Lessons from Photography to Create Compelling Architectural Visualization

As an experienced educator who has trained many people live and online, I find the rendering world is full of technical information. The technical layer has been covered extensively and many learning options are available, but what’s missing is the building and educating of the abstraction layer. This knowledge is fundamental, but many times we think it’s only applicable to talented people. As visualization artists, we should know much more about photography—specifically, composition, lighting, and color theory. A better understanding of this fundamental abstraction layer will facilitate a better understanding of the technical side of visualization. There’s a great deal to learn about lighting before realizing the promise of a compelling photograph—recreating the illusion of the tridimensionality. After all, even if it sounds absurd, the final render is many things, but it is not 3D.