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Foundation Course- Photography Monthly
If you like photographing buildings, then no matter where you live you’re never short of suitable subjects. Our towns and cities are literally full of them, both old and new and a week rarely seems to go by without a new building sprouting up within your community in one form or another. It could be an office block, sports centre, modern apartments or shopping centre, all of which will, at first glance, appear to be just another concrete monstrosity blotting the landscape. But stop and take a second, more subjective look and you’ll actually see that they really are modern day works of art, designed by skilled architects who could have designed it with a photographer in mind! 
Photographing architecture is really all about light and form and this is especially true with modern architecture. Although looking fantastic as a complete building, it’s only when you get closer that you start to notice the details that, with careful composition, make fantastic abstract features to photograph. Intricate stairways, an abundance of glass and steel in numerous shapes and form, as well as reflections and areas of colour, all of which are great details to capture with your camera.
It’s worth visiting your chosen building beforehand and taking a look around, so that you can find its best features and also the best time to shoot it. It may be an afternoon lit shot from one side, whilst another angle may look best in the morning. Using this initial recce also helps to make sure there is no unwanted scaffolding around it as well. Other checks worth making, are to find out if the building has a website, which might give details of any restrictions for photography and also a contact if you wish to enquire about the restrictions or for getting permission to shoot inside.
Often the best time to photograph modern architecture, especially the office buildings is on a Sunday morning when nobody is around. You’ll have more time to concentrate on your compositions without worrying about people getting in the shot. Old buildings tend to look ideal early in the morning or late afternoon, when the light is warmer and some modern architecture also benefits from this. However, the new kids seem to be more tolerant of harsh light and even in the middle of the day they can still look spectacular, especially if combined with a polariser to cut reflections and boost a deep blue sky to set them against.
Get in close with a wide angle and look up but also move back and pick out details with a tele-zoom. The nearest multi-storey car park is ideal for getting some height and a different angle on the building, perhaps showing the contrast between old and new against that historic church that it has been conveniently been built next to! If the building is very much an all glass design, then look for reflections of other buildings in the glass. This again could be that nearby church, though more probably an adjacent office building. More often than not, the reflection will be so distorted that the reflection becomes yet another abstract of colour and shape.
The rule of avoiding converging verticals is a little more relaxed with modern architecture. Although older buildings deserve the respect of looking nice and straight, modern buildings, but can benefit from having slanted exteriors. Pointing the camera up and even tilting it at an angle, you can get some very dynamic images that make the building look even more futuristic and finding these compositions is the key to getting the most out of a well designed building.
If you want to keep the building as the architect intended however, then the obvious choice of lens is the purpose made shift lens, designed especially for shooting buildings, where the lens actually moves within its housing to get the top of the building with the frame without resorting to tilting the camera. Photoshop has a great feature for correcting any converging vertical faults and is an alternative and somewhat cheaper way of keeping verticals vertical.
Using a wide lens to try and get all the building in the frame results in lots of empty foreground, but you can use this to your advantage by adding some foreground interest. This could be anything from part of the landscaping around the building itself to an attractive wall or seating outside, anything really that compliments the building and adds foreground interest. This will also have the benefit of adding scale and emphasising how tall the building actually is, as this can be lost without something in the composition to compare it with.
Whilst you are looking round your town, have you ever thought of photographing your local shopping centre? Many towns these days have had new shopping arcades built in some form or another, and again at first glance they can be seen as just bricks and mortar containing numerous retail units. But, a skilled architect has also carefully designed these and of course they have to be appealing on all levels, otherwise we wouldn’t want to go and do our shopping there.
Again, take a wander round and look for the details. Which is its most prominent feature and how is it best captured? Wide view or close-up? Perhaps it looks better at night.
Inside the building, you’ll find lots more clever details. There could perhaps be a spectacular glass roof or unique spiral staircase. Even the escalators can look great as abstracts if viewed from an oblique angle. Contrast can prove a problem inside and it may prove better to get to the top level and use any overhead light to shoot down instead.
Inside any building, you will also have the problem of different light sources to contend with from the cold light of the daylight coming in through large windows, to the artificial light of the interior lighting. It may be worth shooting Raw so you can adjust the white balance post- production, otherwise it may be worth taking a couple of images of the same subject on different white balance settings. Try one on daylight and then one on tungsten and see which looks best. It will all depend on which light source dominates in the building. If all else fails, then you could shoot black and white instead which eliminates the problem straight away and sometimes the lack of colour will benefit the final image anyway.
There are not many buildings that aren’t transformed at night and simply come alive when a few brightly coloured bulbs are pointed at them, even if it is pretty mundane looking by day. The best time to shoot these is soon after sunset, and as soon as the exterior lights come on whilst there is still some colour in the sky. Don’t worry about white balance on this type of shot, just leave it on daylight and allow the tungsten lights affect the overall colour of the building. If it’s an office building you are photographing then a weekday is often preferable to a weekend, as the interior lights are more likely to be left on thus showing the building at its best. Expose for the highlights and bracket a few shots to make sure you get one bang on.
As well as traditional buildings, consider other modern architecture to add to your portfolio of images. There are some great sculptures and works of art around towns that will make really great images. Another favourite of mine are bridges and these come in all sorts of designs and sizes. Shot from either on the bridge itself, or on the bank beside it, both are great places to exploit its best features and of course many are again beautifully lit up at night and often look their best this way too.
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Whatever your choice of modern architecture, explore it carefully and exploit its best points to their full. If its local, get to know the building well and study it in all types of light and therefore learn when the best time to visit it is. Above all though, be bold, be daring and take some risks with your photography and I guarantee you’ll come home with some cracking shots.
© Craig Roberts
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