All about Architecture Photography -1 : Choosing right gears, Camera tips, Lens selection to create Stunning photographs

TravellingCamera always loved clicking Architecture Photographs and interestingly most of the published photographs so far are Architecture Photographs. Recently we received some queries about Architecture Photography and that made us write about it today. We will talk about all possible aspects of Architecture Photography & will try to address following questions :

1. What is Architecture Photography?

2. How to chose best camera for Architecture Photography?  

3. Which are best camera lenses for Architecture Photography?  

4. What are common challenges of Architecture Photography and how to deal with them?

5. What kind of Composition rules make more sense for Architecture Photography?  

6. Key things to keep in mind when doing Architecture Photography?  

7. Post-Processing or Editing of Architecture Photographs. 

And lot more. 

1. What is Architecture Photography?

Architecture photography most of the times means photography that focuses on buildings. It can include shooting building exteriors and interiors, as well as bridges, other structures, cityscapes, cottages, factories etc.

Some Photographers like clicking beauty of Architecture, while others shoot Architecture for commercial uses like advertisements, magazines, Historical evidences, Museums, Print media etc. 

2. How to chose best camera for Architecture Photography? 

Are you trying to find the best camera for Architecture Photography? Architecture photography is mostly about still subject which means that you don't need those complex features which are must for any action oriented photography. Instead of the fancy camera, investing on good tripod would be more helpful. You don't need to worry much about FPS your camera provides or focus modes etc. A Full Frame DSLR has been a choice for many professional architecture photographers as they can provide high-quality images and strong perspective control. Although for non-professional use-cases, an ordinary DSLR would be good enough. It depends what is your goal. More investment on lenses would give you more flexibility and quality of outcome. Let's talk about Lenses for Architecture Photography. 

Phone Cameras do pretty good job for Architecture Photography and many of the photographs you would see in this blog are clicked with iPhone camera and processed with Snapseed photo-editing app for Smartphones. 

3. Which are best camera lenses for Architecture Photography?  

When we talk about Architecture, it can be represented through a wide-angle view of a building, specific elements of the building (like windows, doors, stairs, roofs etc) or interiors. And by now you may have figured out that different kind of lenses would be needed for Architecture Photography. Apart from capturing the view, right perspective is equally important and choice of lens defines perspective as well as ability to capture a view with appropriate quality.  

-  Prime lenses offer sharp images with less distortion. Prime lenses are helpful when you may not want to click wide view of the building. 

- Zoom lenses make it easier to capture close views of some architectural features that would otherwise be hard to reach. 

- Tilt-shift lenses are a popular type of architecture photography lens, mostly used by professional Architecture photographers. These lenses are pretty expensive. These lenses allow you to adjust the angle of the lens independently of the camera. This is especially useful for avoiding the perspective distortion that causes vertical lines to seem to converge when you are shooting a tall building.

- Wide angle lenses are also useful for structure photography. (or fish eye - although they create distortions, which needs to be handled in post-processing.) Above photograph is example of Architecture photograph clicked with Wide angle. They can be a big help when you’re trying to fit a huge structure like Qutub minar into the frame. You need to be careful when click photographs with wide angle - leave some space around the subject so that perspective can be corrected later & photograph can be cropped. 

This Blogpost takes care of basic questions about Architecture Photography and in next one we will cover Art aspect of Architecture Photography.