Our beloved beach town of Jaco on the central pacific coast of Costa Rica has quickly sprouted and become quite the vacation hotspot. If you visit you’ll see developments popping up all over the place, as well as a rich blend of shops and restaurants to support the influx of people craving a little Pura Vida.
Of all the places to rent in the area, Diamante Del Sol is one of the largest and most upscale buildings and is known for its gorgeous ocean views and clean modern design.
Many of the units in Diamante are managed and rented by Lost Beach Vacations. Lost Beach is the #1 beach front rental company in Jaco with over 40 beachfront properties to choose from.
Recently Lost Beach contacted us to upgrade the images for their newly renovated and styled Penthouse unit. They had used other photographers in the past, but needed high quality images that were a better reflection of their brand. They also needed images that would really capture the views and provide perspective.
When we first walked in to the penthouse we were immediately excited by the design, decor and the stunning views. I think the first thing I said was “I’ll take it!”.
They had recently completed some renovations including a floor to ceiling accent wall and had staged it with little elements that really brought the space to life. They also hung beautiful pastel coloured art pieces and created a gorgeous hand painted accent wall in the loft bar.
Much of the art was done by Laurie King, the operations manager for Lost Beach and an extremely talented artist. Her pieces were truly captivating, and the organic feel really connected with us and our own personal style.
We had seen the existing imagery that needed to be updated and were excited to get to work capturing images that would do this incredible space justice.
To shoot the space, we shot all of the wide perspectives on our wide angle lens using our regular technique of multi exposure HDR with flash fill.
All of the detail shots were shot hand-held with natural light on our 85 mm prime lens for a nice crispy look with a velvety shallow depth of field. Often we’ll use soft-boxes and light up micro-spaces for details, but since this wasn’t the primary focus we leveraged the soft natural light streaming in from the oversized windows.
For any of the perspectives with nice looking exterior views we use a blending technique on the processed HDR’s to bring back any of the desirable views.
When production was wrapped, the images were processed and the client was sent the contact sheet of images to choose from they were beyond excited at what we had captured. They said the hardest part of the whole process was making their selections. We hear this a lot, and it always feels good to hear.
Once the client has made their selections, we start the post processing (editing / retouching). Post production for high end interior photography is what really separates an amateur or semi-professional with a good camera, nice lens and a tripod from an experienced professional. From processing the HDR’s, to editing the image, window blending techniques and photoshopping, it takes a lot of time, experience and skill to get things right.
As an example, here are some before and after’s that make up the final image. The first 5 images are the 5 exposures that make up the multi-exposure HDR. Next is the processed HDR which needs to be processed well or you will get a very unnatural foggy looking HDR that will be hard to edit. Then the final image after extensive editing / retouching.
The client’s budget and requirements for the end images will always dictate the quality we can produce, and the amount of time we can spend. If you’ve read previous blogs you’ll recall that some interior photographers at the top of their game might spend an entire day to create one image. The goal is always to produce the highest quality possible understanding the constraints.
When the client saw the final images they were blown away by the quality and so happy that they finally had images that truly did the space justice.
Since then, then have hired us to refresh the imagery on a handful of key units in Diamante Del Sol so they can create a consistent look and feel and show them off to prospective renters in the best possible light.
Thank you Josie, Laurie and the whole team at Lost Beach for trusting us to do these beautiful units justice. We absolutely loved working with each of you on this project and can’t wait to capture more visuals for Lost Beach very soon.
