György Palkó | Architectural Photography Almanac

Photographing a Project Over the Course of Two Years – The Hungarian House of Music

by György Palkó May 1, 2023May 2, 2023 1

It’s very difficult to start telling a story when you don’t really know where to start. Maybe it was in 2015 or 2016 when I first came across the visual designs, which immediately piqued my interest. An incomparable building was visible on them, one that I had never seen anywhere before, let alone in Hungary — it was a rendering of the future Hungarian House of Music.

Can You Use a Canon 50mm Tilt-Shift Lens on a Nikon Mirrorless Camera?

by György Palkó November 9, 2022November 1, 2022 3

Ever since I started my journey as an architectural photographer, I’ve had to face a big dilemma. I learned the basics of photography with Nikon cameras, so when I got to the point where I really needed to use tilt-shift lenses in my architectural photography work – I was left wanting.

Which Sky Replacement Software Works Best?

by György Palkó August 31, 2022August 31, 2022 1

Sky replacement is a tool every architectural photographer needs to know. I personally use it very rarely, but there are times when this type of knowledge comes in handy. If you’ve ever seen Mike Kelley’s Where Art Meets Architecture series, then you know that he talks about sky replacements in-depth in the second part of WAMA 2.

DJI Mavic 3 – It Is Finally As Good As We Wanted

by György Palkó July 25, 2022July 26, 2022 4

I wrote about the DJI Mavic 3 drone in March, and at the end of the article, I shared my wish for its improvement, saying “There are many unique benefits we get with this new drone, but there are still flaws. I hope that the Mavic 3’s issues can be resolved with software updates down the road, as they have done so far.”

DJI Mavic 3 – Is It Worth the Price?

by György Palkó March 15, 2022March 15, 2022 8

The first DJI Mavic Pro was announced in September 2016 and released in late 2016. The small size and the foldable design made me absolutely love it. I used the Mavic Pro for 2 years, and I was very pleased by its capabilities. I even won an architectural photography contest here in Hungary with an image created using that drone.

How To Create An Architectural Photography Book – Budapest Edition: Part One

by György Palkó December 6, 2021 3

Just writing about my first book – Budapest Architecture – here makes my heart beat fast. Before I jump into sharing the how behind this project, I think it is important to tell you the why. Since you’re reading this post on Mike Kelley’s APALMANAC, I assume you’ve already come across his book New Architecture Los Angeles.

Dear Appy: Should We Trade Images for Access?

by György Palkó September 6, 2021September 1, 2021 5

An APA reader asks: I was hired by a development company to photograph a handful of specific angles of a project that is completed. The images were delivered to the original developer client, and they are happy with them. I’ve already been paid for the job and figured it had been put to rest with everyone involved being happy.

Post-Production From Start To Finish: How I Manage and Process a Large Number of Images in Lightroom

by György Palkó March 31, 2021March 22, 2021 3

How do I start this? The question has been haunting me for weeks now. First, I want to thank you for the many great responses to the previous chapter of this series. In my last article, you saw my process for achieving a large number of images for at least four different clients — taken care of all in the same shoot.

Post-Production From Start To Finish: My Workflow on Location

by György Palkó February 24, 2021February 15, 2021 29

When I wrote the first part of this series, I intended to only talk about post-production, but the way I tend to photograph projects affects a lot of my post-production techniques. I’m the guy who likes to shoot as many angels as I found interesting enough to photograph, which ends up being a selection nightmare as I sit in front of the computer.

Good News From Central Europe: Business Is Beginning to Come Back

by György Palkó May 19, 2020May 19, 2020 3

I hope everyone has been able to stay healthy through these past few months and that you’re looking forward to working again. Over the last few weeks, as restrictions have been relaxed here in Hungary, it feels wonderful to be able to get out and shoot, even if precautions and distancing have kept things a little bit different than normal.

The House That Architectural Photography Built: Shooting My Own Home During Coronavirus Quarantine

by György Palkó April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 7

Architectural photography started for me as a hobby, but from the very beginning of the ‘photographing my hometowns cityscape‘ stage, I called my photography Facebook page György Palkó Architectural Photographer. That name led me to my first contract.

Bidding and Estimating: How I Landed A Dream Assignment in Europe

by György Palkó February 24, 2020February 25, 2020 9

Since the beginning of my photography career, I’ve had a list of projects that I dreamed of shooting. While most of the projects were out of my reach at the time, as my career has grown, buildings on my “dream assignment” list have become more accessible — while my goal list has grown!

Post-production From Start To Finish: Step 1 – File Organization and Importing

by György Palkó January 21, 2020 14

A new year gives us all an opportunity to rethink our processes and see if we are doing the tedious back end parts of our jobs in the most efficient way. In 2018, I started a new — and more organized — system of organizing my files, and so far it has been working out really well for me.

Lightroom’s HDR Merge in Depth

by György Palkó January 13, 2020January 12, 2020 9

In my previous article, I admitted to both using Lightroom’s HDR function and showing that it’s a viable solution for professional architectural photography. There are many benefits to post processing with this technique, because what you end up with is still a RAW file, you can play with white balance, shadows and highlights exactly like on a single capture, but with the extended dynamic range offered by a blended HDR file.

How to Use HDR and Get Away With It

by György Palkó November 19, 2019November 20, 2019 15

HDR has become a dirty word in professional architectural photography. We’ve all seen the over-processed HDR real estate photos where the colors and tones are off, and everything looks crispy and awful. Don’t get me wrong; tasteful HDR like the work of Trey Ratcliff as an artistic choice, now that can be cool.

Can You Correct Tilt-Shift Lens Distortion Using Built in Profiles in Lightroom?

by György Palkó October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 11

Short answer? There is no lens correction profile in Lightroom specially dedicated to tilt-shift lenses. Okay, then why am I writing about it? Because contrary to popular belief, there are some profiles that can be applied, and they actually correct most of the major issues.

When Your Lenses Just Aren’t Long Enough, it’s Time For an Extender

by György Palkó September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 4

There are many situations where the 24mm TS (Nikon or Canon) — our standard lens for architectural photography — isn’t quite long enough. Maybe you want to make a detailed vignette. Maybe you’d like to hide the side of a building which doesn’t look so great.

Photographing A Hungarian Countryside Home, Part 3: The Kitchen Shot

by György Palkó September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 14

We have arrived at my third and final image in this series, and this time, we’re photographing an interior. In the first two articles, I showed how I create twilight and daylight exterior images. To create this image, I used just a handful of techniques, such as blending different exposures, cloning, cropping and making some color adjustments.

Photographing A Hungarian Countryside Home, Part Two: With or Without You?

by György Palkó August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 6

In part two of my behind-the-scenes series in the Hungarian countryside, I’m going to jump into (ha ha…) a more complicated daylight image that I created. This image, like anything in architectural photography, contains quite a bit more than meets the eye, and utilized many different techniques to put together a visually harmonious image.

How I Photographed This Contemporary Home in the Hungarian Countryside

by György Palkó July 29, 2019July 29, 2019 5

My name is György Palko, and I’m an architectural photographer based in Hungary. For my first post on APA, I’m going to share how I edited one of my favorite twilight images. To perfect this image, I used a wide range of techniques including exposure blending, color correction, cloning and sky replacement.