Mpkelley.com: Behind The Scenes Of a Luxury Interior Shoot

I was recently invited by the team at Fstoppers.com to dissect one of my interior photographs for an article. I've been a long time reader and contributer, but it wasn't until recently that I had full reign to go into detail with regards to the construction and completion of one of my shoots. You'll be able to see some of the challenges faced when shooting interiors and archtiecture, and hopefully it gives a better understanding of what my thought process is during a shoot. Click on the photo below or head here to read the article.

Private Residence in the Hills of Los Feliz

I was recently commissioned to shoot this incredible new construction in Los Feliz, CA. This shoot presented it's own series of unique challenges, however the setting allowed for some incredibly dynamic photographs. The first challenge was dealing with the extreme brightness range of the scene - that's bright, midday sun streaming in against a white interior with a dark wood deck outside. Pretty tough to keep it all in check. The following were shot with a set of Pul C. Buff Einsteins.

One of my favorite shots from the day was a result of the sun setting directly in front of the sliding glass doors which opened to an expansive view over the hills. The sun aligned perfectly with the back of the home and filled the entire place with a surreal, golden light. Definitely one of the most intriguing shots I've taken, and the best part is that it was nothing but 100% natural light. You don't always need a truckload of gear to pull off a shot, though getting lucky like this certainly makes it easier.

 Lastly, a couple twilight images - we know how much I love these.

Shooting the Director's Guild of America / ASCAP

I was recently contacted by Fleetwood/Fernandez, a Santa-Monica based architect, to shoot a new project that they had completed. While the shoot would consist of only interior photographs, the shoot was significant in that it's a remodel of  the Director's Guild of America building and the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Producers) offices. Way cool! For those not aware, the ASCAP is the group responsible for the Grammy awards and for distributing and marketing thousands of popular musicians around the world. There was a significant amount of memorabilia (including Grammy awards) scattered throughout the building and no shortage of instruments used by chart-topping artists hanging on the wall.

While the shoot itself was relatively straightforward, I was testing out the new PowerMC2 made by PocketWizard. I recently purchased a few Paul C Buff Einstein lights and was excited to see how they would compare to my all-speedlight setup, which has been my workhorse for a number of years now. I'm glad to say I had no problems and the best part was that there was no shortage of power, something that the speedlights struggled with when lighting large spaces.

All of the spaces were staged by myself and the architects, and I think we did a great job. I've included a few photos here, and there's a new before-and-after shot featured in the gallery so you can see the staging and retouching work that went into this shoot.

 

Behind the scenes on an architectural photoshoot

I recently enlisted the help of my friend and local videographer, Peter Donaghy, to create a behind-the-scenes video of an architectural/advertising photo shoot at the Arclight Theatre in downtown Hollywood. It goes into a bit of detail about my method, including the on-location work, a look into what the camera is capturing, and a view of all the post-processing that is done to create an image of mine. We spent a ton of time on it and I hope that it gives you some insight into my process.

Enjoy!

Mike Kelley: "Baiting With Light." mpkelley.com featured on Pocketwizard website

Off-camera lighting specialists Pocketwizard recently featured my work on their website and in their blog. The article goes into detail about how I got started in interiors and architectural photography, as well as explains some of my techniques and methods used to create my images. I think it's well worth the read, and they did a fantastic job writing both an informative and somewhat humorous article. An excerpt of the article can be read below, and the entire article can be read by clicking here.

Thanks to Ron Egatz, Dave Schmidt and everyone at Pocketwizard who has offered assistance or put up with my questions for the past few years!