5 tips for Architectural Photography

1: READ BETWEEN THE LINES: Architectural photography is concerned with buildings which most often are comprised of straight lines. Looking through the view finder or using live-view see how the edges of your black frame (edge of viewfinder) line up with these perspective lines will give you a feel for that perspective. Architecture deals with perspective and symmetry, so often capturing this symmetry will tell the story of the subject. That said getting a photograph which is a true elevation (i.e. a perfect view with no perspective..like a technical drawing) is good but as humans we don't see the world like this and that's where you should free yourself from the tripod and spirit levels and look at those lines. Play around and have fun but keep looking at those lines.

Architectural Photography Tips- Reading Between the Lines

2: STEP AWAY FROM YOUR SUBJECT : You know what it's like when you stand below a towering sky-scraper. The lines of the building all head toward each other making it look more like a pyramid that an oblong. If you trying to photograph the height and majesty of a structure you have to move far enough back so that you don't get the upright vertical line of the building converging. This may also help you photograph the changing usage or features through-out its levels and seeing a building within its environment is useful and can tell a different kind of story. Architectural photography is all about the interpretation of a building by a photographer. You are the translator between the architect and the viewer. So you can show a building towering above the people in the street or go back several miles back and show that building towering above other buildings in the neighborhood. Both images will give out different messages.

Architectural Photography Tips- Moving Back

3: WAITING FOR THE WEATHER: Waiting for the right weather to photograph a building is a luxury I don't always have and what is the perfect weather anyway? Well if you were photographing a holiday home you wouldn't want a dark stormy sky and there are other considerations too. If your building has a lots of glass a few clouds in the sky can look great in the reflection within that glass. Time of day also effects how a building can look as the sun changes in height and shadow change through-out the day. The answer really is to try different times and different weathers and you will soon learn what works and what doesn't. If your learning any kind of photography don't wait for the weather, just get out there and start shooting. A great tip for photographing architecture on one of those flat cloudy days is to wait till dusk. This gives a building more character when all the lights are on inside the building.

Architectural Photography Tips- Don't wait just start work!

4: DON'T GO TOO WIDE: A fish eye or wide-angle lens is ideal for architectural photography as it enables photographers to frame the entire building within its environment without getting too far away. This is important when a photographer is trying to tell the story of a building but often just photographing elements of a building in isolation can be very effective to. Architectural photography is not just about showing a whole structure but small features and details are important too and quite honestly often more interesting. So one useful tip is to change to a zoom or telephoto lens and look for interesting details.

Architectural Photography Tips- Use wide and long lenses

5: EXPOSING YOURSELF: Learning to read light and see the world as the camera sees it is a slow and gradual process. Take control of the camera by shooting in manual (M) mode. This means you'll learn about shutter speed and aperture so much quicker than just using the auto settings. Yes the learning curve is steep but that's why your here....isn't it? Architectural Photography is not about just showing the building as our eyes see it but also using the ability of the camera to under and over-expose for dramatic effect. So take control of your camera and use your screen to view your results as you go, most importantly have fun.

Architectural Photography Tips- Expose yourself using manual control (teehee)

I hope you found some of these tips architectural photography tips useful and please follow my blog for handy tutorial.

Blaydon Leisure and Primary Care Centre

Award winning Architects P+HS have once again produced a fabulous new development. The weather wasn’t too bright, but that didn’t stop the building from looking absolutely stunning. Congratulations for a top job go to P+HS, Willmott Dixon and of course Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust.

Examples of some of the Architectural photography shot by Doug Jackson

The Building was a pleasure to photograph with lots of flat white surfaces and interesting art work. Architecturally the communal spaces were extremely interesting with some long vista views.  It is really nice to see commissioned artwork also featured in communal areas.

Examples of some of the Architectural photography shot by Doug Jackson

I hope Blaydon enjoys it's latest brand new facilities and look forward to seeing more. Hopefully in our austerity times we won't see a halt in investment of these important buildings.

Care Homes of the Future

It’s a sobering thought to think that some of us will end our days in a care home for the elderly. With our population comprising of a larger percentage of elderly people than ever before the need to provide quality care for the elderly has never been greater.


"Quality of life" is an individual concept although we can assume for the moment that quality of life relates to choice and control, positive and meaningful interactions, and quality medical care all within a comfortable environment.

I know for working as a press photographer and visiting some of the more tired care homes in the north-east that trying to give people this "Quality of life" in a building that is old, crumbling, often very institutionalized is optimistic to say the least.

I recently photographed a care home for P+HS architects in Northallerton which certainly amazed me with the quality of the finish.

So maybe getting old isn’t that scary after all.

“Rivendale is an exciting £7 million extra care facility on Ashlands Road in Northallerton which consists of 51 x 2 bedroom apartments for over 60's to rent, buy on New Build Homebuy shared ownership terms or buy outright.

Rivendale offers a wide range of activities and facilities onsite for its' residents including: a hair salon, therapy room, bistro, hobby room, lounges, wireless internet connection, laundry, shop, quiet garden and an activities garden for bowls, croquet and growing vegetables.The scheme has an on-site manager and offers 24 hour emergency response to all apartments. There's wheelchair access to all floors and Rivendale is situated close to Northallerton's local amenities and transport links. “

(sadly no go-cart or mini-moto track)
From Broadland website.. http://www.broadacres.org.uk/default.aspx?page=7484

How to Photograph Interiors - A Beginner's Guide

How to Photograph Interiors - A Beginner's Guide

As most amateur and professional photographers take a percentage of their pictures indoors, you’d think we’d all be experts at shooting interiors. But if there is one encompassing fact about photography that I have learnt over the years it’s this - the more I know about photography, the more I realise how clever the human eye is!



