Architectural Photography by Adrian Schulz

He ends with a section providing creativity tips in this field of photography.

He has another section on factors related to shooting buildings outside, factors such as weather, time of day, and season. This can be tricky when constrained by small spaces.

Within the same chapter, Schulz has a section on shooting interiors. He also points out how one should consider other objects in a shot: people, vehicles, and landscape. He discusses the positioning of the camera for different artistic effects and the effects of focal length on the results. He gives good suggestions and illustrations of how to solve these problems. He points out problems with the vertical lines of tall buildings converging, a bending of the image. He provides suggestions for developing one's skills as an architectural photographer and he discusses related artistic methods. Schulz explains what makes a photograph of a structure art and not just a documentary photo (e.g., factors such as the subject, perspective, camera positioning). For much higher quality images, he presents arguments for using medium-format and large-format film cameras.Ĭhapter Three is on shooting techniques and is the heart of the book its about half of the book. He talks about wide-angle lenses and shift lenses, and reviews accessories like lens filters. He assumes the reader has a basic understanding of photography, and focuses on the particulars of equipment as they relate to his field. While it may be an overdone topic, there are some special aspects to consider when photographing architecture. In the second chapter, Schulz discusses photography equipment. He gives interesting connections like the works of Bernardo Bellotto from the mid-18th Century who painted precise city scenes in Italy using a device called a 'camera obscura'. In the first chapter, Schulz presents the history of architectural photography, starting with its roots in other art forms. He also includes many marvelous photos of structures that he himself has taken. In a clean writing style and a meticulous, no-fluff manner one would expect from an architect, Schulz presents this interesting field of photography. However, to do it in such a way so that the results are artistic and not just a boring shot of some structure, that takes artistic skills and know-how. Photographing a house, a building, a church, or other structures such as a bridge may seem like a simple task-after all, they don't move or hide from the camera. We all do it: taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, and capitol buildings and churches everywhere-lots of churches. It's a common subject especially when we travel. When we take photographs outdoors, we invariably take pictures of architectural structures, even if they're not the main point of our photographs.

Architectural Photography by Adrian Schulz