Gday everyone. Andy Macpherson here.
I'm a professional architecture photographer, and in this video,
I'll be giving you my top tips for architecture
photography.
So what is architecture photography and what makes a great photo
of architecture? Architecture photography is the process
of capturing the built environment, whether that's buildings, landscape
architecture, urban planning or interior architecture.
For this video, we will focus on some of my best camera tricks
for photographing building exteriors.
A great photograph of architecture is sharp.
It captures the detail of the building and the way the light interacts with it.
It has a sort of narrative that speaks to the design of the building.
Architecture photographers are constantly on the lookout
for that one outstanding definitive image of a building.
It's called the Hero image.
There's two things you need
to think about when getting started in architecture photography.
The first thing is equipment.
You need a camera, namely a mirrorless
or DSLR camera that can be used in manual mode.
Equipment that is relatively unique to professional architecture photography
is the use of perspective control lenses, also known as tilt shift lenses.
However, don't worry.
A little later on
I'll show you features that you can use in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom that recreate
what these specialised lenses do using your own equipment.
But for now, if you have a standard zoom lens that has a wide angle, such as a 24
to 70 millimeter or an 18 to 55
millimeter lens, that will be more than enough.
However, we can still work with any other lens
in your kit to photograph architecture too.
The next piece of equipment
I highly recommend is a tripod.
Architecture photography is all about the details,
so high image quality is so important.
Therefore, photos are generally taken with an aperture between F8 and F 11
and ISO settings between 100 and 400,
so you need a tripod so that you don't end up with blurry images as often,
longer exposures are needed.
Adding to that, I'd also recommend purchasing a remote release trigger
so that you don't get any motion blur when pressing the shutter button
and longer exposures.
Many camera manufacturers also have apps that allow you to remotely
press the shutter button too. If neither of these are options to you,
you can also use the camera's two second self-timer mode to avoid motion blur
when pressing the shutter button.
Also, you'll need a
camera bag that is comfortable and can fit all of your equipment in.
You'll be moving a lot to capture the subject,
so I would recommend making that part of the process as easy as possible.
Also pack batteries, memory cards
and some lens cleaning items.
The next thing you need is buildings to photograph.
One of the tricky things about starting out is finding the subjects.
Not everyone has access to beautiful private homes.
For this reason, I'd recommend doing some research
and finding buildings that are interesting and accessible to you.
This could be public buildings such as concert halls, libraries, football
stadiums, skyscrapers and the like.
These kinds of subjects offer
you loads of opportunity to find unique angles and create great images.
Something important to consider is that in some circumstances,
you may need permission to photograph a certain building,
and in most circumstances you won't have permission
to photograph the interior architecture of the building.
For this reason,
I would focus on how to photograph building exteriors,
knowing that many of the techniques you learn can be applied
to interior architecture photography as well.
When I first started out, I'd drive around my local area
looking for interesting buildings to photograph.
There's also plenty of resources available.
Jump on Google, have a search and play your next photo trip.
I would set my camera to manual mode
and make sure it is set to capture raw files as opposed to JPEG files.
RAW files capture more information compared to JPEGs and allow
you more options and control when editing your images in Lightroom.
Details in depth of field are super important
in architecture photography, and so for this reason,
I'd recommend a photograph with an aperture between F8 and F11.
This will give you a great amount of sharpness
across the frame with plenty of depth of field,
so you'll be able to get all of the details in sharp focus.
Where possible, I would shoot from a tripod with a remote release
trigger and ISO set between 100 and 400.
Remember the lower the ISO, the higher the image quality.
Exposure times will vary based on the amount of light hitting the subject.
I would expose for the brightest part of the frame, knowing that we can brighten
the darker parts of the frame later in post-production.
If you're on a DSLR and not a mirrorless camera,
you may want to consider turning on the live view mode.
This will allow you to see your exposure in real time, and the last settings
I'd make sure you turn on in your camera is the grid view mode.
This will allow you to judge your composition accurately.
Often you can use autofocus and select a single point
on the building around the center to make sure that it is all in focus.
The other thing you can do is zoom in using live view mode and manually focus
the lens to make sure that the subject is sharp across the entire frame.
Occasionally, you may not be able to use a tripod due to space limitations
or safety concerns, such as people tripping over it in a public space.
So in these circumstances, I'd recommend
increasing the ISO rather than reducing the aperture.
A higher ISO will introduce some undesirable noise to the images,
but we can reduce that noise later when we edit the photos.
So now you have your equipment and location sorted.
When is the best time to photograph architecture?
Well, there's certainly no hard
and fast rules about when the best time to photograph architecture is,
but for me it's early in the morning or late in the afternoon at that
time known as golden hour.
