Benson Photo's Blog

Going Big

2010-02-15T09:50:00.001-05:00

It is always helpful to have the final use of a photograph in mind during the planning stages and during a shoot. For instance if images are destined to only be used on the web, simple compositions shot in landscape format often work better.

For a much larger size like a billboard some of the same considerations, like simplicity, are relevant. In addition, quality and resolution are important factors in producing a photograph for a billboard. Format and orientation are often prescribed by an existing layout. Billboards are large budget projects and the client will typically already have approved the final design by the time we get involved in the project.

For an on-going campaign we have photographed some of Saint Joseph's University's successful alumni. This billboard campaign, created by Articus Ltd. , features tight portraits of notable alumni.

Named as one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2009, Sister Mary Scullion is cofounder of Project H.O.M.E.. Project H.O.M.E. describes itself as a program that "empowers people to break the cycle of homelessness, address the structural causes of poverty, and attain their fullest potential as members of society."

The most recent billboard shows Dr. Ray Washington, class of 1991. For Dr. Washington, playing for St. Joseph's demanding basketball team and simultaneously pursuing a pre-med major, made medical school easier by comparison.

Happy Birthday Photoshop

2010-02-12T15:51:00.006-05:00

Webdesigner Depot is toasting Photoshop on it's 20th anniversary with a wonderful trip down memory lane that traces each of the many versions leading up to the current CS4.

Greg can fondly remember version 2.0 that came on a floppy disk and ran on a Mac with an 80MB hard drive.

For me the journey starts in 1998 with Photoshop 5 and 5.5 which was released just a year later and included the new "Save for Web" feature. This all coincided with my first year at Drexel University.

I had never owned my own computer until that time and Drexel's policy required all students to have one of their own. I jumped in headfirst and stumbled through many clumsy attempts at webdesign, inescapably leading to Photoshop, image slices, and the "Save for Web" function.

"Save for Web" was also part of ImageReady, a companion program to Photoshop that has since been absorbed by Photoshop itself. At that time it never would have occurred to me that my new passions would eventually lead me back to my childhood love of photography.

One fun thing that Webdesigner Depot does not cover is that each of the more recent version of Photoshop have shipped with the "About" screen Adobe used in-house during the development of that version. This easter egg can be seen if you hold Command+Option+Shift while clicking on "About Photoshop" in the menu (substitute Control for Command on a Windows machine). My favorite was always Venus in Furs from Photoshop 6. A short history of these hidden splash screens can be found here. The current version, Photoshop CS4, has the above Stonehenge hidden screen.

Google Books: Ancient Photo of Jesus Found

2010-02-01T11:00:00.002-05:00

While reading news about Google Books proposed copyright settlement, I decided to check out Google Books. On their home page are covers of various books and magazines including the tabloid, Weekly World News. That prompted me to recall a Weekly World News headline from the past, "Actual Photo of Jesus Found". Searching Google Books with the phrase, "actual photo of Jesus Weekly World News", bingo I found it.

The article claims that a photograph of Jesus had been found that was taken by a primitive Roman "camera obscura."

Since it is established that the first known photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, it is a pure hoax to report that a photograph exists from Roman times. However the tabloid Weekly World News has never let facts stand in the way of a good story.

Just to see if Google Books could find high-minded material as well as low brow tabloid material, I searched for Eisenstein's Special Theory of Relativity and found the 1921 English translation of his work.

While writers and publishers debate the pros and cons of Google capturing and distributing their content, for the end user, Google Books provides a treasure trove of low and high culture to rummage through.

Gain by Sharing

2010-01-27T11:30:00.002-05:00

Sharing costs can make photographing your projects more affordable. The community room pictured above belongs to an apartment complex that we photographed for the builder, the architect, and the property owner.

The typical costs of hiring a photographer for a project include the creative fee, assistant, travel costs, post-production costs, and the license to use those photographs for a specific use and a specific time period. Most often when a the project is a building or site there are multiple parties involved and all those entities may be interested in documentation of the work that they have done. All costs except for the licensing can be split.

These shared projects provide a great value to our clients as it allows some of the cost to be divided between them.

Even on a smaller budget, it is possible to have beautiful, high impact, professional photographs if two or more parties are interested in sharing the costs.