The skill of interior photography is most often perfected by those who trade as interior and architectural photographers. Most budding amateur photographers never give much thought to making a room the subject of a photograph, even though it could teach them valuable lessons about photography. As I said above, it’s amazing how difficult it is to just get the camera to capture an image that represents what’s seen by the human eye.


So it’s to those people who are keen enough to do it as an exercise that I will target this blog post, and hopefully you’ll see that with a bit of thought and patience it’s not too difficult to get some good results.


Choosing a room.


Be careful to select the most interesting portion of the room to photograph, since it's virtually impossible to include an entire room in a single shot. Also be aware of any interesting features in that room that may be of use to the picture. These may be elements that add interest in terms of colour or structure, even a contrast in tone.

Equipment.


Obviously you should be shooting on a wide angle lens, but not a fish-eye. Anything from 12mm or greater on smaller sensor sized D-SLR’S and 14mm on full frame sensors is fine but the wider the lens the greater the barrel distortion. If you’re shooting on a compact just use the widest angle possible. A tripod is often essential and if you really want to do it right you will also need some light/flashes and coloured gels.


Overall Views and Detail Shots.


In your initial photographs, try and avoid having a bright window in the frame, as this can cause problems with exposure and white-balance. When taking wide shots to show large parts of the room, it’s useful to turn on as many lights as possible. If you have a flash that has an adjustable directional head, then try bouncing the flash off the ceiling which will create a diffused and more even light.

Once you have done some general shots of the room why not move in and get some detail views that show interesting architectural or furnishing features in isolation.

Don't forget the details.

Angles and Height


As you look through the viewfinder and tilt the camera up and down from the ceiling to the floor, watch what happens to the vertical elements of the picture. You will notice when looking into the lower corner of a room the perspective in the verticals becomes convergent. This means they get wider as they get further away. The opposite convergent verticals can be seen if you look up to the ceiling through the viewfinder. Both these convergent or divergent verticals should be avoided. To ensure that the verticals stay vertical, try and keep the camera completely horizontal. If your eye is 150cm off the floor and your camera is at the height of your eye then you should be pointing your camera at a point on the wall at the same height of 150cm. This ensures the proper vertical perspective. It’s easier to try it than to explain it!


Don’t be afraid to shoot portraits as well as landscapes - just because most rooms are landscape in proportion, doesn’t mean the photographer can only shoot that way. Often portrait photographs are more interesting.


Resist the temptation to stand on a chair in the corner of a room unless you want the image to look like footage from a security camera. Most interior photographers shoot around head height or just above ground level which can give a different feel to an image.

De-clutter


If the room is looking very busy you could always tidy up. Often if the room actually looks like someone lives there, then it’s definitely too cluttered – meaning the image may turn out messy and unstructured. Move the pillows off the sofa, and move/hide one or two ornaments. Hide the telephone, calendar and magazines…..you get the idea!

Lighting


If you want to splash out £15.00, I would suggest you purchase a grey card…((see other blog post)))))…this will enable you to get your camera’s custom white-balance set correctly for that room. You basically photograph the grey card and then set your camera to ‘custom’ white-balance specifying that image as a ‘test card’. This is actually very straight forward to do with most D-SLRs once you’ve read your manual. If you are reluctant to spend the money you should experiment with using a white sheet of paper as a grey card. It can be extremely effective.

Often tungsten and low energy bulbs give a very orange light so unless you turn your flash off you get a horrible mix of white bits that are close to the flash, and darker areas that are orange. To avoid this, it’s best to turn the flash off completely to begin with. This doesn’t get rid of the white-balance issue all together, as not only do different interior light exhibit different white-balance characteristics, but once natural light from a window is introduced then you can have three different light sources with three different white-balance values. If you manage to eliminate at least one of those then you at least have a fighting chance.

 This is why it is initially maybe easier to shoot the room with no electric light, just using natural light if it has a suitably-sized window. Alternatively to negate the issue of daylight and conflicting white-balance coming through the window, you may want to shoot at dusk or night time.


I find the best way to light a space is to try and replicate how the human eye sees it. This often means using coloured gels on three or four remotely-triggered flashes that give even illumination to match the white-balance of the interior lighting scheme.


If you’re shooting on a compact camera with flash, then I recommend you switch the flash off and use a tripod with the camera’s self timer. If you have a D-SLR and a decent flash (sorry but the pop-up jobs don’t count), then you can try bouncing flash off the ceiling and even using a radio trigger to trigger the flash remotely. Bearing in mind that most interior lighting is a horrible orange in white-balance terms you may find that if you gel you flash with a ½ CTO (colour temperature orange) gel then your flash matches the white-balance of the lighting. This means that the overall white-balance is the same, so the camera can easily correct for it and ultimately you get a better picture in which the whites are white.


Often the window in your images will be overexposed and blow out. This is because there is more light coming through the window than the lights in the room can provide. If you have a decent flash or set of lights, you can try to balance the window light to give a more realistic feel. Failing that, you could wait for a duller day, or for the sun to dip down over the horizon.


Styles:


As with food and fashion photography, styles are changing all the time - the current trend being towards natural looking interiors. Keep up to date with styles by looking at interior design magazines and architecture journals. Even the Sunday newspapers and magazines can give you a fair idea of what is currently fashionable.


These are just a few tips and basically only scratch the surface, but if you plough your way through the above details it will improve your overall understanding of photography, both indoor and out.


Learning how to get good interior shots of a room is a great encapsulation of the technical skills required to be a professional photographer. You must understand exposure, lighting, white-balance, composition, contrast, colour, texture and above all discipline.

Thank for reading…. Please leave a comment and for further examples of my work please visit.

http://www.dougjacksonphotography.co.uk/