We’ve been at this a while, and there are some very fun things we can do for you with photography. If you’d like to see some examples, click on any of the images below, or on the Photography menu drop-downs. There is quite a bit of overlap here, for example, we regularly use “high dynamic range” techniques in architectural photos, our stitched panoramas easily become GigaPixel images, and some of our museum artifact photography could just as easily fit in the studio photography section.
Studio and Product Photography
The technology of our studio photography has changed quite a bit over the years, but the look of the final product is not much different. We always strive to create a very clean, graphic look in our images, whether it’s food photography, product photography, or concept shots for advertising or magazine covers.
People and Portraits
Photographing people is rewarding, and always makes for a fun day of shooting
Architecture
Landscapes
When you live and work in a place as spectacular as Hawaii, its hard not to be out shooting all the time
Wildlife and Birds
Most of our wildlife photography is limited to the endangered Hawaiian water birds we have in our own back yard (our studio is located in a wetland bird preserve). While this is not our specialty, every once in a while we encounter wildlife on our travels, and can’t resist taking a few shots.
Museum and Fine Art Reproduction
We’ve been photographing museum artifacts and artwork all over the world for many years. We were fortunate to be allowed to photograph Princess Lilioukulani’s “Imprisonment Quilt” in Iolani Palace just after it was restored. We’ve also worked in the Bishop Museum, the Grove Farm Homestead Museum and The Hanalei Mission Houses Museum, the British Museum in London, as well as museums in Cambridge, and Vienna.
We regularly photograph the works of several prominent artists here in Hawaii, with very specialized equipment. Our lights are low heat, HID systems, and are the only ones allowed in most museums. We use a Sinar 4×5 camera with a linear array scanning back for 130 megapixel images for stunning detail. Our lights and camera have been color calibrated for accuracy.
Stitched Panoramas
We can create wide lineal panoramas, up to a full 360°, or even a spherical panorama that shows every possible view from the camera’s position.
Here you see a panorama of seven images, stitched together seamlessly, representing a 180° wide field of view. The original image is 20,131 pixels wide, and 5,698 pixels high, and at 32 bits per pixel, that is a 1.7 gigabyte image file. This works in interiors as well, although the distortion of a spherical projection on a flat page creates a lot of strange distortion. You really need to see this as a VR Movie.
Panoramas really come to life on a web page or CD-ROM as a “Virtual Reality” movie, using Apple Quicktime, Adobe Flash Player, or the newer HTML 5 standard, which is viewable on iPads. It allows you to zoom in, and pan around the image to look at the amazing details.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography
Especially with the strong sun in Hawaii, photographic subjects often exhibit a brightness range that is beyond what film or a digital sensor can capture accurately, resulting in black shadows and blown-out highlights. One very elegant way around this is to shoot the scene three or five times, with varying exposures, and then merging these into one final image that maintains details in the shadows and the highlights.
This is also very useful with architectural interior photography. The brightness level outside is usually much greater than inside, far beyond the range of lights and darks that a digital sensor can register. This often results in washed-out highlights and windows, or interiors that are too dim. In this case, the increased dynamic range of a multi-exposure composite extracts details from both extremes beautifully.
There is currently a trend to create HDR images with wildly exaggerated colors, and grungy contrast. Our aim, however, is to more faithfully reproduce what the human eye can see, to compensate for the shortcomings of the digital sensor.
Extreme-Resolution (giga-pixel) Photography
Object Rotation Photography
If a client needs to show a product from all sides, we can create an Object Rotation that can be animated on their web site for an interactive experience. It involves shooting the object on a turntable from many (usually 72) angles, and animating the result with Flash or Quicktime, before posting it on the web.
Virtual Reality or Dynamic Panorama Photography
This is where we take our large panoramic images, and either post them on the web, or create a CD-ROM that will allow you to cruise through the entire environment in wonderful detail.
Just for Fun
Here’s where we show you our just-for-fun images. Most of these were shot just for the fun of it, or for stock sales, and most have actually sold quite well. This is where we can experiment and try out new methods and techniques