Introduction to mastering architecture and design photography
Architecture photography is one of few photographic pursuits that focuses specifically on our man-made world. In stark contrast to landscape photography, which is all about the natural world, or portraiture, street photography, or weddings, which focus on people, in architecture and design photography, our subjects are still; inanimate, unmoving, solid. That, however, doesn't make it any less inspiring or difficult to capture.
In architecture photography, we're celebrating the intersection of human-made form vs function. Places & spaces, lines & frames, light & shadow. We're celebrating what we as humans have deemed and created as beautiful, and the capture of that is in and of itself also beautiful.
Essential gear for architecture photography
When photographing architecture, perhaps more-so than many other types of photography, specific lenses and focal lengths are required. Due to the nature of architecture oftentimes being quite large compared to our own perspectives, we need focal lengths wide enough to be able to capture all of it.
Ideally, anything between 10mm to 16mm (full-frame equivalent) is an absolute staple range in the toolkit of many architecture photographers. Personally, I really enjoy the 14mm F1.8 G Master and the 12-24mm F4 G. For bodies, I would recommend any full-frame camera so you can use these lenses, as many APS-C lenses don't go quite wide enough in my opinion.
Another piece of essential gear if you're really looking for the highest quality images is a tripod. In architecture photography, much of the time you'll be inside a space, not just outside. When inside, oftentimes we don't quite have the available light that we might like to have, and therefore have to raise our ISO to compensate. However, if we use a tripod, we're able to stabilise the camera, and using a longer exposure will allow us to use a lower ISO, which means less grain and higher quality.
Techniques for capturing compelling architecture shots
One of the most used compositional techniques for architecture photography is the use of "lines". Most of the time, if we're shooting interesting objects likes stairs or vanishing points, we also end up having natural lines through our compositions that allow the viewer to be visually guided through the frame towards a subject or the like.
Another common compositional technique is the use of "frames". This is where we use two natural elements of the environment to surround a subject to "frame" it. This creates visual intrigue and provides the user with a focusing of attention, creating a highlight for your subject.
Also look out for other compositional elements such as light and hard shadow. Use of hard shadow is my personal favourite compositional technique to include, as it creates drama to an otherwise undramatic, static scene. Oftentimes, we can use applications such as Lightroom to dodge and burn these shadows to exaggerate their tonality, creating even more contrast and drama in the scene.
Overcoming common challenges in architecture photography
One of the most common issues I see with beginner architecture photographers is not paying attention to perspective distortion. How we tilt our cameras up and down has an effect on how stretched the edges of our image end up becoming.
This is especially noticeable at wider focal lengths such as 12mm and 14mm. These kinds of wide focal lengths have a natural focal length distortion to them, and tilting the lens up or down past true horizontal will cause what's called "perspective distortion". Sometimes, you can get away with a little bit of this, however other times, you can't. Make sure to always keep an eye on the edges of your composition and makes sure the objects you include on the edges aren't stretched out or elongated.
Advancing your skills in architecture photography
Like with all disciplines of photography, architecture photography requires a lot of practice to understand the nuances of both creative and technical execution. On the creative side, remember to include more compositional techniques like framing, lines, and hard shadow to create more interesting compositions, and on the technical side, remember to shoot wide and not introduce not too much perspective distortion into your compositions.
A really great way to start to learn for yourself is to look up some professional architecture photographers, find their images, and then actually go to the same locations as them and try to replicate their approach so that you can understand their reasoning and technical ability in a real-world scenario.
Pat Kay
Pat is an Australian award-winning travel photographer and multi-disciplinary content creator based in Tokyo, Japan.
With a passion for travel and adventure, Pat specialises in landscapes, cityscapes, aerial, lifestyle and street photography. His unique perspectives, vibrant style, and penchant for engaging storytelling through visual imagery and video has seen him work on many international campaigns working with numerous fortune 500 companies in the tourism and tech industries.
When not working on campaigns, Pat teaches photography and inspires over 600,000 photographers on his YouTube channel and Instagram.
