Twilight Photography: Seeing in the dark

Using low light as a highlight

Twilight “blue hour” intentionally chosen to highlight lighting design

Architecture photographers are obsessed with weather forecasts. Everyone wants good weather for their photoshoot as this usually translates to good light (though not always the case). Of course there is only so much good light in a day and some projects require a lot of planning to capture certain parts of a project at the best time in the day to benefit from natural light. It can sometimes feel like a race, especially on those shorter days in the winter months. However, as the sun dips below the horizon, new photographic opportunities emerge.

Twilight photography in the world of architecture and interior design often reveals stunning visuals that can't be replicated during daylight, and in many circumstances, twilight imagery should be included in your shot list.

1. Showcasing Landscape design: The interplay of dimming natural light and emerging artificial lighting can create a beautiful blend of colours and textures that accentuates your outdoor spaces.

2. Materiality: Unique wall or floor treatments come alive at twilight. Texture, shadow, and depth are highlighted.

3. Lighting Design: As the day transitions into night, lighting design takes center stage. Twilight photography is perfect for showcasing the artistry of lighting schemes, from soft, ambient glows to dramatic focal points inside and out.

4. Subject Isolating and/ or Highlighting: Photographing your project at dusk allows you to isolate your subject amidst a darker background. Your building or room becomes a beacon, drawing attention to its design and details.

5. Bad Weather Solution: Sometimes things don’t align and when bad weather decides to play spoilsport during your photoshoot, twilight can come to the rescue, especially for exteriors. The dusk ambiance helps mask uncooperative weather conditions / clouds and can turn them into an asset.

As with all things architecture photography, planning is key. The ideal twilight conditions are only short lived so its back to that race again to get the images needed in the short window of ‘blue light’.

Are you an architect or designer seeking to elevate your portfolio with stunning twilight photography? We can help with this. Let's create stunning images together. Contact us today and let your architecture and interior design projects shine, even after the sun has set.

Teeth

Photographing a dental clinic

Main entrance lobby and reception

A trip to the dentist isn’t usually on the top of peoples list of favourite things to do, usually because of a hang-up from some historical experience or a second hand scare story that has been doing the rounds, but we live in good times! Dental treatments are the best they have ever been and the clinics themselves are being carefully designed to provide a functional space to help deliver the best treatments and also a calm and welcoming environment for patients and practitioners.

Keeping these points in mind were central to my planning of a recent photoshoot at the new Spot Clinic dental practice designed by award winning architects, SABRAB. A complete overhaul of a challenging space high above Avenida Liberdade in Lisbon had incorporated extensive use of glass walls, doors and partitions to maximise the flow of natural light throughout the patient and technical areas. A monochromatic palette of materials was also used to offer a clean, minimal and very modern space for patients to enjoy. My brief was to document these elements for both the architect and clinic, with the added twist that the clinic was operating a normal working day.

Photographically, the challenges were working in tight spaces around delicate equipment (resolved in part by stitching shifted images together for some compositions), illustrating the materiality and colour palette with consistency (lots of colour work in post-production), and showing some life and activity whilst protecting patient / staff identity (timing of shots, use of slower shutter speeds and keeping out of the way!).

For these commercial shoots, problem solving is a BIG part of what goes on, and is a BIG part of what we enjoy at Clear Space. Do you have a challenging space or design that you would like to share with your audience? Let’s discuss the best way to make that happen. Finally, don’t forget to floss every day :-)

Cameras and Cocktails

On-location commercial photography

1st location on a long but successful day

Commercial photography is all about creating images with the very specific purpose of promoting and marketing products and services. I love the variety and challenge that it often presents, the planning and pre-production required to make it successful, also the teamwork and collaboration between the client and photographer. 

Another thing I love is a cool drink on a sunny beach (who doesn’t?), so when i was approached to shoot some of the worlds best flair bartenders making cocktails on a beach to showcase the Portabar system, I felt like the planets had aligned!

OK, so I specialise in architecture and interior design photography which might sound like a far cry from shooting a bar, BUT, the intent shares many similarities: images that capture the design itself, detailed elements, materiality, functionality and utility. The big difference is that unlike most of my subjects, this one can be moved about and that was a key element of the brief: to showcase the versatility of the Portabar in where it can be set up, but also how it can be quickly customised to take on different looks, thanks to their clever modular system and magnetic decorative panels.

