Architectural photography tips?

[Davi]

Chap who's seen some of my work has asked me to do some shots of buildings they have built, never really done architectural so looking for tips and examples please! (they're large commercial buildings)

[RobDickinson]

What gear do you have? Try go when light is good and offers a bit of contrast (i.e. not mid day) and if you dont have a tilt shift then your likely to have to use perspective correction later.

have you live view for focusing/dof adjustment?

[Davi]

Gear... Bugger all LOL. Got a nikon D60 and access to a few lenses, 50, 18-70 and... Erm whatever my brother will lend me!

No tilt shift, no live view... No hope?!

Fortunatley first couple are within spitting distance of my office so can try different lighting times easily.

[RobDickinson]

Ah dont worry, shoot at 18mm and focus normaly with a decent high aperture for a start if the buildings flat fronted.

Also think about uysing a hyperfocal focusing method.

[Muska]

Be careful shooting at 18mm because of barrel distortion.

[Davi]

will do.

Any handy tips on composition with buildings?

[RobDickinson]

Composition may be limited but stick to the normal rules (golden/3rds etc).

as for distortion - you can remove that in software later if you have the right stuff (modern ACR or DPP or something). Also photoshop has some nice lens/perspective correction tools.

[Muska]

Composition: also pay consideration to lead in lines. Use of negative space. Symmetry. If I think of any more I'll add them. Browse the web for inspiration to.

[Simpo Two]

Been watching this thread for 24 hours and still no sign of it...

[Chicken Pox]

Simpo Two said:

Been watching this thread for 24 hours and still no sign of it...

tut tut didn't remove the lamp*

• you "borrowed" the same one as me for the "white panda background" didn't you

[Simpo Two]

Chicken Pox said:

you "borrowed" the same one as me for the "white panda background" didn't you

I might have re-originated it and then hacked your account so that when you hit 'quote' to check, the path looked genuine...

Oh OK then, I swiped it 'cos it was the nearest!!

[james_tigerwoods]

• sigh** - I told you, I liked the lamp!

Edited by james_tigerwoods on Tuesday 28th September 10:34

[Pablo O O O O]

Why not use a 5 x 4 mono rail camera with wide-angle lens 90mm or 75mm. and use movements ie. rising front/ swing / tilt etc. for correction in camera.
Get everything right, and it will look a professional job.

[Davi]

Pablo O O O O said:

Why not use a 5 x 4 mono rail camera with wide-angle lens 90mm or 75mm. and use movements ie. rising front/ swing / tilt etc. for correction in camera.
Get everything right, and it will look a professional job.

Because I own a Nikon D60, I'm an amateur, and can't even afford to buy a cup of coffee on the way to work let alone a complete camera set up when doing a for a favour for a friend? ( amongst other reasons )

[james_tigerwoods]

I took those with a D40 - I'm not that great at photography, the camera is by no means anywhere near a professional type camera, I used the kit 18-55 lens - but I'm happy with them.

It was just a case of work out what I wanted, take about a thousand a few photos at 18mm (in RAW) and edit them accordingly.

[Simpo Two]

Pablo O O O O said:

Why not use a 5 x 4 mono rail camera with wide-angle lens 90mm or 75mm. and use movements ie. rising front/ swing / tilt etc. for correction in camera.

Davi said:

Because I own a Nikon D60

A beautiful reply!

I recall a TV programme years ago where David Bailey was taking a photo of something large (can't remember what, probably a building). There was some hyper-active presenter trying to dumb it down for the audience.

Presenter, over-excited: 'Oh, David, yes, now, I can see you're moving back away from the subject! Why are you moving further back David??'

Bailey, dryly: 'Because I can't get it all in'

[Davi]

Just missed a cracking opportunity, walked past the first building on my way into town, Sun was viewable with the naked eye due to perfect amount of cloud cover, and was reflecting in the glass on the building - would have been ace, had I had a camera with me...