Architectural Photography Almanac
A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
In my previous article, I admitted to both using Lightroom’s HDR function and showing that it’s a viable solution for professional architectural photography. There are many benefits to post processing with this technique, because what you end up with is still a RAW file, you can play with white balance, shadows and highlights exactly like on a single capture, but with the extended dynamic range offered by a blended HDR file.
In February 2015, Canon released what I think is the best architectural camera made so far. Almost 5 years on and this camera is a little long in the tooth but in my view still the best camera you can buy for this specific type of photography. I’m aware some of you may want to point out the Sony options or Fujifilm medium format cameras, but, nothing comes close to how good the Canon 5DS R is.
One of my most memorable shoots of 2019 took place at a beautiful location in Beverly Hills, CA. An architectural masterpiece designed by Walker Workshop situated on a ridgetop in the famed Trousdale Estates neighborhood, this house was an absolute stunner and the project had been on my radar for a good 3-4 years before I actually got the chance to photograph it.
A recent article by Lexi Taciak discussed how we finally have the perfect podcast for architectural photographers, and the latest guest on the BAAM podcast was none other than APA’s founder Mike Kelley himself – and the insights he provides are invaluable.
Personally I enjoy listening to a podcast while I edit or write articles.
HDR has become a dirty word in professional architectural photography. We’ve all seen the over-processed HDR real estate photos where the colors and tones are off, and everything looks crispy and awful. Don’t get me wrong; tasteful HDR like the work of Trey Ratcliff as an artistic choice, now that can be cool.
The first of October marks the start of Archtober which is a festival celebrating architecture and design organised by the Centre for Architecture. In its ninth year running, this year’s Archtober festival in collaboration with over 80 partners across NYC’s five boroughs are hosting a range of events from building of the day walking tours, workplace Wednesday tours, lectures, film screenings, architecture themed competitions and parties.
One of the most recognizable buildings I had the chance to photograph for my book New Architecture Los Angeles was the Broad Museum, a beautiful project in downtown LA designed by Diller Scofidio+Renfro. As it’s literally one of the most photographed subjects in the entire city, I wanted to make sure I created images that were actually different than everybody else’s.
Cameras like the Phase One XF system and the Hasselblad H6D offer some the largest commercially available digital sensors currently on the market. Generally speaking, larger sensors tend to offer better image quality; this isn’t explicitly true but for the most part, it’s what most people experience.
Tilt-shift lenses are by far my favorite types of lenses; they offer so much versatility, especially when you’re shooting architecture… I wouldn’t shoot with any other type of lens! However, up until recently I had never actually compared the results you can produce with a dedicated tilt-shift lens vs correcting distortion from a conventional lens in post.
Although I do enjoy speaking about cameras, lenses, and technology, they don’t necessarily help with improving your photography. There are only three things that really matter in an image and they are, composition, lighting and, use of color. of the three, composition is king.
In my opinion, there is nothing more important than composition.
For architectural photography, I highly recommend you buy and use a tilt-shift lens. Personally, I prefer Canon because I firmly believe they make the best. Tilt-shift lenses are brilliant because they allow you to correct perspective; which is extremely important for the kind of work we do.
Starting a career in photography can be very challenging. I know that when I first started as an architectural photographer, I made a fair few mistakes that could have been avoided. Fortunately, those mistakes can serve as lessons for future architectural photographers.
1. Shooting With the Widest Available LensIf you’re a real-estate photographer then shooting with the widest lens ever made might work.
Architectural photography isn’t exactly the cheapest profession to get into. The amount of money that we invest in building this particular kind of business is significantly greater than many other genres of photography. Unfortunately, the current price of tilt-shift lenses doesn’t help very much in this regard.
One of the things that I’ve struggled with as an architectural photographer is managing color. This is especially true when shooting interiors because most interiors tend to have a wide range of different colors and shades. For a long time, I’ve been using the ColorChecker Passport and recently X-Rite released their new version 2; so I decided to cover this subject again.
For some reason photographers are obsessed with being published, I am a photographer, ergo, am obsessed with being published. It feels good, it looks pretty, and it makes your photographs real, as in a tangible thing that other people hold and look at and say “wow” like Owen Wilson. Wowwww.
Brooke Holm has carved out a successful career for herself shooting exactly what she wants, where she wants, and the results are beautiful. She effortlessly blends personal fine art projects with interior and architectural commissioned works in a sublime and delicate style, becoming a highly sought-after photographer in markets around the world.
It’s a question I find myself explaining over and over again to aspiring photographers and it’s quite simply one of the most powerful tools available for improving the compositions and quality of your photography. It’s not even limited to architectural photography either, in fact artists and photographers alike benefit from taking advantage of the one point perspective.
György Palkó
Usman Dawood
Mike Kelley
Veeral Patel