Architectural photography is a blend between commissioned work and freelance art photography, with the photographers either getting paid by an individual, company or brand for taking photographs of certain buildings via a commission, or by selling photos as pieces of art either through their own website or use of a third party. Architectural photographs can be used in advertisements for various establishments, such as hotels, sports teams/companies and monuments/historically significant locations by companies. They can also be used as art pieces to be displayed in the decoration of an interior.
Jim Stephenson is a photographer specialising in architectural photography and from looking through his works listed on his website (clickclickjim.com/portfolio/) I can see that quite a few of these images were taken with the intention of being used by his clients (many of which are architect firms) for use in their own portfolio's or adverts, while others have been used by various magazines and newspapers to accompany articles and some have been taken for artistic purposes for the sole purpose of expanding Stephenson's own portfolio. The example of Stephenson's work, seen to the left, is a photograph of the interior of The Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford, London.
Architectural photographers tend to use mid to high range DSLR cameras due to their portability, the variety of filters that can be used with these cameras and the way in which all the settings (such as aperture, exposure etc) can be customised easily according to each individual image. The specific settings and equipment used in the taking of architectural images depends on the setting of the image, and the building being photographed. For example, for an exterior shot, the photographer would use an exposure and ISO according to the weather on that day and the way the light interacts with the building as more modern buildings feature a lot of glass windows that can cause light glares through reflections (this can be lessened through use of a polarising filter which is a piece of kit used by many photographers in many fields). Whereas, for interior shots, a photographer would use settings to reflect that environment and would make more liberal use of man made light sources rather than having to rely on nature. Of course, the settings used on the camera (as well as any filters used) also depend on any artistic vision the photographer may have for a photo, with differences in settings like aperture making noticeable changes to the overall look of an image.
Another tool that is used by architectural photographers is post-production editing software (mainly Photoshop). Quite often, photographers will use post-production techniques to highlight specific areas or details in an image, with architectural photographers often focusing on interesting shapes or forms found within the building. They can achieve this focus through cropping and positioning the image (using the compositional rule of thirds as a guide) while adjusting details like exposure, contrast and histogram levels to bring out qualities such as reflections, shadows and edges. Depending on factors such as the buildings design, the weather that day and any artistic ideas, the photographer may also choose to edit the colours in a piece, making them more vibrant, less saturated etc. Although, many architectural photographers choose to work in monochrome as colour can distract from interesting forms or shapes.
Architectural photography originated during the 19th Century and was meant to be a means of documenting and recording historic buildings such as cathedrals, stately homes and other such locations, as seen in the works of Frederick Evans. After some time, architects themselves began commissioning photographs of their works for use in their portfolio's, preferring the photographs of the completed projects rather than the hand-drawn designs and blueprints that had been used prior to this development. Between the World Wars, photographers started to promote the new and innovative rather than just record the old and historic. This allowed different architectural forms and practices to be discovered by other countries or continents. An example of this is how the works of Erich Mendelsohn introduced Europe to the art of steel frames and skyscraper buildings as found in America. Slowly, Architectural Photography started to be used as an art form. At first, photographers struggled to do this with the stationary sides of buildings, finding no motion or significant events to photograph as could be found in applications such as portraiture. However, eventually practitioners of Architectural photography started to experiment with changing other aspects of the photograph than the subject. For example, some photographers started to use strange camera angles and tilts of the lens while others used aspects such as reflections or lighting effects to create interesting images. Due to this, modern architectural photographers tend to not pay too much attention to conventions and "rules" established and used in other photographic applications, instead choosing to make their images as experimental and unique as possible.
Jim Stephenson is a photographer specialising in architectural photography and from looking through his works listed on his website (clickclickjim.com/portfolio/) I can see that quite a few of these images were taken with the intention of being used by his clients (many of which are architect firms) for use in their own portfolio's or adverts, while others have been used by various magazines and newspapers to accompany articles and some have been taken for artistic purposes for the sole purpose of expanding Stephenson's own portfolio. The example of Stephenson's work, seen to the left, is a photograph of the interior of The Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford, London.
