One of the privileges of being a commercial photographer is being given access to new developments such as the new St James Centre in Edinburgh just before they fully open to the public.
I was approached by Britplas who were looking for commercial photographers in Edinburgh to produce a case study of the glass windows and screens which they’d installed at the new prestigious development.
As most of the photography would be of the exteriors of the shopping centre, is was important the shoot was carried out in good weather, so I kept a close eye on the forecast before advising the client of a suitable day to do the photography.
There were still building works taking place on the site so I had to carefully compose shots to miss this out.
Commercial Photographer Edinburgh
Another challenge of the shoot was that although most of the windows has been installed, other building works were still taking place on the site, so I had to carefully choose angles in order to avoid unsightly building works whilst still producing good shots of the windows for the client.
As the site wasn’t fully open to the public we had special access to areas which allowed us to get shots from higher elevations.
Architectural Photographer Edinburgh
The third challenge was the contrast between the areas lit directly by the sun and the interior of the shopping centre.
This was particularly challenging in the areas covered by a glass canopy. Fortunately, I have a lot of experience in overcoming problems like this in architectural shots which involve extra post production work to produce good images.
This view shows the private apartments which are part of the shopping centre complex.
This was my first time at the New St James Centre and I can say it’s a huge improvement on the old one which was a bit of a concrete bunker, typical of many shopping centre developments during the 1960’s and 70’s.
The new glass canopies and windows help let in a lot more natural light which is a big improvement.