Customer Reviews

Architectural Photography: Composition, Capture, and Digital Image Processing

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When we take photographs outdoors, we invariably take pictures of architectural structures, even if they're not the main point of our photographs. It's a common subject especially when we travel. 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. 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. 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. In a clean writing style and a meticulous, no-fluff manner one would expect from an architect, Schulz presents this interesting field of photography. He also includes many marvelous photos of structures that he himself has taken.

Chapter Highlights
The book has four extensive chapters. In the first chapter, Schulz presents the history of architectural photography, starting with its roots in other art forms. 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 second chapter, Schulz discusses photography equipment. While it may be an overdone topic, there are some special aspects to consider when photographing architecture. He assumes the reader has a basic understanding of photography, and focuses on the particulars of equipment as they relate to his field. He talks about wide-angle lenses and shift lenses, and reviews accessories like lens filters. For much higher quality images, he presents arguments for using medium-format and large-format film cameras.

Chapter Three is on shooting techniques and is the heart of the book; its about half of the book. 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). He provides suggestions for developing one's skills as an architectural photographer and he discusses related artistic methods. He points out problems with the vertical lines of tall buildings converging, a bending of the image. He gives good suggestions and illustrations of how to solve these problems. He discusses the positioning of the camera for different artistic effects; and the effects of focal length on the results. He also points out how one should consider other objects in a shot: people, vehicles, and landscape.

Within the same chapter, Schulz has a section on shooting interiors. This can be tricky when constrained by small spaces. He has another section on factors related to shooting buildings outside, factors such as weather, time of day, and season. He ends with a section providing creativity tips in this field of photography.

Like all new photography books, this one has a chapter on post processing of digital images with computer software. However, Schulz covers aspects related to his architectural photography. Sure he has text on the basics of digital formats and RAW images, and he discusses cropping as one might expect. But he also extensively explains techniques for the straightening of photos--another method for dealing with converging lines or image distortions due to photographing architecture with ultra-wide angle lenses.

Summary
This is an interesting book and an easy read. It's not for the novice, though. Even if you have no interest in specializing in architectural photography, you may want to get a copy of this book and at least give it a quick read through. You'll be surprised by some of the things you'll learn and when someone asks you to photograph their home or office, you'll have a ready reference to prepare yourself for the shoot. Besides that, it's a pleasure to flip through even for non-photographers. It can make a great book to leave in your waiting-room or on a coffee table at home. Your visitors will enjoy it and it can inspire conversations on photography.

Architectural photography is an area full of competing factors that affect the picture. Architects want their work reproduced accurately. Photographers want it presented in a photographically artistic manner. Wide angle lenses and telephoto lenses offer different results. Photographing from close to the building emphasizes different elements than photographing from a distance. Author Adrian Schulz recognizes all these countervailing forces and discusses each of them so that the reader can make the choices that will be in keeping with his of her vision.

After a brief introduction, the book first explores the applicable photographic technology, including capture media, cameras, lenses and accessories. In doing so the author seems to have a preference for large format cameras but recognizes that, with the exception of compact cameras, all cameras have a place in architectural photography.

Next the author reviews shooting techniques, where a major problem is perspective distortion, and explains how to deal with problems. He finishes the book with a review of post-processing techniques that will help the photographer overcome problems that could not be dealt with in the field.

The author's writing is straight-forward and clear, easily understandable and lacking in humor. The book reads like a textbook. One thing that it scants is discussion of how to achieve artistic images that go beyond the architect's goal for such photographs. (This certainly is difficult, given the nature of the subject, but my own experience is that, at least to a limited degree, it can be done.)

I had a mixed response to the chapter on post processing, which emphasizes the use of Photoshop. The discussion of Adobe Camera Raw was a nice summary of the plug-in's use, but seemed applicable to almost any type of photography, although it lacked the depth of comprehensive instruction. On the other hand, when the author turned to the tools of the main Photoshop program, he did not try to be comprehensive, but rather focused on those tools with specific application to architectural photography that one might not use for other genres. I was struck, however, by his disregard of such a simple tool as the use of perspective cropping.

The author recognizes that architectural photographers will probably want to use tools like high dynamic range imaging and panoramic stitching, and while he provides an introduction to these techniques, one will need to explore other materials to fully utilize them.

The book provides an excellent introduction to architectural photography. I only wish there had been a little more emphasis on the possible artistic elements of such images.

The work the author put into making this book is impressive. The book is very detailed, organized logically, and to the point. In short it's nearly a complete reference to architectural photography basics. That's something very hard to find in most photography books.

I bought this book because I am expanding into architectural photography and wanted to learn the basics. Doing photography professionally leaves no room for gaps in one's knowledge. This book answered all of my questions such as how to avoid converging lines, how far to stand back, the effect of different lenses, and much more.

