What is the definition of architectural photography?
Even though I’ve worked in this industry for many years, I don’t believe I’ve ever published an entire blog dedicated to the definition of architectural photography and the numerous inquiries I receive from businesses and homeowners who are unfamiliar with the subject. This page will explain how this type of photography differs from others and provide some background information and answers to common questions.
Architectural Photography Defined
It’s easy to think of architectural photography as just taking pictures of buildings, but it’s much more. Architectural photography is concerned with capturing the architecture and exact representation of a structure and the aesthetic appeal of the images to the viewer. An architectural photographer creates rather than takes photographs.
Architectural photographers need additional skills and techniques to capture the beauty of structures, such as perspective control to capture whole spaces and knowing when and when to discover the photos.
Architectural Photography: Interiors and Exteriors
It’s also worth noting that architectural photography isn’t only about photographing building exteriors: photographing building interiors is just as significant, especially in residential, hotel, and resort businesses.
Architectural photography’s best camera
One advantage of building photography is that your subject is quite adept at keeping stationary. As a result, if you’re searching for a camera to capture structures, you won’t have to worry about features designed for action or portrait shooters. Fast continuous shooting modes and face-tracking autofocus systems are examples of this.
Instead, go with a good DSLR or another interchangeable-lens camera. DSLRs with full-frame sensors have long been the standard for architecture photography due to their ability to produce high-quality photographs and give excellent perspective control.
Architectural photography’s best lens
It’s important to have a few different architecture photography lenses on hand. Prime lenses produce sharper photos with less distortion. In contrast, zoom lenses make it simpler to get near architectural details that would otherwise be difficult to reach (such as a gargoyle on a building ledge).
A prominent form of architecture photography lens is the tilt-shift lens. The angle of the lens can be adjusted independently of the camera with these lenses. Photographing a towering building is especially important for minimizing perspective distortion, which causes vertical lines to appear to converge.