Photographing architecture at night is different. Whether you’re shooting in New York City or the New Jersey Suburbs, photographing architecture at night presents a unique challenge—especially when you’re aiming to highlight both the clean lines of modern design and the warmth of interior lighting.
This exterior photograph of a stunning New Jersey home is the result of six separate images, meticulously lit and later composited to showcase the property at its best.
The architect wanted the fire pit to be the featured item of the back patio. The fire looks great but as you can see everything else is very dark. Only the home’s interior lighting and two small patio sconces are active. This isn’t nearly enough light to showcase the patio and the house.
In the next image, I lit the patio using strobes with umbrellas to ensure soft, even light. You can see the reflections of the lights in the windows—but not to worry, these are removed in post-production. The goal was to create depth and bring out architectural elements like the stonework and clean geometry of the siding.
Then came the precision work:
This image shows me lighting the right side of the house
Here you can see me lighting the top left side of the house.
And here I’m lighting the lower left seating area.
This image is exposed for the interior lights only, ensuring that the warm glow from within isn’t overpowered by the strobes.
And this is the final result:
A fully composited architectural photograph that feels both vibrant and natural. As an architectural photographer, lighting and being able to blend multiple exposures is essential to creating compelling image that’s faithful to the design.
To see more of my work, please visit my website.
