Lexus Intersect, NYC Interior Designers and the $800 Image…
I was approached by MILK studios in New York City to help create images of a lifestyle and branding center called Intersect by Lexus, which already had locations in Tokyo and Dubai. It was my favorite type of shoot … an amazing space that needed my special photography superpower. My power is to bring order to chaos by creating a series of graphic images of complex spaces while perfecting the position of the furniture and adding additional lighting to draw the eye deep into the space. It also had the holy trinity of job challenges for me. High expectations, a tight deadline, and a breathtakingly gorgeous space with attention to detail applied to every surface and design choice.
According to their website “Intersect by Lexus is a place for guests to be entertained, inspired, and educated.” Being in the space felt like looking out from inside a jewelry box. Every surface had been considered in the design, and we really wanted the viewer’s eye to be to see the layering of the space created by Masamichi Katayama of Wonderwall in Japan. The space was designed to challenge your senses and we wanted to make sure our images captured the intensity of the materials and the layering and transitions between spaces.
I had been hired again to re-shoot the space in late 2020 to reflect the program changes in the space due to the Covid 19 restrictions in NYC. The Thos Moser farmhouse furniture had been replaced by very sophisticated lounge furniture and the lighting had been dimmed. The gallery in the back of the space had also been rebranded as an even moodier lounge with dark leather furniture. Our goal in this image was to capture all the major elements of the space and show the textures and elegance of the re-branding.
Three people from Lexus helped us move and rearrange all the furniture to highlight each zone and then the subtle move back into the next spatial element. We used supplemental spotlights, dedo lights, with a very controlled throw to bring the viewer deeper into the space. We spent over an hour moving furniture, adjusting the lighting, and playing with foreground and background elements before we all agreed that it looked great. I used the Canon 5d Mark IV with the 17mm Tilt-shift lens to capture the image after confirming the focus in live view. We had pulled each change up on my 15” Apple MacBook Pro and knew that it perfectly fit into the marketing template that had a lot of space on the left of the image for re-launch information needed by the marketing team at Rogers & Cowan PMK.
After the shoot we sent the client color corrected images that evening to select which one they would like for their marketing needs. At our basic professional level we adjust the color, composite the highlights and remove all the distracting things that take away from the design like exit signs, speakers in the ceiling, art returns, and a lot of fire suppression elements. In this case, we knew that this was the money shot and the client wanted it perfect. Maybe more perfect than perfect.
Here is the quick color-corrected image we sent to clients for approval as a first step in the post-production process.
Here was the list of requests regarding this image beyond our professional level:
Remove all of the fire alarms on the wood walls, on ceiling above white marble counter, and on the front column
Remove the additional reflections appearing on the parts wall
Remove the light reflections on the metal garage wall and doors leading into the garage space
Remove the starbursts from the lights in the ceiling and on the garage space
Remove some of the little rainbow spots and light spot on the ceiling
Other questions included:
Is it possible to remove the chandelier reflection on the small marble tables in front of the image?
Can we adjust the image on the garage wall screen?
The texture on the front couch looks off. Can we adjust the contrast on it so it looks less flat?
Can we darken the black that the stairs lead you to just to make it more truer black?
I have been working with Ben Diep from Color Space Imaging for 20+ years and every shoot he blows me away at his ability to pull out details and colors and to blend highlights and shadows in a way that still feels natural and analog. It’s a job that requires patience and forethought, combining the heart of a painter and the eye of a watch repair person. He also loves to rise to a challenge and keep pushing what he does for me as another artist to the next level. A lesson making prints for a show at the MOMA trickles down or across to my commercial clients. Our relationship, like the one with our clients, is a collaboration and a dialogue trying to get the best out of each image.
The biggest challenge in doing the post-production for this shoot is the huge amount of reflective surfaces and the fact that all the woodwork and parts wall are custom so there is no easy way to fix things with the clone or stamp tool but all of them have to be rebuilt individually one at a time. Removing the switch plate on the left-hand wall took 20 minutes because we had to reweave the wood. Taking away the 30 small reflections on the white parts wall took 30 minutes because they all had be done by hand and the wall always had to keep its integrity. Removing the stars from the ceiling lights were the most problematic as they washed across 10 feet of the ceiling in 6 different directions. In addition, we received a new file from the corporate offices for the monitors in the back, which also had to be subtly blending back into the final image.
The eight final images that we created for Intersect by Lexus all went beyond our normal $150 range by between $50 and $650 more. Here is the quick color correct of the $600 image that we sent to the clients. We were asked to clean up a lot of distracting reflections. Here is the list of post requests beyond our normal post: