Matthew Tomkinson on Kanaloa
“T
he Polynesian theme of Kanaloa is both
welcoming and visually stimulating.
Bamboo, Polynesian figures, subtle lighting
and pale bright green upholstery capture the eyes.
“As ever there is a balance between showing space
and intimacy. The various areas of Kanaloa show this
and it was vital that I capture it in the photographs. A
wide-angle lens is pretty much the order for the day
but parts of the room further away from the camera
can get lost or just look insignificant. The usual way to
use a wide-angle lens is to have something very close
and predominant in the foreground. This isn’t the case
in the picture with the sofas in the lower part of the
picture and the illuminated ceiling in the upper part.
The lights above the glass spheres did fade in and out
so I took several photographs with a view to merging
them together to give a more illuminated ceiling but
I didn’t do the merge, as I much preferred the image
showing dark areas that then matched the other less
lit areas of the image.
“The photograph showing a large part of the room
and dance floor combines with the earlier image
tying the room together and shows the display
of statues and artefacts. There is some noticeable
distortion from using such a wide-angle lens but I
don’t think that is important. The obvious straight
lines of the bamboo on the walls and ceiling by the
foreground sofas do look straight and that is much
more important to the eye.
“Apart from the impact that can be achieved by using
a wide angle lens the other benefit is the depth of
field. Due to this I generally shoot at f5.0 and use a
longish exposure of one to five seconds at ISO400.
“When I started photography some thirty years ago
I was taught to work half in the camera and half in
the darkroom. Digital photography enables me to
achieve this very easily with the computer taking
the part of the darkroom. I use Adobe Lightroom to
select the best shots for the client. All images need
some processing. A shoot such as this requires colour
balancing, exposure, fill light/recovery and black
level tweaks to be made. Adobe Lightroom allows
sophisticated processing including masking and
brush tools to work on specific areas, for example
some of the green sofas needed to have much less
exposure and some of the statues needed more. Any
image that requires more sophisticated processing
can be loaded into Photoshop. On this shoot I took
99 pictures, selected 55 to show the client who then
chose 18 for full processing and submission.”
In Partnership Photography
Tel: 07720 293430
www.inpartnership.org
www.kanaloaclub.com
GS MAGAZINE 49
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