FStoppers’ Mike Kelley – Where Art Meets Architecture

Where Art Meets Architecture: FStoppers’ Mike Kelley Comprehensive Workshop on Art & Architectural Design

After years of perfecting his unique “light painting with speedlights” technique, Mike Kelley has quickly become one of the most sought after architecture and interior photographers around. Mixing artificial light, natural ambient light, and high powered strobe light, Mike’s images create a hyper realistic mood that has become a staple in the commercial and advertising world. Unlike traditional techniques such as single long exposures or high dynamic range renders, Mike’s light painting technique allows him to have the most amount of control over every light source seen in his images. It is only after you have seen Mike’s before and after examples that you can really appreciate just how impressive his work truly is.

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Fstoppers.com has teamed up with Mike Kelley to produce Where Art Meets Architecture , a 7 hour long digital download on how to photograph real estate, architecture, and interiors. In this photography tutorial, Mike will explain each and every technique he uses to produce his stunning images. The full photography tutorial is broken down into three chapters, each covering the tools necessary to succeed in the different niche markets within the field of interior photography. So no matter if you are an experienced photographer or have never taken your camera out of auto mode, Mike will teach you the most basic steps to get started as well as walk you through some of his most complicated photo edits. From simple on-camera Real Estate photographs, to twilight exteriors with 20 layers of Photoshop, this tutorial will help you get on the fast track to making your photos of homes and architecture look as good as those seen in publications and commercials.

What is covered:

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Real Estate Photography : In the Real Estate section, Mike will teach you everything you need to know about this genre so you can kick start your career and start producing images for real estate agents, listing agents, and general property management. All of the basics will be covered in this chapter including:

How to get started with minimal gear

How to bounce flash effectively

Using natural light to your advantage

Properly composing your frame

Choosing the correct focal length

How to retain exterior window views

Two, three, and four light setups

Correcting pincushion and barrel distortion

Fixing converging lines in Photoshop

Creating a final image completely in camera

In addition to “building your foundation”, Mike also talks candidly about how he found success in the real estate market, and how you too can build a money making business shooting properties for sale.

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Architecture and Interior Photography : This chapter focuses on how to create photographs for higher paying clients like architects, home builders, interior designers, and magazine editorials. With the ground work already laid down, Mike focuses on streamlining your workflow and pushing your images into actual works of art. While on location at an actual architect’s personal home, Mike walks you through eight flagship images from initial capture all the way through the final photoshop editing process. We have also included a full Photoshop PSD file of a twilight exterior images so you can follow along as Mike teaches every step in creating his signature look.

Mike’s Twilight Exterior Technique

Advanced light painting and compositing

Tethering to an ipad/iphone

Using scrims to control reflections/specular highlights

The “Moody Interior Twilight Shot”

Faking warm sunlight

Staging furniture for strong compositions

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Commercial and Advertising Photography : In this final section, Mike takes you on the set of two commercial spaces and demonstrates how to produce perfect images for restaurants, hotels, wedding venues, resorts, and other commercial clients. Emphasis will be placed on meeting your clients needs and lighting images according to the use of the space.

Creating twilight images while a restaurant is open for business

Incorporating people into your photography

Lighting multi room locations

Replacing details in Photoshop

Lighting large banquet halls

How to create an inviting atmosphere

Additionally, Mike will also cover the business of commercial and advertising photography including how to market yourself, how to build residual income through image licensing, finding and maintaining clients, and pricing your work.