Architectural Photography is considered one of the more technical types of photography. It requires that the photographer have solid control of their camera, a good understanding of light, and a good understanding of at least some basic architectural concepts.

Before even getting out your camera, it is a good idea to learn as much as you can about the concept for the structure you are shooting.

What was the architect’s inspiration for the design? What does he or she consider to be the primary focus of the building? Are there any specific features of the building that are especially unique? Were there special materials used or unique construction techniques? What is the environment of the structure? Should you adapt the style of the image to the environment of the building/structure?

After learning as much as you can about the building, its design, and how it was built, you can start prepping for the shoot, actually take the photos, and then move on to post-production.

1. Plan your photo shoot.

First things first; plan your shoot. If you just show up to the shoot at any old time without having done any scouting, not knowing what equipment to bring, not checking the weather, or which way the building is facing in relation to the sun, then odds are something will not go well and you won’t get as good of a shot as you could have. So, plan, plan, plan.

An old carpentry saying comes to mind: “measure twice, cut once.” This saying can be adapted to an architectural photo shoot. Plan your shoot, and you won’t have to reshoot. It’s a stretch, but it works

Tips for planning your shoot:

Check the weather

Check the direction the building is facing.

Choose the best time of day

App Suggestion for the previous tips: Sun Seeker

Bring the right equipment. Use a tripod. Not using a tripod? Stop. Get a tripod.

What lens or lenses will you need?

Be sure you have access to wherever you will be shooting from. This could mean getting access to a neighboring building, their roof, etc.

Review the shot list with your client. Make sure you are on the same page.

2. Composition

Composing an architectural photograph usually involves a good amount of problem solving. When you find the spot from where you will shoot your photo, you’ll typically find various things that will need to be addressed. Is the sun reflecting too much in the glass or windows of the building? Are there distracting elements in the shot? Is anything blocking the shot? Are you able to capture the primary features of the structure from your vantage point?

Now is the time to start thinking about your ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. These settings may be adjusted in the next step when you address your lighting, but go ahead and determine what you want to accomplish now and dial in your settings. You can always adjust later.

One of the most important things to keep in mind, which is all too often neglected, is to keep your verticals vertical. The Keystone effect is something you want to avoid.

The keystone effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_effect) occurs when you point the camera up or down at the building. In the image it will look like the building is falling backward if you are pointing the camera up, or it will look like it is looming over you and falling forward if you point the camera down.

There are two ways to correct this. You can use a tilt-shift lens, also called a Perspective Correction Lens. If you don’t own one of these lenses, they can be rented from somewhere like Borrow Lenses at a surprisingly low prices, but are typically quite expensive to purchase.

The second option is to correct the perspective digitally in post-production. This can be done completely manually in various programs but Adobe Lightroom 5 has a feature that auto-corrects your verticals. It isn’t perfect but it does a pretty good job. Some manual tweaking is sometimes necessary.

If you plan to correct perspective digitally in post, be sure to shoot wider than you actually need to because digital perspective correction will force you to crop your image to eliminate the blank space that occurs from manipulating the image.

(That sentence was a bit of a mouthful, but I think it made sense.)

Once you have your perspective correction figured out, any distracting elements eliminated, or a plan to eliminate them in post, a starting point for your f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO, you can compose your shot and move to the next step.

3. Lighting

Will you be adding any light or just use the sun? Shooting architecture at different times of the day can result in vastly different images. Use the sun intentionally to cast shadows and create contrast, or to light specific areas of the structure. You could also shoot at dusk or twilight to get some striking colors in the sky and interesting light on the subject.

There are many different possibilities when it comes to lighting so you will have to experiment with different techniques.

One technique is High Dynamic Range. Known simply as HDR , this method is popular among some photographers and not so much among others. Honestly, there are some truly awful HDR images out there but there are also some really amazing ones. When done well, this is a great method.

Here are some examples of GREAT HDR photography.

Here are some examples of BAD HDR Photography

Not a fan of HDR? Take multiple frames and “hand blend” the parts of the images that you want using layers in Photoshop. This isn’t difficult to learn, but if you are not familiar with using layers it can be a little confusing. It just takes some practice. You’ll need a sturdy tripod and Photoshop or you can use the popular freeware photo manipulator: Gimp.

Another method: you can light the building yourself. Depending on the size and complexity of the architectural subject you are shooting, and the time of day and how much natural light is available, this can be extremely difficult and require loads of lights or, if it is a small structure shot at the optimal time, it can be accomplished with a fairly simple lighting setup. Regardless, this method requires a solid understanding of lighting technique. Need some help getting started with basic lighting technique? Go here: Strobist.

You can also either wait for the right time of day, or do some scouting the day before and show up at the right time. Then take a single photo, just one frame, using only natural light. You might be pleasantly surprised with the results you can get with this simple technique.

Obviously, a combination of any of these methods can be used to achieve different results.

Whichever method you choose, be intentional. Think about what features of your subject would look good showcased in brighter light, and what features would add interesting contrast to the image by casting or being cast in a shadow.

4. Post-Production

Post-production is a very important part of digital photography. I enjoy post-production almost as much as the initial capturing of the image. There are various schools of thought for post-production too. A lot of photographers, myself included, believe that you should get as much done in the camera as possible so that in post-production you simply don’t have a lot that needs to be done. That doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun playing around with your image and be creative.

By keeping your post work to a minimum you can typically retain higher image quality, and end up with a more realistic looking (less processed) image. We’ve all seen those over-processed, gaudy images that just make you cringe. Think back to those bad HDR images.

Nevertheless, post is necessary. White balance, exposure, cropping…all the basics can be handled, when necessary, quite well in most image editors. I’m a big fan of Adobe Lightroom. It’s an amazing tool. It also makes it incredibly easy to organize you’re images, which can quickly get out of control if you don’t have a system.

The heavy lifting of post-production can be handled in Photoshop itself. Cloning out distracting elements, sophisticated retouching, and other advanced functions are better handled in Photoshop. Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop communicate seamlessly, so it is easy to start in Lightroom, jump over to Photoshop, and then back to Lightroom.

If you didn’t correct your perspective in-camera by use of a tilt shift (perspective correction) lens, then you’ll need to do that in post. If you don’t have Lightroom 5 but do have an older version of Lightroom, no worries, you can still do this manually. Hop down to the Lens Correction Module in the Develop tab and click on “Manual.” Here you can play with the sliders until all of your verticals are vertical. This really just takes some trial and error.

After you’ve done all the necessary parts of post-production, which typically include some sharpening and noise reduction, and made any creative changes to your images, you can save and/or export your image.

Post Production is obviously a subject that could be expanded upon endlessly. For specific techniques that may or may not apply to Architectural Photography, I highly recommend Phlearn Photoshop Tutorial videos. Aaron, the primary guy that does these is extremely talented and does an amazing job of explaining what he is doing.

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