- Welcome to another episode in my series
on mobile photography for beginners.
In this episode we're going to talk about
how to take some big pictures inside of a city,
which are also known as cityscapes.
Let's roll the intro. (air whooshing)
(wood clanking) (rain falling)
For those of you who are new to this channel,
I'm Loic Bellemare-Alford,
and if you haven't already,
you should go check out my video on landscape photography
because most of the techniques for landscapes
also apply for cityscape.
(bouncy percussive music) (camera clicking)
The most important tip I can give
to get some great pictures inside of a city
is to get some strong leading lines.
The good news is that they're everywhere inside of a city.
So it could be a street, (camera clicking continues)
it could be walking path,
it could be some straight buildings,
and it can be so much more.
One very important thing is that your leading line
needs to lead toward a subject.
So a little trick to test this out
is to take a picture and look at it
and try and notice if while looking at the picture
the line leads towards your subject.
If it doesn't,
you need to find a stronger leading line
inside of of your image.
My next step might seem kind of obvious,
but it's to look up while taking a shot inside of a city.
This is going to allow you to get some really cool shots,
of patterns,
of architecture,
or of some buildings.
Because people, when walking around,
usually tend to look at eye level.
So by moving up you're going to be able
to get some much more interesting shots.
The second reason why this is great is it allows us
to remove a lot of distractions out of the shot.
So by simply moving upwards your camera
you're going to remove everybody who's walking at the bottom,
the cars,
and all kinds of distractions that are on the street
and you can really simplify your shot
and get a better shot in the end.
I usually wouldn't suggest going out
on a bright sunny day to take some picture,
but it's an exception for cityscapes
because you can use it to your advantage.
By creating contrast you can force your eye
to look at certain parts of the image at the first place.
So if I have a very bad part of the image,
your eye is always going to look at that part first
and then look at the parts that are a little bit darker.
So for example, if you have an alleyway here
and you want to show what's in the background here,
you can make everything else a little bit darker
in the alleyway and really force your eye
to look at the subject at the end of the place here.
This can work with pretty much anything else
as long as you have a lot of contrast in your photos,
you have one part as darker and one part as brighter.
You can either do it directly in your phone
if you have something like a Google Pixel 4a,
where you can bring down the shadows,
or you can do it with editing afterwards
and bring down everything that is a little darker
and make it even more darker
to add more contrast inside of the image.
The next step might seem a little bit weird
and it's simply to wait.
So if there's too many things inside of your shot
or too many peoples,
too many cars or anything that is distracting,
you can simply wait 'til they go away.
In the other case,
if you want to have somebody that's walking by,
a bike, or a card title, a bit more interest,
you can also wait for the perfect one to pass by.
This is a technique that good photographers use
all the time when taking photos,
but it might take hundreds of time,
exactly the same shot,
until they get the right person,
the right bike, the right car,
or whatever else they're looking for inside of their shot.
So just wait to get the perfect shot
when you're taking pictures inside of the city.
My bonus tip is to go outside while it's raining
or right after it rain
if you don't have a waterproof cell phone.
If you get really close to the ground
you can use water puddles as mirrors
and get some really cool reflections
that are going to create very unique shots.
If you go outside at night
while it's raining or right afterwards
you're also going to get some reflections
from all the lights around,
so it can create even more unique shots
than if you're just going out in the day or at night.
So it's definitely worth trying out,
to go outside while it's raining or right afterwards,
to get some more unique shots
because most people just won't think
to go out inside of the rain or right afterwards.
(bouncy music continues) (camera clicking continues)
I hope you enjoyed this episode
on taking cityscapes using your phone.
If you did,
please let me know by hitting like the like button below
and definitely subscribe for the upcoming episodes
on my series on mobile photography for beginners.
See you in the next one.
Bye-bye.
(bouncy percussive music)