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Architectural Images: Truth or Fiction?
Technology draws an ever-fainter line between photo and rendering. Can you tell the difference in these 17 images?
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City. I have Bachelor of Architecture and Master in Urban Planning degrees, and over ten years experience in architectural practice, split between Chicago and NYC. Currently I'm focused on writing and online pursuits. My daily blog can be found at http://archidose.blogspot.com
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City.... More »
More than 20 years ago I attended a lecture by writer and educator Michael Benedikt, who proclaimed that virtual reality would supplant the construction of real buildings. Clients would be so impressed with the "reality" modeled in the computer that they would forsake the added expense and headaches of making the building real.
While this bit of hyperbole has not come to pass, the increasing ability of computer modeling and rendering to replicate reality is undeniable. By the same token, the shift of photography from film to pixels, accompanied by the ubiquity of Photoshop, has brought photos closer to renderings. Ironically, Photoshop is used to clean up the messiness of reality, while sophisticated 3-D rendering software incorporates a bit of chaos to make the image appear more real.
In the realm of architectural practice, renderings are used to convey a strong understanding of the architect's vision and potential outcome to the client (they work better than rough sketches and 2-D drawings like floor plans and elevations), while photographs serve to present the final product in the best possible way.
The images that follow straddle the increasingly fine line between photograph and rendering, the real and the virtual, truth and fiction. While it could be argued that all images are their own reality, the focus on the ones that follow is the origin of the houses depicted. Are they life-sized models that people inhabit (truth) or virtual models in the computer (fiction) on their way towards a built reality?
While this bit of hyperbole has not come to pass, the increasing ability of computer modeling and rendering to replicate reality is undeniable. By the same token, the shift of photography from film to pixels, accompanied by the ubiquity of Photoshop, has brought photos closer to renderings. Ironically, Photoshop is used to clean up the messiness of reality, while sophisticated 3-D rendering software incorporates a bit of chaos to make the image appear more real.
In the realm of architectural practice, renderings are used to convey a strong understanding of the architect's vision and potential outcome to the client (they work better than rough sketches and 2-D drawings like floor plans and elevations), while photographs serve to present the final product in the best possible way.
The images that follow straddle the increasingly fine line between photograph and rendering, the real and the virtual, truth and fiction. While it could be argued that all images are their own reality, the focus on the ones that follow is the origin of the houses depicted. Are they life-sized models that people inhabit (truth) or virtual models in the computer (fiction) on their way towards a built reality?
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| Truth: Many images on Houzz may at first appear as renderings when seen as a small thumbnail, but they lose that characteristic when seen larger. Images of the Lookout House, though, may fool the eye at any size. In this exterior view of the poolside, a combination of HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging), in which various exposures are overlaid into a single image, and a softening in Photoshop, result in an image in which real surfaces look virtual. |
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| Fiction: The lighting and materials in another poolside image are very convincing, but some things aren't quite right: Why is that tree trunk so smooth? Why doesn't the pool have any depth to it? Would a home photographer shoot with the leaves in the foreground like that? |
| Truth: Just about everything in this images lends the impression that it is a rendering: the carpet-like grass; the lack of context; the picture-perfect sky; the regularity of the artificial lighting. Yet a photo it is. One hint is the inclusion of the exterior outlet covers at the base of the wall at right. This is a detail that would hardly go into a rendering. |
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| Truth: The flat surfaces of this house give the impression that it is a rendering, but that is immediately countered by the shadows and reflection of the power lines, another element that would hardly be included in a computer model. Removing these traces in Photoshop would have confused the reality of the image even more. |
by Coates Design
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Fiction: The question arises in this case because this rendering is accompanied by photos of the completed project in the architect's project portfolio. Nevertheless a more convincing indication of where the sun is (as is, it looks like an overcast day where the sun is somewhere to the right of the photo) would have created stronger shadows and contrast and made this rendering even more realistic.