Books and Stained Glass

2009-11-18T14:22:00.005-05:00

Originally part of a convent, this space was renovated to create a library for Princeton Academy. Photographing this library for our client, E. Allen Reeves was a challenge because it is a large space that is rarely empty. We were able to shoot during a lull in scheduled activities.

Autumn Ginkgos

2009-10-28T17:25:00.005-04:00

Fall is upon us. Leaves are changing colors and dropping to the ground. While wandering the narrow streets of Center City Philadelphia near 11th and Spruce Streets, I shot these autumn ginkgo trees. Ginkgos are one of my favorite trees.

They are descended from very ancient trees and are one of the oldest types of deciduous trees. Their simple fan-like leaves have a simpler vein pattern than oaks or maples. Resistant to pollution, disease and insects, they thrive in urban environments. More information can be found at Wikipedia.

Modern Living

2009-09-18T10:47:00.008-04:00

The above living room was photographed for Automatic Empire, a real estate developer that specializes in creating high-end residential spaces in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia.

Greg worked directly with the client to style the spaces to match their aesthetic.

Earlier this year we photographed another Automatic Empire project and showcased the kitchen and the innovative metallic exterior.

Back to School

2009-08-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year we were hired by the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania to photograph students and teachers interacting during class. Over the course a day we sat in on half a dozen classes ranging in subjects from film, Japanese studies, economics, history, and philosophy. We listened in on many interesting and informed discussions--all without having to worry about studying for any tests!

The above shot is from a discussion in Professor Simon Richter's film class. The classroom lights were dimmed and the windows were blacked out to allow him to screen movie clips for his students. We set up a minimal amount of lighting to mimic the effect of natural light streaming in through a window.

Not all the classrooms required setup lighting, Professor Struck's Religion and Literature class was held in a room blessed (fittingly) with a tall, cathedral-like window. The image of the professor jotting down notes from an ongoing class discussion benefits from that natural light mixing with the classroom lights. His gesture and the lighting have an easy, natural candid feel.

Professor Eudey's Economics class was held in a darkened lecture hall as she projected powerpoint slides as visual aides to her lesson. Here flash would have been a distraction. About a third of the students were armed and ready with laptops, their faces bathed in the glow of their individual computer screens adding mood to the more general glow of the larger projected screen at the front of the room. While some aspects of the college experience (the lecture hall) remain constant, other things have changed (note taking on laptops).

The glow of the projector sharply cut the contour of one side of Professor Kano and soft window light defined the other, while she discussed Japanese identity in a modern, post-isolated world.

Recycling the Past

2009-07-29T12:55:00.008-04:00

Two weekends ago while visiting friends at the New Jersey shore, my wife and I paid a visit to an architectural salvage yard, called Recycling the Past, located in Barnegat, NJ. Their enormous lot is a treasure trove of building pieces. As a fan of buildings I was in heaven. There are Victorian mantelpieces, signs from 1950s amusement parks, terra cotta decoration from 1920s buildings, 15-foot stone columns from a closed state mental hospital and on and on.

Recycling is in vogue. We recycle cans, paper and glass at curbside to minimize trash put into landfills. The reason to recycle buildings is more complex.

In America buildings often have short life spans. A thirty-year baseball stadium is obsolete, whereas in southern France I visited a Roman stadium 2000 years old that is still used for bullfights and rock concerts.

When a house or commercial building is deemed too expensive to renovate or unsuited to its site's next use, then it's knocked down. Pre-World War II buildings often have a level of craftsmanship and quality of materials that current buildings frequently lack. This makes the well-crafted fragments of older buildings valuable to buyers who can appreciate and afford them.

My emotions ranged from delight and wonder at seeing beautiful salvaged objects that may find new homes to sadness and melancholy contemplating the decay and destruction that led to these objects being orphaned from their original settings.

Enough claw footed bathtubs to shoot lots of Cialis TV ads.

Detail of copper panels from an old Atlantic City school.

Getting the Shot: Going Back at Night

2009-07-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

Summer is the perfect time of year to retire to one's own backyard oasis. The one above was shot for EP Henry's current product catalog. EP Henry is a manufacturer of hardscaping products.

