Photographing Hotels
One of the types of buildings I like to shoot is hotels. Every time a hotel does a remodel of their rooms or lobby or restaurant or meeting spaces, they need new photos for their website. As a fan of hotels (I love a nice hotel room as much as a place I'm visiting for vacation!), I enjoy finding the best way to show the design of the lobby, the pleasantness of a room, the decor, the amenities such as pools or fitness rooms.
Above is the lobby of the Loews Hotel Boston, which I shot for Columbia Construction after they had remodeled the lobby and restaurant. Photographing an entire hotel can take a full day, and I have worked out the timing for capturing the spaces when there are the fewest hotel guests around. My goal is to disturb the guests as little as possible.
Above is the bar/restaurant area of the Loews Hotel Boston. We had a work around contractors that day, but the photo came out beautifully in the end. Having the chairs turned toward the camera makes a big difference in making the place look welcoming.
The Courtyard Copley Hotel, also called the Exeter (historically), had me take photos of the beautiful exterior, as well as the lobby and rooms when they were remodeled a few years ago.
The hotel managers work with me to make the room look inviting - including fresh flowers and champagne. I choose angles that help show the layout of the room. I know as a guest of hotels, I like to see what the whole room looks like in photos before I choose the place.
If you know of any marketing managers at a hotel, please send me referrals!
Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.
Last night I judged for NECCC - the New England Camera Club Council. NECCC has monthly competitions among all camera clubs in New England who wish to enter. I was one of three judges - we had keypads to enter scores between 3 and 10 for each image. The sum of the scores fits in the usual range of scores up to 30 points. Boston Camera Club was hosting the competition this time. I usually prefer judging for an individual club, when I can give comments as well as a score, but this competition allows me to see such a range of great photos from all over New England. I learn from other photographers when I judge, as well as teaching others.
PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: WHITE BALANCE
What is white balance? It is a setting on your camera as well as in post-processing software. Cameras are so smart these days that most people shoot on Auto White Balance (AWB) most of the time. If you are shooting nature, you will have a combination of direct sun (daylight white balance) or cloudy light (cloudy white balance), and shade (shade white balance). If you use flash, the white balance would be very similar to daylight. Interior light is often much warmer than daylight. But your camera will look at the entire scene and decide on an average color temperature and try to set the white balance accordingly.
In post-processing, you can adjust the white balance to move it more toward a cooler temperature (daylight) or a warmer temperature (interior light). Many interiors that I shoot include both daylight coming in through windows and various different color temperature light bulbs in the space. I adjust the color balance to match the majority of the light, and then either let the windows go a little blue, or do some selective adjustments of color temperature with the adjustment brush in Lightroom.