Architectural Photographers..... Who are the favorites?

[Corey Beaulieu]

I just wanted to start a thread to post names/links of the great Architectural Photographers out there. I am always searching for new sources/inspirations and I would imagine others are as well.

 

So, who are your favorites?

[RyderSK]

My personal favourite Fernando Guerra | Ultimas reportages.

 

Quite inspired by journalistic approach, but still impecabbly technical. Clean, geometrical, calm.

Has great modernist feel with portfolio ranging with architects like Alvaro Siza, Marcio Kogan,etc..

 

https://www.facebook.com/ultimasreportagens/photos_stream

 

 

 

 

The one and only, legend of ArchDaily: Iwan Baan.

 

I am long admirer, and met the guy month ago on presentation of his in Bratislava. I have to say....it was utterly boring. He's much better photographer than speaker...

Anyway, very photojournalistic style, not so technical, but very natural, likeable.

 

http://www.iwan.com/iwan_index.php

 

[Corey Beaulieu]

The photo series of the Ordos Museum are some of the best images that I have seen lately.

 

Thanks!

[RyderSK]

The photo series of the Ordos Museum are some of the best images that I have seen lately.

 

Thanks!

 

There's a video as well. Some find it very weird but I like it a lot :- )

 

[Corey Beaulieu]

A coworker just shared this with me:

 

Classic

Ezra Stoller

Julius Shulman

 

Current

Iwan Baan - http://www.iwan.com/photo_index.php?category=photography

Chuck Choi - http://www.chuckchoi.com/#!/portfolio/art-institute-takes-wing

Adam Mork - http://adammork.dk/

Hufton + Crow - http://www.huftonandcrow.com/portfolio/

 

3D

Hayes Davidson - http://www.hayesdavidson.com/portfolio/

VisualHouse - https://www.visualhouse.co/

DBox - http://dbox.com/

 

General Arch Images for Inspiration

http://architecturepastebook.co.uk/

[John Dollus]

http://www.hedrichblessing.com/

http://scottfrances.com/work

http://ngphoto.com.pt/

http://niclehoux.com/

[RyderSK]

A coworker just shared this with me:

 

Classic

Ezra Stoller

Julius Shulman

 

Current

Iwan Baan - http://www.iwan.com/photo_index.php?category=photography

Chuck Choi - http://www.chuckchoi.com/#!/portfolio/art-institute-takes-wing

Adam Mork - http://adammork.dk/

Hufton + Crow - http://www.huftonandcrow.com/portfolio/

 

3D

Hayes Davidson - http://www.hayesdavidson.com/portfolio/

VisualHouse - https://www.visualhouse.co/

DBox - http://dbox.com/

 

General Arch Images for Inspiration

http://architecturepastebook.co.uk/

 

He has good taste, I love those 3 companies.

[Chris MacDonald]

Johannes Heuckeroth is by far and away my favourite. His subject(s), composition and post production is absolutely superb. Not to mention he actually got back to me when I emailed him with a few questions.

 

http://pfnphoto.com/new/

[RyderSK]

Johannes Heuckeroth is by far and away my favourite. His subject(s), composition and post production is absolutely superb. Not to mention he actually got back to me when I emailed him with a few questions.

 

http://pfnphoto.com/new/

 

Whoa, that's impossible catalogue like quality. Very artificial...not in negative way, I love that aesthetique. The post-production and light in beyond inspiring.

 

So what did you ask him ;- ) ?

 

Edit:, Well, looks like I am in love. That's nothing short of unbelievable superb work. Top notch. It has such a strong flavour...it's overblown, over-colored, with lensflares like star-trek, strong perspective corrections, almost balancing on kitsch side...and it ends up looking nothing short of amazing.

 

Actually, so many styles. I love this misty, white portrayals too.

 

Edited January 17, 2014 by RyderSK

[Chris MacDonald]

What do you think I asked him? Basically "what's your secret?" haha. Here's my email, followed by his reply:

 

I've been looking at your photography for a little while now, and I love it. I have a few questions for you, if you have the time to answer them it really would be very helpful. I also completely understand if you don't want to share too much of the "secret sauce" that makes your images stand out so much!

