MINI COURSE TOPIC 5: Tips for photographing buildings
Of course, when you travel, you will also want to be able to take awesome pictures of buildings. This is different from taking pictures of landscapes and people. Learning the best ways and best practices from those who have already gone before you is the best thing to do.
Turn Off Auto-Focus and Use Manual
Having the lens for your camera set with auto-focus on might give you issues when the building is dominated by regular geometric patterns like a row of windows. Another example is when buildings are in the frame behind the subject, because the background objects appear larger than the subject. Auto-focus may be unable to work, and you're left with the camera unable to perform the shutter release. The point here is that just use the manual focus for the shots.
Set Aperture Large Enough to Not Need Tripod
A tripod usually isn't necessary as long as there is enough light, even though you'll likely be using a higher f-number for the aperture to get a deeper depth of field. An aperture of f-9 or f-10 can get your shutter speed down to 1/10th of a second to stop blur and still get you a decent depth of field, as long as you don't have a lot of objects in the foreground in front of the building.
Use Tripod for Panoramas
Use a tripod if it's fairly dark when taking shots or if you plan to do panoramas using software like Adobe Lightroom. If making panoramas, it is essential to find a spot in the centre for symmetry to put the tripod and then make sure it is level. Afterward, go from either left to right or reverse and take about five pictures, swinging a few degrees in the rotation that just keeps the edge of the previous picture in your current frame for a little overlap. A vertical panorama is done similarly.
If you don't want to do panoramas this way, you could get a really wide-angle lens.
Symmetry Is Important
A big part of taking pictures of buildings is symmetry. It can be hard to get the rule of thirds in architectural-type pictures because if you put the building off too far to the side on the third, the lines in its geometry may not look good if you are too close to the building. Getting a shot from a far enough distance to get a rule of thirds to look right might be impossible. A lot of walking around the building may be necessary to find the perfect angle without distractions interfering with the shot.
Early Morning Blue Sky Is the Best Background
If the building is still lit up early in the morning, that would be an excellent time to take a picture because the lighting for the building helps it stands out against the sky.
When you get these factors right and you have a good camera (or even your phone), a lot of times the picture will turn out way better than you thought it would. If you at least think about the shot before you do it, you're much more likely to succeed.