Architectural photographers tend to use mid to high range DSLR cameras due to their portability, the variety of filters that can be used with these cameras and the way in which all the settings (such as aperture, exposure etc) can be customised easily according to each individual image. The specific settings and equipment used in the taking of architectural images depends on the setting of the image, and the building being photographed. For example, for an exterior shot, the photographer would use an exposure and ISO according to the weather on that day and the way the light interacts with the building as more modern buildings feature a lot of glass windows that can cause light glares through reflections (this can be lessened through use of a polarising filter which is a piece of kit used by many photographers in many fields). Whereas, for interior shots, a photographer would use settings to reflect that environment and would make more liberal use of man made light sources rather than having to rely on nature. Of course, the settings used on the camera (as well as any filters used) also depend on any artistic vision the photographer may have for a photo, with differences in settings like aperture making noticeable changes to the overall look of an image.
Another tool that is used by architectural photographers is post-production editing software (mainly Photoshop). Quite often, photographers will use post-production techniques to highlight specific areas or details in an image, with architectural photographers often focusing on interesting shapes or forms found within the building. They can achieve this focus through cropping and positioning the image (using the compositional rule of thirds as a guide) while adjusting details like exposure, contrast and histogram levels to bring out qualities such as reflections, shadows and edges. Depending on factors such as the buildings design, the weather that day and any artistic ideas, the photographer may also choose to edit the colours in a piece, making them more vibrant, less saturated etc. Although, many architectural photographers choose to work in monochrome as colour can distract from interesting forms or shapes.
Architectural photography originated during the 19th Century and was meant to be a means of documenting and recording historic buildings such as cathedrals, stately homes and other such locations, as seen in the works of Frederick Evans. After some time, architects themselves began commissioning photographs of their works for use in their portfolio's, preferring the photographs of the completed projects rather than the hand-drawn designs and blueprints that had been used prior to this development. Between the World Wars, photographers started to promote the new and innovative rather than just record the old and historic. This allowed different architectural forms and practices to be discovered by other countries or continents. An example of this is how the works of Erich Mendelsohn introduced Europe to the art of steel frames and skyscraper buildings as found in America. Slowly, Architectural Photography started to be used as an art form. At first, photographers struggled to do this with the stationary sides of buildings, finding no motion or significant events to photograph as could be found in applications such as portraiture. However, eventually practitioners of Architectural photography started to experiment with changing other aspects of the photograph than the subject. For example, some photographers started to use strange camera angles and tilts of the lens while others used aspects such as reflections or lighting effects to create interesting images. Due to this, modern architectural photographers tend to not pay too much attention to conventions and "rules" established and used in other photographic applications, instead choosing to make their images as experimental and unique as possible.
The above image is one taken by Frederick Evans and is an example of his work and it's role of recording historic architecture. Conversely, the below images illustrate the way the application of architectural photography changed to allow for the showcasing of the new and the evolution into an art form. The photograph on the left is by Erich Mendelsohn and was one of the pictures he took during his travels to America, introducing Europe to the differing architecture found there. The photographs on the right are of the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion, taken by Pedro Kok. They illustrate the focus of contemporary architectural photography, the interesting shapes and forms of modern architecture while also using colour and the surroundings of the building to create pieces of art.
Architectural Photography is, of course, characterised most clearly by it's subjects, which are pieces of architecture. However, this application of photography has the same amount of creative variety as can be found in its subjects. Different photographers working in this field focus on different aspects of architecture and different purposes to their work, whether its as a pure form of documentation or as an art form. Architectural Photographers can manipulate different facets of an image's creation and composition (such as camera settings, use of filters, framing and use of mediums like reflections and light glares) to create unique, creative and visually engaging images.
The images above (taken by myself) are examples of architectural photography can be used as an artistic piece (as seen on the left in Juxtaposition) and also to showcase modern architecture and the unique shapes it can create (as seen on the right with City Hall).