 

I currently work in the field of architectural visualisation (making 3d images of buildings, etc) and have a keen interest in photography, and have just purchased myself a sigma 10-20mm for the purposes of shooting buildings. I've also started a blog of my own http://macviz.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Anyhow, onto my queries;

 

-Do you use an ND filter to blur out people, etc or or just use a high f-stop?

 

-In photoshop/lightroom, what kind of things do you generally do? I appreciate all images are different and require their own treatment, but you appear to pick out certain colours such as trees and skise (layer mask?) and exaggerate them, whilst doing the opposite to other colours like the greys on roads & concrete. Do you spend a lot of time doing this individually, or do you apply a filter to the whole image?

 

-A lot of your skies are completely blown out/white/lens flared, though it appears this was done in post and not in camera; because the skies are always beautifully reflected in your buildings. Do you hand paint the "overexposed" areas, or do you apply a specific lens flare plugin/filter?

 

-When stitching photographs together to create a large image, do you use the photoshop photomerge function? How do you get the horizon to stay straight?

 

-Any other tips you could offer me would be enormously helpful!

 

Thank you in anticipation for taking the time to read this,

 

Kind regards,

 

Christopher MacDonald

 

And his reply:

 

Hi Christopher,

 

thanks for your mail, I stumbled about your blogpost some weeks ago, thanks for that.

 

– I am not often do blur out people, but when I did it in the past, sometimes I used a ND filter, sometimes not.

 

– You described my processing generally good, thats the way I work. Its not a filter, its individual work, with a lot of local adjustments with masks. No special tools, just the standard tools in lightroom for basic raw development and standard photoshop tools for finetuning. And a lot of time.

 

– skies: Its mostly all done manually, some times I use a plugin for lens flares to support the manual stuff.

 

– For stitching images I use PT Gui Pro. In photomerge you have no control how it works, you just have to live with the result. in pt gui you can do a lot manually, for example horizon

 

I hope this is a little help for you, just tell me if you have more detail questions.

 

best regards

Johannes

[RyderSK]

Nice :- ) Thanks. Just imagine seeing that workflow..

[Chris MacDonald]

I know, wouldn't it be amazing?

 

He did do a brief explanation on how he gets some of those perspectives on his blog though. It isn't a full "walkthrough" tutorial, but at least gives you an insight into how it's done and what the raw pictures/exposures look like; http://pfnphoto.com/new/2012/01/faszination-frankfurt/

 

(btw it is in german, but google chrome will translate it pretty well)

Edited January 17, 2014 by Macker

[Nic H]

never seen that guys work

i like how 'cg looking' he makes some of his images

might want to go easy on that lens flare preset though!

[Chris MacDonald]

I dunno, I think the lens flares add a sense of surrealism to his images. Usually I would agree that post lens flares usually look rubbish, but not this time.

[markparsons]

Rasmus Norlander is my current favourite. If anyone hasn't seen it, I'd definitely recommend Visual Acoustics which is about Julius Schulman who pretty much invented what we now recognize as architectural photography. He photographed a lot of Neutra's work as well as countless others. He was also a very, very funny and inspiring person and the documentary captures him right before he died aged 98.

[Ismael]

I looked up Rasmus Norlander and I like how his images seem 180 degrees from CG.

[RyderSK]

I looked up Rasmus Norlander and I like how his images seem 180 degrees from CG.

 

I think the reason for why they are each so unique and charming is that photographers cultivated THEIR own style without pandering to outsider (client's) opinion.

Not like few CGI companies haven't done the same (namely MIR) as well, but majority didn't. And that's why everyone constantly complains of horrific perspectives, bland compositions, and happy blue skies with just the right amoung of clouds. And those might be the better cases...

[markparsons]

I looked up Rasmus Norlander and I like how his images seem 180 degrees from CG.

 

Yeah. I've tried to turn towards creating work that evokes that look in some of more recent stuff. I was pretty pleased with the results. Plus, it allows you to kind of embrace noise in your imagery and use it to your advantage. Faster render times as well.

