Behind the shoot | Balfour Castle
16.08.2013
Find out how we photographed Balfour Castle
Earlier in the year Tigerchick travelled to the remote Orkney island of Shapinsay to photograph the exclusive Balfour Castle.
The Castle's large and magnificent - but at times quite dark - interiors were a challenge to photograph requiring careful thought and planning. Lighting equipment was required to light the spaces artificially but in a way that appeared natural and inviting. In many of the shots, up to 10 high power flash units were positioned throughout the scene and triggered using radio switches.
One or two of both the interior and the exterior photographs were taken using a specialist rotating "panoramic head" mounted on a tripod. This allows for seamless panoramic photographs to be taken at extremely high resolutions. Multiple images are captured and then stitched together in post-processing using high-end specialist software.
The finished article
Images are captured as RAW files which are like digital "negatives" - they hold a tremendous amount of data but look a little flat. The next step therefore is to "post-process" these RAW files using high-end software.
Careful post-processing allows us to interpret images in the way that we see best - in this case to show the Castle at its very best but also to ensure the style and colours of the imagery complemented the Tigerchick designed website fully. As the images are captured at very high resolution, they are also suitable for potentially large scale print purposes.
Balfour Castle is an exclusive-use five star castle for hire in the spectacular wilderness of the Orkney Isles. The imagery discussed here can be seen at their website: www.balfourcastle.co.uk
The images shown here are taken by Jenny to illustrate the photography setups used.
