An Intro to Architectural Photography

[nadimpr]

If you've ever looked through the pages of National Geographic or any other magazine that spotlights fantastic pictures of buildings and structures, then you've likely seen architectural photography at its finest. It takes a lot of specialized equipment and skill to work professionally as an architectural photographer.

Virtually any image of a structure or building qualifies as architectural photography; this helps to explain why this form of photography is so popular. Whether classical, old, modern or anything in between, architecture makes for a great subject in any frame.
Here, you'll learn the basics, so you, too, can grab your camera and enjoy snapping away at interesting and grand structures.



Lighting Tips
Unsurprisingly, the right lighting helps your architectural shots immensely. While you can't light a building how you want, and you also have no control over its orientation and positioning, you can control everything else.
When lining up your shot, use side-front lighting. Traditionally, this form of lighting has produced the best results due to its generous illumination. As a bonus, it also usually casts longer shadows over the surface of buildings. This makes a building look better in a shot, as it appears more three-dimensional and allows any surface features to be more noticeable.



What to Know About the Weather
You're lucky: When it comes to architectural photography, the weather isn't something that's going to ruin your shot, unlike with some other forms of photography. That's because stellar architecture shots abound in all weather conditions.
Think of it: A gothic mansion on a bright, sunny day will probably seem full of character and somewhat historic to the viewer, yet the same mansion will look a lot more ominous and forbidding when weather conditions are stormy, cloudy and unpleasant. In both weather situations, you'll get a very breathtaking shot.

Pro tip: You can build up an impressive assortment of images in your portfolio if you simply snap pictures of the same building in varying weather conditions. No two images will look the same, and you'll demonstrate a knack for shooting in all sorts of conditions!



Night Shooting

To really make your pictures of buildings and structures pop, you have to shoot them at night. That's when they tend to come alive in a frame. The thing is that a lot of modern architecture – in a city's downtown, for example—has been designed with nighttime specifically in mind.

As soon as night falls, all of these modern buildings are hit with light from all directions; this blesses them with different colors and glow. Not to mention, the amount of shadows that dance across these buildings at night is another reason to shoot buildings after dusk.



Source: https://contrastly.com/an-intro-to-architectural-photography/