How to Craft Amazing Architectural Shots

Your point of view, both in terms of where you set your camera and what the structure means to you, will be a defining feature of your architectural photographs. Shoot to find out what you are drawn to, and go from there. 

Gaut’s style, for example, is dominated by angles and a closer perspective than is typically seen in architectural photography—a characteristic born of necessity. He had purchased a used 4x5 rig on eBay that he thought came with a 90mm lens (extra-wide on this large-format camera), but in fact was outfitted with a 210mm (short telephoto) lens. “At the time I couldn’t afford to buy other lenses,” he says. “So I started shooting with the longer lens and found I was able to get something more unique, and more consistent with my vision of architecture. It also allowed me to shoot buildings that I considered not necessarily interesting as a whole—but [whose details] held a lot of potential. Once I could afford more lenses, I still felt connected with that way of working.”

Ashok Sinha captured these curves, above, using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 16-35mm f/2.8L Canon EF Lens. Exposure was 1/30 sec at f/4, ISO 320. 

If Gaut is all about angles, Ashok Sinha, another New York–based photographer, is all about curves. His picture of the staircase in the Frank Gehry–designed Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto is above. “I find a curve to be a strong visual element, especially for architecture, where everything is [usually] very straight. It adds a bit of flavor to the pictures—it makes them pop.”

Seats by Christopher Griffith; shot with a 4x5 Linhof Master Technika Camera, 150mm Rodenstock lens, Kodak Portra 400 film. 

Griffith, in the meantime, focuses on repeating patterns, as can be seen in his shot of the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Matthias Haker, a Dresden-based commercial photographer, is clearly drawn to spirals and tubes, as can be seen in his photo of a station in the London underground. “I’m fascinated by spiral staircases,” he says. “It’s a typical situation that I photograph a spiral staircase in some office building. . .and as the people who work there see me lying on the floor, they start to look up and actually realize how beautiful it [is]—even though they’re used to seeing it every day.”

The lesson? Think about what visual elements in the built environment most draw your own eye, and frame the scene in
a way that brings these elements to the forefront.

Matthias Haker went underground for this image. Sony A900 and 17-35mm f2.8-f/4 Konica Minolta AF lens; exposure 1/10 sec at f/3.5, ISO 200.