marshallvanderhoof
FollowThis is from a building that is scheduled to be demolished. To bad because it is fully of history and character.
This is from a building that is scheduled to be demolished. To bad because it is fully of history and character.
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Awards
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 22
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Runner Up in Beauty In Ruins Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Beauty In Ruins Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Empty Rooms Photo Contest
Peer Award
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Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken in an old building near downtown Los Angeles, CA. The abandoned building used to be a brothel in the early 1900's and has a very checkered and interesting past. Unfortunately, it was scheduled to be torn down shortly after I had the opportunity to shoot there.Time
The image was taken in the afternoon with the sun coming through the windows. There were very few if any clouds to diffuse the light, so lighting was a little tricky for this shoot.Lighting
This shot was taken with natural, available light. I did not have time to wait for light change or such so I mostly changed my perspective to maximize the light that was there. If I would have moved to the left to take the image the light would have been overpowering and the detail of the interior would have been lost. Moving to the right decreased the contrast/moodiness of the image I was going for.Equipment
This image was shot with a Canon 5D III with a 24-105 F4 L lens. It was taken at ISO 400, an aperture of f4, and a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second. The image was handheld using only available light. I only had a short time in the building so I could not set up lighting or use a tripod, which I would typically do.Inspiration
I am always fascinated with how we let things just fall apart and decay. Urban decay inspires a lot of my newer work. A portion of that is due to my interest in it, and the fact that my commercial work has had me spend more time in Los Angeles lately. Los Angeles is such an amazing place to shoot urban decay as there is a huge movement to tear down the old and build new. The contrast of the old and new is very inspiring to me.Editing
I was very lucky with this image, that it did not have much post processing to make it convey what I saw when I took the image. My editing process for this was to import the image into camera raw in Photoshop and then into Photoshop for final processing. I shot it in color, so it is converted to black and white digitally. It has minimal sharpening, but needed some because it was shot in RAW. There is a vignette added using a curves layer, and a levels layer used to set the blacks in the histogram for added contrast. The trickiest part was dodging the the front of the chair below the seat cushion to bring up more of the detail, burning in the windows so they were not distractedly blown out white.In my camera bag
This is a tricky question because I shoot in so many different environments. Often times when walking around the city and I want to be a little stealthy, I don't have a bag and carry a Sony A7R II with the kit lens. When I don't have to be as discreet I carry either a Canon 5D III or a Canon 5DS with a Zeiss 21mm, f2.8 or Zeiss 35mm f2. A lot of my commercial work is shot with a Canon 70-200mm, f2.8. The 2 things that I never leave home without though are the Canon 24-105mm, f4 L lens, and my RRS tripod and ball head combo. Those 2 items have been the difference in me getting the shot I wanted more times than I can count.Feedback
One of the first pieces of advice I heard when I started studying photography was to practice and read. This would be my advice to anyone. The more tips you can pick up from others experiences, the faster you can learn, and nothing helps us learn more about capturing light than by doing it and seeing the results. Digital work flows give us a wonderful advantage to improve quickly by seeing our results quickly. Remember to take your time to document your settings like we did learning with film. Now this can be done by looking at your EXIF data. When you see an image that you like note the settings, and the same for the images you don't like so you don't repeat. Lastly, I would say it is important to be passionate and have fun.