Low horizontal light, touching the edge of a building streaking across
the front of it can present opportunities to create the most magical images.
To quote the great architect, Louis Kahn,
"The Sun never knew how great it could be until it hit the side of a building."
One thing I would
recommend is to really observe the orientation of the sun to the building,
and think about the kind of images you want to create.
Do you want to create
a highly detailed image that really shows a thought that has gone into the design?
Well, in that case, I'd recommend
the sun coming over your shoulder, shining directly onto the building.
Alternatively, you can show the form and the shape of the building
by photographing it backlit with the sun silhouetting its shape.
When photographing buildings in either of these lighting conditions,
I'd still recommended an aperture between F8 and F11 for really sharp images,
and an ISO setting between 100 and 400 to help create a clean image.
Okay, so now let's head out
and photograph some architecture. Something relatively unique to architecture
photography is that the subject doesn't move.
So you'll have to. The next time you're out, walk around and see what catches your eye.
Is there a building that interests you?
Where is the light falling?
Let's capture some of your architecture photography ideas.
Once you've found your spot,
set up your tripod and choose which focal length you're going to use.
For the shot I'm taking,
we'll be using a wide angle lens to get the whole building in the frame.
I'm looking for that hero image of this building
In order to get the whole building composed well in frame,
you need to point the camera upwards.
But unfortunately, doing this causes the vertical lines of the building
to converge and introduces undesirable distortion.
It looks as if the whole building is falling backwards.
This is something you will need to fix in Lightroom,
but we will need to factor that in as we capture the image.
When you straighten your image in post-production, it will also crop.
So for this reason, I'd recommend moving further away from the subject
when you capture it.
As you move around and explore the building with longer focal lengths,
you'll still need to point up at the building to capture it.
So again, I would still recommend factoring in extra space by moving
slightly further away
from the subject to factor in straightening in post-production.
Some things to consider
when photographing architecture is the context and location.
Do you need to move further away from the building to show where it
is and what's around it?
Photos like
this can really help tell the story of the building.
Weather and sunshine can play a huge factor in photographing buildings,
the crisp blue sky and sunshine can be just as beautiful as a stormy sky
and overcast conditions.
So now that we've taken some wonderful
images of architecture, let's dive into some post-production.
After importing the images into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom,
I select the first image I want to work on and I go through the side panel,
making basic adjustments, exposure, contrast, white balance, etc.
I also like to tweak the individual colour channels.
I really love a natural look for my image,
and so I keep this part of the process relatively simple.
Here are three adjustments that you can make to your architecture images
that will correct them and help them to stand out.
As mentioned before, we
don't want buildings that look like they're distorted or falling backwards.
So the first thing we're going to do
is to go down to the transform section and correct the vertical lines.
You'll notice that the vertical adjustments
have cropped the image, but now the building looks like
it's standing naturally and we've minimised the distortion.
There are two tools
that I think are great for emphasising the architecture in post-production.
Lightroom has a great function where you can choose a mask
that automatically selects the sky for you.
Go to the tools tab
or the mask button in the side panel
and click on Select Sky.
With this tool, you can edit
the sky using a number of functions without affecting the rest of the image.
I like skies that are typically lower in saturation in the building,
so the attention is drawn to the architecture.
The next tool I like to use in Lightroom is the linear gradient tool.
The linear gradient tool allows you to edit one area of the image
without affecting the rest. To add a linear gradient to your image,
go to the tools tab or to the side panel and click on the mask button. From there,
choose linear gradient.
From here, use your mouse
or trackpad to drag your linear gradient onto the foreground of your image.
A linear gradient tool
allows you to make adjustments that have a softer transition.
You can change the gradient of this transition by dragging
the marker on the linear gradient tool.
With this tool, like the sky tool, you can now edit this part
of the selected image without affecting the other parts of the image.
I like to use the linear gradient tool to darken the foreground of the image,
so that the eye is taken through the frame and focuses on the architecture.
Lastly, one of the features I'd recommend
is that, if you used a higher ISO to capture your subject
and the images have become noisy, is the noise reduction feature.
Simply go to the detail section in the side panel
and slide the noise reduction tool to the desired amount.
So now we have our edited image.
Let's compare it to the original.
As you can see,
we have the building in correct perspective with the vertical line straight.
The image is more dynamic drawing the eye to the architecture.
So guys, those are my top tips for architecture photography.
Thank you so much for watching
and I hope you get out there and practice your architecture photography.
It's one of the most
technical kinds out there and it will help you improve in every other skill set.
When it comes to being a great photographer.
Thanks again for watching.
My name is Andy Macpherson, and if you want to see more of my work,
check me out on Instagram at @andymacherson.studio