Juxtaposition was taken on the 4th of December 2015 with a Canon EOS 100D (Aperture:9/1, ISO 2500, Exposure 1/40). The subject is a modern office complex and the tree found in front of the buildings entrance. When taking the image, I was focused on getting the framing right as I wanted the tree to be in a central position in order to create an interesting relationship between the tree and the building behind it. At the time of shooting, I was very much aware of the edits I wanted to make, specifically the isolation of the tree's autumnal colouration. I made this decision in order to make a comparison on the forms of beauty being seen in the image. The beauty of the tree stems from it's orange hues while the building features interesting shapes, forms and reflections that make it a stunning piece of modern architecture. Another reason for this colour isolation was that, because of the very clear skies that day, the building's glass sides were filled with deep blue reflections and several light glares that I felt distracted from the focal point of the tree. I achieved this isolation using the History Brush tool in Photoshop, a program I also used to edit the exposure and histogram curves of the image in order to get the right tone for the image. If I could improve the image, I would be more careful while using the History Brush tool to avoid recolouring any of the building, as a small amount of blue can be seen in the bottom section of the tree.
City Hall was taken on the same day as Juxtaposition, with the same camera and very similar settings. However, instead of intending to put the image in monochrome to accentuate the forms of modern architecture as I did while taking Juxtaposition, I used the blue coloured reflections to accentuate the very unique design of London City Hall. I did this by positioning myself so that the location of the light source (the Sun) created shadows and different hues of blue across the building. By happy coincidence, the sky at that time had a few cloud formations that assisted in defining the edge of the building. In post, I used Photoshop to increase the vibrancy of the colours in the image as this change helped me get the various hues of blue that i was looking for. I also adjusted the exposure to reduce light glares from reflections as well as the histogram curves to help define edges by making dark areas and shadows darker. I feel like this image would be better if it had been taken just a little earlier in the day. This is because I think the City Hall is quite shadowed in the middle section and taking the photo earlier in the day would mean that the sun's position might help negate this effect.
Juxtaposition was taken on the 4th of December 2015 with a Canon EOS 100D (Aperture:9/1, ISO 2500, Exposure 1/40). The subject is a modern office complex and the tree found in front of the buildings entrance. When taking the image, I was focused on getting the framing right as I wanted the tree to be in a central position in order to create an interesting relationship between the tree and the building behind it. At the time of shooting, I was very much aware of the edits I wanted to make, specifically the isolation of the tree's autumnal colouration. I made this decision in order to make a comparison on the forms of beauty being seen in the image. The beauty of the tree stems from it's orange hues while the building features interesting shapes, forms and reflections that make it a stunning piece of modern architecture. Another reason for this colour isolation was that, because of the very clear skies that day, the building's glass sides were filled with deep blue reflections and several light glares that I felt distracted from the focal point of the tree. I achieved this isolation using the History Brush tool in Photoshop, a program I also used to edit the exposure and histogram curves of the image in order to get the right tone for the image. If I could improve the image, I would be more careful while using the History Brush tool to avoid recolouring any of the building, as a small amount of blue can be seen in the bottom section of the tree.
City Hall was taken on the same day as Juxtaposition, with the same camera and very similar settings. However, instead of intending to put the image in monochrome to accentuate the forms of modern architecture as I did while taking Juxtaposition, I used the blue coloured reflections to accentuate the very unique design of London City Hall. I did this by positioning myself so that the location of the light source (the Sun) created shadows and different hues of blue across the building. By happy coincidence, the sky at that time had a few cloud formations that assisted in defining the edge of the building. In post, I used Photoshop to increase the vibrancy of the colours in the image as this change helped me get the various hues of blue that i was looking for. I also adjusted the exposure to reduce light glares from reflections as well as the histogram curves to help define edges by making dark areas and shadows darker. I feel like this image would be better if it had been taken just a little earlier in the day. This is because I think the City Hall is quite shadowed in the middle section and taking the photo earlier in the day would mean that the sun's position might help negate this effect.