One section that I particularly enjoyed was the equipment chapter. The author examined all types of camera systems and made the case for using Digital SLRs with tilt shift lenses over other more expensive options such as medium format and view cameras. I found that section of great value especially so because many photography books include equipment chapters as paper filler.

That being said at times I found the book a bit too basic or perhaps too short. I wish some topics were covered just a bit more. Also, interior photography was covered in less than 10 pages, which made that section practically useless. I wish those ten pages were dedicated for more discussion of the effects of light and time of the day in architectural photography for example.

Some people tell me I have an eye for putting together architectural elements into a picture. And that was the problem as I relied on my eye to get a sense of what looked right, but I didn't know exactly what I was doing. Now with the help of this book instead of moving the camera around searching for the best view I know what to expect when I move the camera. That makes the process much more predictable, quicker, and professional. I just wish there were landscape photography books like this book back when I was starting to learn four years ago. Certainly one of the best books I bought this year.

This is a good, broad introduction to the field of architectural photography which will suit photographers with basic to intermediate skill levels. That said, the level of detail varies, and it will leave some readers wanting more.

After a good general introduction, the second chapter is on photographic technology. This starts with a discussion on analog vs digital photography which rather annoyed me, with its gross over-simplification of digital processing and generalisations on digital camera characteristics, with some confusion between dynamic range and aperture settings. In fairness many of the omissions (such as RAW workflows) are dealt with at length later in the book, but this section sets a simplistic tone which is not representative of the rest. The section proceeds with a reasonably fair comparison of different camera formats, albeit slightly hung up on pixel size, and a good, even-handed discussion and recommendations on lenses and additional equipment, but contains nothing of great value to the reasonably experienced photographer.

The chapter on shooting techniques is the core of the book. This starts with a discussion on the various objectives of architectural photography, and moves on to consider how to extract very different images from the same basic subject. After that the book leads the reader through perspective and its relationship to camera position, and the various ways to correct perspective distortions such as converging verticals. All this is done with clear examples, showing the effects by comparison of two or more shots of the same subject.

The various sections on composition are excellent, with good advice on how to emphasise different aspects, or make an image more inclusive, but I found the section on panoramas a bit basic, with no real advice on how to avoid common stitching distortions. A similar complaint might be levelled at the sections on exposure and shooting interiors, which are very dry and concise, although I can't find fault with anything which is said. The author does make the positive recommendation of using naturalistic HDR to address extreme dynamic range, and provides good exterior and interior examples, plus a comparitive example of the technique overdone.

A following section on lighting considerations, including shadows, reflections, weather and seasons is short, but has some good recommendations, including how to exploit different conditions for different moods. The chapter then finishes with a short section on photographing buildings creatively, which contains a number of simple yet powerful suggestions.

The third chapter is a slight oddity - a "commentary" by experienced architectural photographer Marcus Bredt. This summarises a lot of the main chapter's themes, but with a different photographer's words and examples. In another book this would be the guest forward, but I rather like this "tell them what you have told them" positioning.

The final chapter is on image processing. It starts with quite a detailed discussion on RAW vs JPEG, and a rather mechanical account of setting up a RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw. There's nothing wrong with these, but they feel slightly out of place. A useful but short section on perspective correction is followed by a long worked example of general image adjustment in PhotoShop, which has nothing to do with the book's main topic. Worked examples on panoramas and HDR are more relevant, but still have too much image-specific blow by blow detail and insufficient discussion of the general issues which arise when applying these techniques to architectural photography.

The book finishes with a short and very basic section on creative adjustments, but there's no overall conclusion. I was hoping for more detail on things like perspective correction techniques, but that's missing.

This book is rather like a sandwich with too much boring bread, and a tasty filling which isn't quite thick enough. The processing section feels like filler, and detracts from the excellent core on composing and shooting architectural photographs. The latter is good enough for me to recommend the book, but I must warn you that some topics will leave you wanting more. This is a good book, but could have been better.

This book covers everything from perspective distortion, vertical shift, lens correction to working in photoshop to correct for many of the problems involved in photographing architecture. This is the best I have seen yet.

Architectural photography has different rules from which one can not escape.
They can be used creatively or trivial. In this book several councils, and especially several shots, help to criticize our photos and teach you how to take advantage of the very restrictive rules in favor of a creative composition.

I am a beginning to be a hobbyist, and I think this book is a must. It does not only discuss the technical terms of how to do things and how to take photographs for buildings, but it also indulges the reader in some philosophy and into some artistic concepts and aesthetic point of views to what the reader might see.
It also provides a good introduction to the type of cameras that you might need to such field and what type of accessories that are often involved. It is not only confined to the external photography but it also discusses interior photography. I think it is one of the books that might be called "bibles of modern photography".