had a lot of post-processing work to remove those distracting items from the final scene.  I also had to remove my own gear (flash stands, power cords, etc.) from some of the images where the angles wouldn’t allow me to get them out of the scene.

Enjoy these pictures after an evening of snow removal!  Stay warm, all..

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