Architectural Photography Offers Challenges To Beginners

Taking pictures of buildings may lack the excitement of, say a car race, but it also lacks the need for experience that taking pictures of cars moving at upwards of 200 miles per hour. While not considered glamorous on many levels, architectural photography does present some technical challenges. While the building usually will not move or blink as you click the shutter, their very design makes them difficult to reproduce on film.

Whether you choose a film or digital camera for architectural photography is irrelevant but the choice of camera format and lens will make a difference in the print. Not that the building will usually complain about the picture, without the right equipment and a little bit of knowledge, your picture will probably not stand out in a crowd.

Typically, when you take a picture of a building, you will be aiming upwards, which causes a convergence of the vertical lines of the building, converging more the further up the picture you look. Convergence will be the opposite if shooting down on a building from an adjacent structure, for example. Professionals involved in architectural photography usually use large format cameras such as four inch by five inch reflex film camera, but these are expensive and for the occasional building picture, may not be worth the investment.

Good Results Made From Standard Cameras

The use of a tripod can benefit a new foray into architectural photography using a standard 35mm camera. The choice of lenses is typically in the 20mm to 200 mm range, with anything wider making the building appear distorted. Lenses under 20mm are often referred to as a fish-eye lens for a reason. A 20mm lens will often all higher floors of a building to be captured without the convergence.

From a legal stand point architectural photography will not usually be a problem provided the picture is taken from a public accessible point and the picture is not planned for commercial use. In today’s security-minded environment a person near a building with a camera usually draws attention. If you have to go onto private property to obtain the angle of a building you want it is best to ask permission to avoid trespassing complaints. Additionally, if you want to use the picture for financial gain it is always best to bet permission from the building’s owner as some may consider architectural photography a violation of trademark or copyright laws.