Directing the shoot here in Portugal was Tom Dyer, a world champ Flair bartender (!). Portabar wanted to have their product set up in a variety of stunning locations which we are lucky to have in abundance here around Lisbon. A number of locations were decided, a team assembled to make it happen and shot list decided upon through liaison with Caroline at Portabar UK. Other considerations were location access, transport, timings on the day, props and staging, tides and weather.

Planning is everything on shoots like this as the ability to improvise on-the-fly when needed - That was true right from the off. Despite the perfect forecast for location no.1 (a wonderfully wild ocean beach), shortly after setting up the bar, the fog came in… The collective decision was to press on, select the bar facade that matched the mood and environment and make a few changes to my shooting approach (strobes now needed). The result: probably my favourite images from the day! That fog really added some drama to the scene. 

Over the next 8 hours or so, the sun came out and we set up in three different locations, staging and shooting 5 different variations on the bar design with Tom, Patricia, Travis and Luis all doing incredible things with bottles, spirits and glasses bringing the energy to the shoot and making some incredible cocktails (yes, I did sample a few). The best bit was that Portabar were delighted with the outcome. Mission accomplished! 

If you need to showcase your product, design, space or place in a way that makes heads turn, I would love to help out. I hope to speak with you soon. Cheers!

Look good, feel good

Interior and lifestyle photography in a wellness studio

I sometimes see my job is to document a design, a space or place. Sometimes its to provide a visual narrative to a building - where is it? who uses it? what is it made of? Other times, my photography has the specific goal of conveying a feeling to the audience. Recently, I was commissioned by a local business to do just that.

Health, Beauty and Wellness is a big industry and is a very competitive market place so its important to stand out from the crowd for the right reasons. Eliane Campos Health & Beauty is a well stablished practice 5 minutes walk from the wonderful sands of Carcavelos beach just outside of Lisbon. They offer a broad range of treatments and services that go beyond most and that demand highly trained technicians that operate to exacting standards of hygiene and care. My brief was to capture specific treatments and procedures offered in the salon and to highlight the professional standards and environment that their clients can expect when they visit.

Pre-production meeting and planning gave us our shot list, organised staff, models and interior styling to make time on set as efficient as possible. I opted for high-key lighting using small strobes to emphasise the clinical surroundings of the treatment rooms. This also allowed for colour consistency and flexibility to work around practitioners and models in a series of tight spaces.

Mission accomplished!

Big thanks to Eliane and her team and models for all their hard work on the day - especially as it just happened to be in the middle of a heat wave. We all earned a cold Super Bock that night!

If you need to tell your customers something good about your business or premises, get in touch for a chat. Architecture and interiors photography often widens to include lifestyle images in those spaces and Clear Space is here to help you achieve that. 

.pt

Clear Space Photography now based in Lisbon, Portugal!

All change! Well, quite a lot of changes in the last few months, the main one being a full relocation to Portugal and the wonderful city of Lisbon. It has been a long standing aspiration for myself and my wife to sample another, different life and after first visiting Lisbon 4 years ago, the city has been on our radar as a place to move to. Fast froward to 2019 and after several reconnoissance visits, lots of research and soul searching, we have done it.

I can’t pretend it has been easy, especially leaving friends and family, but our new life has only just begun, we are a couple of months in and our little apartment in Carcavelos (on the coast, 20 minutes out of the city centre) feels like home. Spike (our ageing Boston Terrier) loves the sun and the beach and we are ploughing through all the administration tasks necessary with any relocation - just made that bit more challenging as we can’t speak any Portuguese (but we are working to try and change that)!

So the move means that Clear Space has moved too and is now operating as a freelance business serving Lisbon and the surrounding areas. Economic growth in the region, a progressive approach to architecture/design and a buoyant tourism sector across Portugal all represent opportunities for Clear Space to assist businesses and brands through the creation of photographic content that tells their story with impact. 

I am excited to forge new relationships and collaborations and take advantage of THAT light (I am not missing those grey days…).

If you’d like to connect to discuss photographic ideas, enquire about commissions or just to find out how my language skills are coming along, please get in touch. Obrigado!