Caldwell + Park Architects
How an architecture firm used Magic Eraser to produce award-submission-quality project photos in-house, saving $35,000 annually and winning 2 regional design awards.
The Challenge
Caldwell + Park Architects is a 15-person firm in Denver specializing in sustainable commercial and mixed-use buildings, completing 8-12 projects annually. Completed building photography is essential for award submissions, competition entries, RFQ/RFP responses, and the firm's website portfolio. Professional architectural photographers charge $3,000-5,000 per project, and scheduling adds 2-3 weeks of lead time. Even with professional shoots, finished photos often contain parked cars obscuring facades, dumpsters near loading docks, construction debris from neighboring sites, temporary signage, utility trucks, and pedestrians that break clean sight lines. The firm was spending $35,000-45,000 annually on photography plus an additional $5,000 in Photoshop retouching to remove these elements.
The Solution
Project architects now photograph completed buildings themselves using a full-frame camera with tilt-shift lens during their regular site visits. Magic Eraser removes parked vehicles from street-level facade shots, erases construction equipment and dumpsters from site perimeter views, cleans up temporary signage and utility infrastructure, and removes pedestrians from interior atrium and lobby shots. AI Enhance corrects the exposure challenges inherent in architectural photography — balancing bright sky with shadowed facades, bringing out material textures in stone and glass curtain walls, and ensuring color-accurate representation of exterior finishes for award submissions.
Results
Eliminated the need for professional architectural photography on 80% of projects, reserving hired photographers only for flagship buildings with complex glass reflections.
Two AIA regional design awards were won in the first year using in-house photography processed with Magic Eraser, matching the quality of professionally shot competitor entries.
Portfolio photos for RFQ/RFP responses are now available within days of project completion instead of waiting 3+ weeks for photographer scheduling and delivery.
“Architectural photography is about showing the building as designed, not the reality of a street full of parked cars and dumpsters. Magic Eraser lets us present our work the way we intended it — and the award juries can't tell the difference from a $5,000 professional shoot.”
Nathan Park
Principal, Caldwell + Park Architects
Tools Used
Want award-worthy architectural photography in-house?
Try Magic Eraser free and produce portfolio-quality building photos without the professional photographer price tag.
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