Greg captured many great views of this setting during the day, showing the pool, the built in grill and the pergola. But what lead to the dramatic twilight image was realizing that a second shoot at night would lead to even more dramatic images of this space.

For the twilight shoot, 1000 watt lights were set up outside of the frame, and a roaring fire was lit in the fire ring. Then Greg waited for the magic time when the sky is a deep blue, just before it turns black.

The homeowner should feel proud of what they have created for themselves. Now, who's ready for a summer cook out and a midnight swim?

Of Props and Radioactive Wildlife

2009-06-19T18:00:00.001-04:00

The above interior of a townhouse in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, was intentionally minimally propped to complement the minimalist aesthetic of the space, and to showcase the design and workmanship of the construction.

We often provide our clients alternative choices of key photographs from the same architectural shoot. Typically it would be the same shot with or without a propping element.

During the shoot the client showed us a bright green, rabbit-shaped, cookie jar that we all agreed was way too much fun not to include in one frame. It's great how just one prop can energize a photograph.

There is something lovely and whimsical about the version that includes the green bunny. Also, it reminds me of a famous 1980 photograph by Sandy Skoglund entitled Radioactive Cats.

Getting the Shot: Going Even Higher

2009-06-15T14:26:00.007-04:00

In March we posted about being able to get a shot thanks to the tripod's flexible range. Last week the tripod made a difficult shot possible by providing much needed extra height.

To photograph the rear facade of the above group of townhouses in Northern Liberties, Greg wanted to get the camera at a high enough angle to see past the fence and into the first story of the homes.

Above we can see that the tripod nearly completely extended, and that Greg needed to perch himsef on a ladder to operate the camera.

Next we got closer to the fence to get a shot overlooking the home's backyard.

Greg found himself needing a bit of extra height.

New Images: People Portfolio

2009-05-22T17:11:00.012-04:00

After poring over many hundreds of photographs we have finished selecting images for our Portraits section. Because there were so many interesting images we wanted to share on the web we chose to not only update the galleries but also to expand them from one to three pages.

In these photographs you can see that as an aid in making the final selections we printed small "thumbnail" prints that we pasted to boards with correction tape. This makes it possible to group images, slide them around a table, regroup them, and keep making quick changes during the selection process.

Much of photography as a discipline is about selection. What subject to photograph? What parts of the scene are left in or out of the frame? Which images from the day's take are shown? When the final shot is chosen, does it then also get cropped to simplify the message?

Choosing images to show in a portfolio applies the art of selection to yet another end. Please take a look at the images we selected, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Weather or Not: Sunny, Blue Skies, and Dry

2009-05-15T17:41:00.017-04:00

A few weeks ago we shared some photographs of University of Pennsylvania's Weave Bridge to make the point that even though sunny days are generally the best days to shoot architecture the sun can also create unwanted, distracting shadows.

The following is a great example of why sunny days are, as a rule, best for architecture:

One could not ask for better conditions to photograph this office building in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The direct sun's contrasty light gives the brick facade an attractive color and makes strong, but open shadows that give an otherwise simple structure a sense of volume and presence. The beautiful blue sky also has a nice balance of soft, wispy, white clouds.

The weather does not often cooperate and can wreak havoc with deadlines. Above is a comparison between an unretouched shot of the same building during a cloudy and damp day, and the same shot with an example of the sort of retouching that is sometimes necessary. Even though the added sky improves the shot; the pavement is still very wet. It is clear that returning to the site when the weather was best yielded the better image.

New Images: Architectural Details

2009-05-15T16:48:00.005-04:00

Over the next few weeks we will be updating many of the sections on our website. Today we have added a new Architectural Details gallery. Please take this chance to navigate on to some of our other galleries if you have not done so because the content will very soon be changing.

Multi-Dimensional Portraits

2009-05-11T09:31:00.014-04:00

In late 2008, I was given an assignment to take an environmental portrait of Robert Ghrist, a math professor who teaches in both the School of Arts and Sciences and the Engineering School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The topic of n-dimensional space is an abstract and esoteric subject. My challenge in photographing Professor Ghrist was to find an environment that hints at spatial relationships.

