In Rack ‘Em Up we met the first of two Jersey Shore adjacent and inspired projects. Now we jump over to nearby Spring Lake Heights to a professional musician’s home. The goal here for architect, Brooke Robinson of DRAW, was to create a space that was very comfortable to live in and just as easy for the homeowner to adapt to a flow of fellow musicians dropping by to jam.
Local elements all play a part in the design choices; ocean and sky colors, weathered planks which speak of the boardwalk and driftwood, and lighter tones which imply sand underfoot.
The ocean influence flows into the master bath.
Nights comes. Time to light the candles, get a fire going, and pick your mood via the RGB LED lighting embedded along the wall and around the tv.
Not feeling like blue? Let’s try red.
Production
Images were created with a Canon EOS R running tethered into Capture One Pro. I used the simple EF-RF adapter mount along with Canon’s 17mm and 24mm II TSE lenses.
I utilized the existing lighting for this location and then relied on postproduction to finesse the final look of each image.
Here is a sense of what’s involved in the postproduction of the master bath image.
Image converted from RAW but not retouched:
Retouching steps to the master bath image:
Final image (as was seen in the gallery up top):
While some of the edits are subtle, the goal is for the sum of all the changes to be greater than its parts. All done in an effort to create an image that has a bit more pop and interest to it. Could I have done this with my own lights? I could have but the logistics of lighting and working within the confined space would have taken a good deal of time, created its own postproduction issues, and overall would have been more cost intensive than capturing the space as is and enhancing it in post.
One note: it’s not uncommon, especially with bathroom photography, to set up the camera and then leave the room. There just isn’t the space to be in the room during the photography and not get oneself in the shot, either directly or in a reflection. In those cases I will run the tether cable from the camera underneath the door and out to the laptop in the hallway. I’ll then complete the captures and the exposure bracket while in the hallway, controlling all of camera settings and activating the shutter release via the laptop.
