Nikon D5500 architectural photography: shoot houses to see how people live

Architectural photography is a very broad concept, but if you take at least some point of reference to make it clear where to start and how to shoot, it turns out to be pretty banal: architectural photography is a shot of a building. It could be a catalog photo of a mansion or a block of high-rises, a lonely church or a fancy art object. Among other things, architectural photography is directly related to the now popular genre of travel photography, that is, photography in travel. The message here is simple: if you want to tell how people live far away, take pictures of them at home.

We have the same architectural landscape in front of us. The first shot is an in-camera jpeg, the second was obtained by processing a RAW file. In fact, it’s the most affordable way to get that relatively wide dynamic range. The frame is exposed with a slight underexposure, by about one stop, but you have to look at the real situation and the difference between the sky and the street light. Then in RAW converter use the Highlights slider to dim the lights separately, and the Shadows slider to lighten the shadows. Carefully look for harmonic lighting of the frame and, if necessary, add or decrease exposure.

At the most basic level, architecture photography should be perceived as landscape photography, but with the subject of architecture as the main character. So all the rules of composition that work for landscape also work here. For example, the rule of thirds, where the frame is divided by invisible lines into thirds horizontally and vertically, and the key objects are located on these lines or at their intersection points – in the golden ratio. In the same way will work and diagonals, leading the viewer into the depths of the picture from the foreground to the background, which will be located on your main character.

For architecture photography it is worth having a staff lens, a wide angle lens, a telephoto and a tripod. The polarizing and gradient filters come in handy. It is best to shoot in aperture priority mode in order to effectively control the depth of field.

If you have a specific object to photograph, start preparing in advance – study the map, assess how and from where the sun will fall on the object in the morning and evening. Plan your timing based on what’s around the subject. For example, you have to take pictures in the city at dawn and dusk, remembering that high-rise buildings can cast shadows on your subject. You may have to come to the shoot earlier, in not the most favorable light, but this way you can get at least some pictures. Have a look at the photos of the building you will be shooting – maybe you will see some interesting ways to shoot your hero, or get some information about the surrounding landscape.

Once you are on the spot, start from a distance. Literally. Set up a telephoto lens on your camera and get to know your hero from a distance of one kilometer. Maybe you can get an interesting view of your subject from across the street or from somewhere high, like a hill or a vantage point. Gradually approach the building and keep looking for interesting angles – in the reflections of business centers, in puddles, through gate arches or, if the object is somewhere in nature, through interesting details of the landscape, the grass stamped by the first snow, or textured stones. Be aware of the landscape and objects around you, they can be a good addition to the landscape.

As you get closer to the subject, watch how its appearance changes because of the vagaries of perspective. The lower floors gradually overwhelm the upper floors, the protruding volumes begin to eat away at the elements above them. So very often it’s shooting from afar on a TV that’s the only way to give the viewer a complete picture of what it looks like from top to bottom.

When you get close enough, don’t take your telephoto lens off. Look closely at the individual elements of the building – the frescoes, the decor of the windows and doors, some interesting intersections of volumes. When shooting such details with a TV set try not only to represent reality but to pick out some abstract details from general context. For example, several sides of a building can have different sunlight exposure, which when combined into a single frame can give a kaleidoscope of whimsical colors. Similarly, walk around inside and look for interesting details – murals, fixtures, ceiling vaults.

Once you have captured the details it is time to change from a telephoto lens to a wide angle lens. The most popular focal lengths for architectural photography are between 24 and 14. For the Nikon D5500, I would suggest getting the 17-55 f/2 lenses.8 and AF-A DX Nikkor 10-24, which will provide the full range of focal lengths you need for this type of photography.

Wide-angle lenses help stretch space visually, distancing objects in different planes from each other – objects in the foreground seem very close, objects a little farther away from you seem to be moved infinitely far away. A wider lens helps bring the whole building into the frame. It’s an original photo with a very distorted perspective. It’s worth using, but as with any artistic device it should not be abused.

Now it’s time to talk about the main enemy of an architectural photographer – perspective distortion. If you shoot a building from the bottom upwards you will see the walls droop toward the center. The wider the lens you’ll use to take pictures, the more of this grounding you’ll get. And the more you lift the lens up relative to the horizon, the more distortions will appear-the more the house will change from a rectangular box to a triangle at some point. Sometimes this effect can be used for artistic purposes, but more often it would still be considered a photographic flaw.

Architectural photography professionals use special tilt-shift lenses tilt-shift lenses to correct for these distortions. But this technique is expensive and it is very difficult to find such lenses on the American market. So we’ll find other ways to straighten out the padded walls.

For starters, you could try cropping the photo so that the entire building is in the upper half of the frame, and the lower half is occupied by an interesting foreground. That way the optical axis of the lens will be parallel to the ground, and in this case the vertical lines in the frame are not distorted and are parallel to each other. If there is another building near your subject, and you have the opportunity to climb it, it’s worth taking advantage of that opportunity. And you don’t have to get as high up as you can, but about halfway up your subject so you’re looking at your character straight. The optical axis of the lens will again be parallel to the ground with all that this implies.

If there are no such opportunities, or they are exhausted, and the result is still not satisfying, you can resort to the help of graphic editors. Luckily, the resolution of today’s cameras, including the Nikon D5500, allows for quite a bit of distortion without any loss of quality in the final image.

These days even RAW converter have options to correct perspective distortion, and Adobe Camera RAW lets you correct it quite accurately in automatic mode with the click of a button. But remember, if you are going to correct perspective distortion in post-processing, you should leave large margins on all sides.

Be sure to linger on the scene after sunset. The hour after sunset is commonly referred to as blue. The setting sun no longer illuminates the landscape, but its rays still illuminate the sky, and the weak light of twilight equals the brightness of artificial night light. At this time, you can take spectacular photos of an illuminated building with a rich blue sky. The blue hour flies by very quickly, so don’t waste any time.

Always start shooting from a distance. Use a telephoto lens on your camera and try to make the building look full size. Combine the lens with so-and-so objects in the foreground to accentuate your hero.

Don’t be afraid to be minimalistic when your “main character” takes up very little space in the frame

Look for spectacular objects, objects with interesting lines that will look interesting in the foreground

Look for interesting lines that lead the eye to the building, try to blend it into the landscape to show the viewer the landscape surrounding the building.

Use parts of other buildings in your shots – arches, window openings, wall fragments

Try to remove all bright light sources from the frame – lamps and lamps will give bright glare or parasitic backlighting. But sometimes it can be used as a creative trick

If the building is backlit at night, it’s worth waiting until dark to shoot it with night illumination. This often completely transforms the look of the scene.

Many objects are transformed beyond recognition at night. Some of them are sharply outlined because of the harsh light, others fade into darkness or turn into some vague silhouettes.

Once you get close enough to a building don’t hurry to take your telephoto lens off – look for some interesting details and shoot them at a higher zoom

Now you are close to the building. It’s time to change your telephoto lens for a wide angle lens

Try putting a person next to the subject to emphasize its scale.

Make sure to shoot the interior of a building, if you have such an opportunity. Don’t forget to pay attention to details

Don’t be afraid of minimalism when the subject is only a small part of the frame – it can be interesting.