The newest Penn Engineering building, Skirkanich Hall has a multitude of textures and colors. Working in collaboration with an art director for Penn, I spent time scouting, looking at several places in the building in which to shoot the portrait.

Below are alternate photographs taken during the shoot, including one with a model made with flexible rods that helps students visualize multi-dimensional spaces.

Early Bird Shoot At The Supermarket

2009-05-06T19:00:00.003-04:00

We have previously blogged about the importance of choosing the right time in photography. The time when the weather is right, the time of day when the light is right, etc.

But when photographing a retail space another time is very important: the time when there are fewer clients.

Last week Greg photographed a supermarket in Philadelphia and needed to find the time of day when not only would there be few customers shopping but that would also be just after the supermarket staff had restocked all the shelves and had a chance to make their store clean and sparkly for the day's business.

Working with the store manager we were able to make arrangements to arrive at the store at 5:30 AM, a time that was non-disruptive to business and that also worked great for getting our client the images they needed.

Weather or Not: Bridging Clouds and Sun

2009-04-24T17:48:00.003-04:00

I recently received an assignment from University of Pennsylvania's alumni magazine, The Pennsylvania Gazette, to photograph a new pedestrian bridge on campus. The Weave Bridge is part of Penn's expansion of their campus towards the Schuylkill River. It crosses a major railroad line and connects distant sports fields with the main campus.

I scouted the assignment on a cloudy day, and returned when it was sunny to shoot final photos. In general most buildings and structures photograph better when it is sunny and the sky is blue. In this case when the sun is out, shadows compete with the strong visual design of the Weave Bridge. Whereas on an overcast day, the pattern of the bridge's floor is less confused.

This poses a dilemma and illustrates the reality that sunny is not always the perfect shooting condition.

On the other hand the below photos of a warehouse clearly illustrate the standard idea that a blue sky and strong sun beats clouds and snow.

Expanding Small Spaces

2009-04-07T16:15:00.008-04:00

Space is at a premium in New York City. Architects have the challenge of making small spaces functional, livable and beautiful. Photographers, in turn, have the challenge of making these small spaces read well in photographs.

Photographing a renovated Manhattan condominium for architect Laurence Tamaccio of Design Destinations, challenged me to capture relatively small spaces and have them appear spacious and inviting.

The view from the dining room to the kitchen takes advantage of natural light spilling in from the windows.

The panoramic view of the living room and dining room features well placed floral arrangements and other props to keep your eye moving through the image.

To show a small powder room, I used a very wide lens, a 14mm lens. Any lens wider than this would be a fisheye lens, which is great for photographing skateboarding, but not for architecture. Hiding lights in small spaces is difficult, so the existing ambient lights were used and post-production Photoshop work helps reclaim detail in the darkest and lightest parts of the image.

Frank Connection

2009-04-01T08:59:00.007-04:00

This is a continuation of my writing about Robert Frank. In 1981 or so I shot a photo of a hot dog cart on the streets of Philadelphia. A sign reading "Roberts Franks" appeared prominently in the photo. It was my visual pun on a Robert Frank street photograph. At the urging of a friend who taught photography, Arno Minkkinen, I sent a copy of the photo to Robert Frank. At the time Frank's address was simply his name and Mabou, Nova Scotia, Canada. Along with an 8x10 of my photo, I wrote a short letter in which I asked about his knowing Jack Kerouac, and Kerouac's death from alcoholism in his 40s.

Frank wrote back to me, and in commenting on Kerouac's life, he wrote, "every life has its tragedies, think of that Philadelphia hot dog vendor."

I need to rummage through my attic archives and find the original letter and the photo of "Roberts Franks".

Robert Frank's "The Americans" Turns Fifty

2009-03-31T20:45:00.031-04:00

This past weekend I visited Washington DC and saw the exhibit at the National Gallery of Robert Frank's photographs for his 1959 book, The Americans. This book of Frank's black & white photographs of America has been one of my favorite photo books since I first saw it in the late 1970s.

Casual and seemingly off hand, the photographs in The Americans paint a portrait of America in the 1950s vastly different than the sanitized image of the country portrayed in Life magazine and Saturday Evening Post. As a European outsider, Frank explored aspects of American culture that are not its best side--the racial divide between blacks and whites, the lonely interiors of bars, the sadness of the wrong side of the tracks.

