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Architecture .. Still life .. How to take the most beautiful pictures .. Photography book

Landscape

Architecture
Most buildings have a specific function: housing - workplace - religious building, etc. They are evidence of a style or historical period or a particular human environment. To emphasize one of these functions, you must carefully examine the building from different angles in order to choose the point of view that best suits your artistic presentation.

Depending on the geographical locations, there are other considerations that must be considered, for example: in the Middle East, most buildings have light colors, thick walls and small windows. The shadows cast by these buildings are dark and have geometric shapes and rhythmic drawings under the bright sunlight. In Europe, churches and cathedrals are often large in size: buildings that boast their domes and arrows that rush towards the sky. The state of the sky must match the character of these buildings.

Architectural views require contrast: a contrast that must be in harmony with the frame and the light or the state of the atmosphere. Your first reaction when examining a building before photographing it is to identify the familiar landscape. You can then move around it to find unknown features, looking for an unusual or dramatic viewpoint. When possible, execute your subject using the weather conditions: in the rain, in the snow, in a light fog... If the weather doesn't help, there are many ways to perform your architectural view. Take the building reflected in a car mirror, in a pane of glass, in a pool of water, in a swamp, or in a river. You can also frame the building with a surface or passageway: a covered entrance, a doorway, or a window. Each element on the first plane adds depth and protrusion to the image. If the main subject is in the sun, it is best to have this first plane in shade.

Tall buildings often present some problems because the movement of the camera from bottom to top gives the vertical lines a convergence that appears in the image. This effect is acceptable when the image requires showing the great height of a tower, for example, but it is undesirable for a medium-height building, where it appears completely distorted: the effect of the imbalance typical of a photograph taken with a raised hand and a lens with a small or short aperture. Only a camera mounted on a tripod and capable of vertical deflection helps to control the parallelism of the vertical lines. If the camera is handheld and cannot be deflection, take the picture far from your subject and place the building in the middle of the image, because you can create a new, more compact frame when zooming in. In this case, you should use a film with a very smooth surface so that the high magnification does not lead to a noticeable loss in image quality and thus avoid severe distortions from a very close point of view. Using a small aperture increases the overall clarity and depth of field, and since the shooting time is long, it is better to use a tripod and a flexible button and thus choose the point of view as carefully as possible. When shooting on a tripod, a flexible button is indispensable - strange as it may seem - because the machine mounted on the tripod can shake if the button located directly on the body of the machine is used. Light is of the utmost importance and plays - as in all other fields - a constantly changing function in architectural photography. You will probably notice that the best lighting for a building is the light that falls obliquely to the side: it perfectly interprets the volumes, the composition, the depth and even the essential character of the building.

Low point of view perspective

With a wide angle and a low point of view, the eye is directed directly towards the enormous forms of the cooling towers: an environment entirely created by man.

Hasselblad 1/125 sec aperture 8 Kodak Tri X

Large angle lens perspective

A wide angle lens shows the perspective of rapidly escaping lines. A yellow filter adds strength to the image by increasing the contrast.
Linhoff 90 cm 1 sec aperture 45 Ford HP3

Double use of longitudinal and aerial perspective:

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The scale and sense of depth help to bring character into the majestic building's decor.

Rolliflex wide angle lens 1/125 sec aperture 8 Kodak Tri X

Small buildings

Leaving aside the large and important architectural works, photographers focus on the facade of an old barn, a villa, a kiosk, etc. Each building has its own character. On the far right of the facing page is a house made of wooden planks, in the upper center is a simple silhouette of the latest sunset, directly below it is a picture in a shadow against the light, and to the left is the delicate drawing of the shop, and the kiosk's artistic colors are revealed by diffused lighting.

Close vertical lines

Besides the reflections of light on the glass facade, the height is also suggested by the choice of the point of view that gives very close vertical lines. When calculating the caliber on the strong lights, I captured the reflection of the clouds on the facade while the rest of the building disappears into the blackness: a dramatic image on a very popular subject.

Leicaflex wide-angle lens 1/1000 sec f/16 Actachrom EX

A perspective that balances the composition:

The ornate facade is balanced by the grey-blue surface of the sky and the water. Here we have a beautiful example of the dual use of longitudinal and aerial perspective. This image was taken early in the morning to preserve the richness of the tones and the details of the decoration and the wet atmosphere of Venice.
Leicaflex wide-angle lens 1/250 sec f/8 Actachrom EX