Bruce Allinson has worked to capturing clients architecture at its best since 1981.

The Composition of Architectural Photographs

Architectural photography can be a very time consuming workflow. Beginning with consideration for composition and lighting. The composition can be planned out at anytime but with the exception of some interior views the lighting is very often a waiting game. Choosing the correct time and weather conditions to photograph a location can be very important.

Our first choice of camera for architectural work is always going to be a view camera. We have invested in a number of modern view camera systems, the Cambo Ultima II and the more compact Cambo Actus GFX medium format digital camera. These cameras allow us to shot both large format film for best quality, or medium format digital files are often deemed good enough.

Second only to choosing the correct viewpoint the most important aspect of any architectural photography is the photographers ability to control the perspective, in particular the vertical lines that are non-converging (parallel).

Exterior architectural photography

The View Camera has a long been associated with architectural photography and is always going to be the best equipment to deliver professional results as only a view camera allow for both the lens and the film/sensor plain to be tilted or shifted relative to each other.

When it comes to composition the view camera offers the architectural photographer precision control of focus and perspective in a way that no other camera can

Interior architectural photography

Sometimes natural lighting can also play a large factor with interior views. However, in many instances it is of much less important as we have so many lighting tools available with portable studio lighting and a selection of light modifiers. The use of well thought out and well balanced supplemental lighting can help set a mood, or pull important details or features out of strong natural shadows.

Post Production and Processing Architectural Images

While the professional use and method of working with a view camera leaves us less likely to be spoiling a photograph by stretching and distorting pixels in post production. Photoshop can still plays a very important part in modern architectural photography.

Dressing the photograph

When we started out in 1990 we always arrived on site with a broom to sweep up cigarette ends etc. We would even fix road markings with white, or yellow tape. Today picking up the occasional crisp packet is often all that is needed as it is generally quicker to handle all other issues in photoshop.

“Street furniture” will also get our attention and consideration when processing our photographs. Should a lamppost or a public bin obscures a feature or take the eye away from the main subject we will consider using photoshop tools to remove them. However, even with a lamppost in front of the building our first choice would be to fix it in camera by stepping to one side and using the camera movements to pull the composition back to where we want it.

Composition of the photograph

As a general rule the correct use of the view camera in architectural photography will mean that we do not have to adjust the composition in post as the field of focus and perspective will have been controlled in camera. While these adjustments are possible in photoshop the stretched and distorted pixels can be unflattering and are most undesirable.