For me some of the revelations of the exhibit at the National Gallery include seeing contact sheet and work prints of images that never made it into the final book. Frank shot 27,000 images in 35mm black & white on his various trips around the US in 1955 and 1956. He made rough prints of about 1,000 of those and ultimately pruned those down to 83 images. It fascinated me to see many strong images that never made the final cut.

The beauty and poetry of the book is the sum of all of the images rather than the heroics of any one specific image. There is a rhythm to the sequence of images in the book. Frank documented America's obsession with cars, the ubiquitous presence of American flags, and the despair and mystery of funerals, gas stations, diners and jukeboxes.

Another revelation to me was seeing the cover of the original published version of the book. Unable to find an American publisher willing to publish the book, Frank found a French publisher who issued the book in 1958. Copies of that version were on display. The cover features light blue graph paper representing a modern building coupled with a whimsical ink drawing of a sidewalk, pedestrians, a street lamp and an awning in a style similar to Saul Steinberg's New Yorker illustrations in the 1960s. This cover is bizarre because it is so different and disconnected from the dark and brooding photographs within.

In his introduction to the book, Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road, and a friend of Frank's sums up, "Anybody doesnt like these pitchers dont like potry, see? ....To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes."

Getting the Shot: The Impossible Tripod

2009-03-27T15:31:00.009-04:00

Shooting on location requires being flexible and ready for the unexpected. The above interior photograph was shot earlier this week at an apartment home community in Cherry Hill, NJ. And to make it possible this time it was our trusty Gitzo tripod's turn to be more flexible than normal.

To capture the living room in this model unit a high angle from somewhere behind the kitchen countertop was required. Greg started with the tripod butted up to the kitchen counter and eventually found the optimal shooting position was directly on said countertop. See the extreme tripod position below.

What Comes After: Putting the Pieces Together

2009-03-20T18:14:00.013-04:00

The image above is a finished and retouched photograph from a recent shoot at an MRI lab. It is a great example of how the work done on location and during post-production complement each other. Each is a piece of the larger puzzle and good planning on location means that the puzzle will go together correctly.

Greg set up the shot knowing that one frame could not create the image he wanted: the brightness of the light in the room where the MRI machine sits is much higher than inside the control booth, the computer displays would be completely blown-out highlights, etc. On shoot he captured many puzzle pieces like separate exposures for the two rooms, and exposures for the computer screens.

On the left is the a small portion of the image as it was straight out of the camera, on the right we can see the same portion of the image after all the digital magic has happened. Click on the picture to view a larger version.

2009 EP Henry Catalog is now available

2009-03-16T10:58:00.022-04:00

We just received our copies of the new EP Henry catalog. They are a manufacturer of concrete products used for pavers and walls, otherwise known as hardscaping.

Greg has been shooting for their catalog since 2005 and it has always been a very well produced book that we look forward to receiving every year.

The catalog does a great job of showing off the entire range of their products and showcasing some special finished projects. It is always such a great experience to visit with the proud homeowners and share their excitement of being chosen for the catalog.

The catalog is available to order through EP Henry's website.

Mayor Nutter in Low Light

2009-03-06T09:38:00.014-05:00

This week I had an assignment to photograph the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter. I was hired by the Institute of Law and Economics at the Penn Law School to document the Mayor speaking at their Law and Entrepreneurship Lecture series on the importance of education to the city. Nutter is smart and articulate, and not afraid to speak his mind.

Having residents of Philadelphia succeed with their public schooling and increasing the percentage of college graduates in the city are goals of his administration. Children who graduate from high school are less likely to end up in jail and a city with an educated work force attracts businesses that pay good salaries. These are sensible and worthy goals. Achieving them won't be easy.

The new Canon 5D Mark 2 camera that I shot with has amazing low light capabilities. Here is a shot under available light which was shot at ISO 6400. When the large file is reduced to web size there isn't any noticeable noise. Below is a 100% crop of the actual pixels. There is certainly noise but compared to film and digital cameras of the past, the latest generation of digital cameras are far superior in low light situations. (For more on image quality see my post regarding megapixels and image quality - Fernando)