 

I'm from Northern Canada originally so stark, bleak and overcast imagery is something I've always loved, and Norlander captures atmosphere like that perfectly.

[markparsons]

I think the reason for why they are each so unique and charming is that photographers cultivated THEIR own style without pandering to outsider (client's) opinion.

Not like few CGI companies haven't done the same (namely MIR) as well, but majority didn't. And that's why everyone constantly complains of horrific perspectives, bland compositions, and happy blue skies with just the right amoung of clouds. And those might be the better cases...

 

Yes, exactly. MIR, and lately Peter Guthrie (Thomas Phifer project) have tapped into something that seems really lost on a lot of people, which is atmosphere.

 

Zumthor has a publication that deals with this which sums up these qualities.

There's a reason why cg that is shoved in your face with hard shadows, tons of awkward people and royal blue skies never look great; there is nothing for the viewer to find out

 

Zumthor says in the aforementioned book "Hospitals corridors are all about directing people, for example, but there is also the gentler art of seduction, of getting people to let go, to saunter, and that lies within the powers of an architect."

 

Photographers and cg artists who capture those moments are the ones we inevitably end up admiring.

[heni30]

One of my all time favorites. Was buddies with all the avant garde artists in Paris at the turn of the century.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/115632728@N06/

 

[Stephen Thomas]

+1 for Hufton and Crow, consistantly brilliant. Hopefully I can add some others you may not be so familiar with.

 

I like Jordi Surroca from Barcelona, quite a different style and warm aesthetic: http://www.jordisurroca.com/www/projectes/Pavello_Joan_moral/i_fotos.html

 

Tim Griffith, quite commercial but very strong compositions: http://www.timgriffith.com/

 

Stephane Groleau from France, great references for archviz images: http://www.stephanegroleau.com/

 

Julien Lanoo, very uncluttered and clean images. Another good reference for us: http://julienlanoo.tumblr.com/

 

Atelier Brunecky also have some interesting architectural images: http://atelier.brunecky.com/

[RyderSK]

Ugh, not gonna let this thread die, it's too good and finally interesting.

 

I recently like this odd french photographer, there are some funky fictional compositions, but also regular but very unique commercial works.

 

 

He doesn't do just this funky stuff, but really nice regular ArchDaily type crop, so it's worth to see:

 

http://www.filipdujardin.be/

[Corey Beaulieu]

Ugh, not gonna let this thread die, it's too good and finally interesting.

 

I appreciate your interest. I feel like we don't talk about this enough as a community. I started teaching a Max class with a colleague and we used this thread to jump start peoples interest in the art. The students were very receptive so the more we can post up the better.

 

I like your frenchman Juraj.

 

I continuously look for more sources of inspiration and currently I have been sifting through a series of retouch tutorials on Phlearn.com. Obviously it isn't a true source for viz artists, but I have to say that his (Aaron Nace) insights into color and how to control/think about adjusting an image has opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities. I spend a lot of time painting the look and feel into an image and the way he adjusts thing with a simple Curves Adjustment layer has become, 9 times out of 10, a better solution and its is a more global adjustment. It makes me respect my scene more. I also feel like the result is more photographic which was the point of this thread.

 

Thanks for the continued interest.

 

Who else are we watching?

[markparsons]

Yeah. Glad this thread is still kicking. I recently went out and bought the fuji x100s because I wanted to have the feeling of a 35mm to snap stuff I see when outside. Especially in the winter right now with killer overcast days.

 

I read through the thread again, and maybe I glossed over, but I don't think I mentioned this guy, Valentin Jarek who takes some incredible shots for AFGH from Switzerland. http://www.jeck.ch/

 

Marcus Hasart from Germany is also a guy I go to very often for inspiration in lighting, texture and composition. Guy kills it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcushasart/

 

Also, he's not an architectural photographer, but I love the work of Loic Le Quéré

His stuff in Iceland is something I come back and look at time and time again.

http://www.loiclequere.com/iceland

 

Keep it going.

[Stephen Thomas]

I had forgotten about Filip, thanks for the reminder Juraj. Looking forward to checking out those other links too guys. It's definitely important to seek inspiration from outside of our discipline, otherwise things just stagnate.