Three Things that will Help your Architectural Photography

Importance of light

Suggesting that light is important in photography is stating the obvious. Let’s be honest… of course light is important. But what I had to learn was that its not so easy to appreciate how light will impact the subject of the photograph, the particular building that is being photographed. 


I came into photographing architecture honestly, as a stock photographer focusing on travel and landscape.  And if you are shooting travel stock, then its inevitable that you will need to learn how to photograph buildings.  But travel photography is different, there is a different feel and vibe.  Photographing the Pantheon in Rome? Throw in a great sunset! Make it eye-catching.


With architecture photography, I think the building drives the photograph and the light is there as a compliment and not as a main feature.  Its unlikely that you want that insane sunset because that might just be confusing to the viewer. What’s the subject of the photograph? The sunset? The building? Is the building just getting lost with too much information coming from the surrounding environment?


Instead, the light should build up the subject and make it look its best.  Perhaps no dramatic sunsets, but you likely don’t want any harsh mid-day light either.  I find that soft evening or morning like works best for daytime photos, and night can often be used to allow you to see inside the building (provided its lit up) so that you can see the internal structure.


A good architectural photograph does not have do be an Instagram banger in order to find a buyer and maybe it shouldn't be.




Importance of verticals


Because of the distortion of vertical lines that happens in an architectural photograph as you angle your camera upwards, you need  some way to address this problem. If you don’t fix the problem, your photographs will look amateur no matter how well all the other elements are handled.   There are a number of things professionals do to address the receding vertical lines issue.  And, of course, there are times when professional photographers use distortion of verticals to great effect, but we are discussing the general rule here. 


The first thing that you can consider is purchasing specialized equipment like a tilt-shift lens. I would suspect that anyone reading this post doesn't have the money or level of engagement to buy a tilt-shift lens.  Instead, the typical way to fix verticals is to clean up the problem in photograph editing software like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop or something similar.


The struggle I have had is to figure out where to stand and take the photograph knowing that I am going to have to edit for vertical lines and likely need to significantly crop the image.  Its actually quite hard to get a sense of how far back you need to be when take the photograph or how wide you need to be with you wide angle zoom lens – if you have one.


I am not good at getting it right and I have had to toss a few otherwise well executed photos.  The closer you are to the subject, the bigger the problem is going to be.  Typically, I take a series of images between 30mm and 14mm. I use a Nikon 14-30mm wide angle zoom lens so that’s a pretty good zoom range for most architecture. 


If you can figure out how to get nice and straight vertical lines, you will be well on your way to making great architectural photographs.



Elements to include in Architectural Photographs


Its pretty hard to control what is included in the image, whether its other buildings in the area or whether its foreground elements like cars on the streets or people on the sidewalks.  You can always clean up images and remove distractions, like street signs, power cables, etc. Or you can leave those things in the image and go all natural. 


But these small details typically aren’t big editorial choices, but they can be important editorial choices. And choosing to include cars out font, a parking lot, or trees with no leaves can really impact on the final image. 


For me, I have often struggled with this issue.  That one really white mini-van just isn’t going to move, the buildings behind the subject can’t be edited out by moving my feet, there are no good multi-story parking lots to get up on and take a photograph. 


I think it takes a lot of learning, trying and retrying to get to know what works.  Sometimes summer and leafy trees hide distracting elements, and sometimes they block the building. You just have to understand the subject, figure out what the vision is for the specific piece of architecture work in a photograph, and then try and get there at a time that makes sense.


If you don’t want people and cars visible, then early Sunday morning might be the best time.  If its light trails from cars, then a busier evening would help. Ultimately, you have to decide what you want in advance, do some scouting, make some notes, and hopefully go execute. 









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