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| Truth: At first glance the lighting and softness of this image make it appear like a rendering, but the context at left is a dead giveaway that this is a photograph. Renderings will often opt to either not show adjacent buildings — screening behind vegetation, for example — or show them in a good light. Here the neighboring house just looks ordinary. |
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| Truth: You must be asking, "Are you sure, John? This is definitely a rendering." Well it's not, even though the flatness of the house's white surfaces and the almost-perfect grass make it appear so. Hints can be seen in the drain in the driveway, the little bit of dirt where the grassy slope meets to the wall in the foreground, and the fact the grass is, as I mentioned, almost perfect. |
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| Fiction: One indication that this is a rendering — a very impressive one at that — is the two-dimensionality of the fire in the fireplace at left. Since materials in rendering are 2-D "maps" applied to 3-D models, they often appear out of whack due to the camera's view. Here the fire is a map facing the seating but without the depth of a real fire. And a fire during a warm day? I don't think so. |
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by Andre laurent
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| Truth: At first I marked this Fiction, but that striping of the grass tipped me off to the scene's reality. As well, the lay of the outdoor pillow on the left seems a bit too imperfect for a rendering. |
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| Truth: Here is a view where the lighting looks just too even. Most likely the result of HDRI, the sunset, interior lights, and exterior lights, are all given equal weight. But again with the neighbor. What rendering would actually include that house next door? |
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| Fiction: Computer models and renderings are certainly getting sophisticated, but often landscape elements are a dead giveaway. The plants in the bottom-right corner look too perfect, probably because they are repeated entities in the virtual environment. Often Photoshop is needed to overlay real plants onto a rendered scene, merging truth and fiction. |
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| Fiction: This interior view is stunning in the way the lighting, reflections, and materials work to give the rendering a certain tangibility. But note how the cubic benches in the right foreground seem to hover slightly above the wood flooring. That's not right. Also, a close look at the flooring reveals that some of the knots repeat every six boards. |
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| Fiction: This complex space features elements that make it look like a photograph, especially the flowing curtains in the middle of the scene. But again, the landscape pieces are a tipoff. |
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Truth: The lighting in this view screams "rendering," but the materiality of the concrete still comes across. Vertical joints and traces of the horizontal formwork are evident, touches that would be very difficult to pull off in a rendering.
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by SVOYA studio
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| Truth: Here's another one I initially marked as Fiction. But if anything is hard to fake in a rendering, it's an Eames lounge chair. This one's real. |
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| Truth: The light in this view — another result of HDRI — is lacking the contrast that exists when it's still light outside. And while the wide angle further confuses this image's reality, the throw on the back of the sofa looks, well, thrown. Reality, check. |
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| Pop quiz: So with all of the above images in mind, what is this last image, Truth or Fiction?* The project is a Sculptor's Pavilion, and it is quite sculptural with its play of structural steel. Next: Inspiring modern and contemporary architecture * Answer: Fiction. If it looks too different to be real, then it probably isn't. Oh, and if you look really closely at the patch of light brown in the bottom right corner you'll see the words "exterior rendering." |
Ideabook updated on Nov. 9, 2011.
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i'm falling in love with 3d rendering.^^
This may call into question some of your conclusions...
In the pic of the Eames lounge chair there is a lowered ceiling over the chair. On the ceiling is some "cutwork" shapes backed by white showing through them. Could you tell us a bit more about that element? I've not seen it used like that before.
diamondblue - Thanks for the kind words!
dawnwinds58 - Since those architects are from Ukraine, I can't decipher what is going on with that ceiling, but here is a close-up view from their Houzz profile. It appears to be custom cutouts with lights above. Not sure if they're using a translucent light cover above the wood, or if the wood is suspended below a white ceiling and we're seeing the light reflecting off that surface.
What i'm trying to say, is that Craftsmanship is the key. And creating images either in camera or in Photoshop with great care is the object and task.
As an Architectural Photographer, I admitted to myself long ago, that every time I make a photograph, I'm lying in some manner, because I choose to eliminate some things and highlight others, even through lens choice and camera placement, in some sense, it is not reality. I now endeavor to make the best image possible with all my tradecraft to showcase the talent of the Architects, Designers, Builders, and Clients for them to share with the world. 30 years ago, when my images looked unreal and fantastic due to skill, everyone was amazed, and sometimes called them renderings or paintings. Now it is more de riguer than abnormal.
and Yes, re: image #2, I do use leaves in the foreground to add dimensionality, or sometimes to hide an unattractive element from view.
Paul Kiler
www.kilerphoto.com