Buildings and portraits became popular subjects for photography because the long exposure times required by the early photographic processes made it impractical to photograph moving objects. As the technology improved, and people’s desire to learn about their surroundings increased in the Victorian Era, photographers were dispatched to all four corners of the globe to record events, buildings and geographical features. As photography advanced, so new genres and uses were developed for it and architectural photography became a field in its own right. In this article, I intend to analyse the various uses and techniques of architectural photography.

Today, the most common type of architectural photography are the images taken by estate agents to sell houses. For most houses, the images will typically be of the front of the property with the most flattering aspect. These images are normally taken by the estate agents rather than by a professional photographer and digital camera technology will be used almost exclusively. The digital cameras save time and money by producing digital images which can be fed straight into the typesetting software for producing the advertisement. Looking through the property page of a local newspaper, the artistic quality and skill of the photography is generally appalling with images being squint, taken from the wrong angle, exposure problems, poorly framed, poorly focused and unattractive. But this misses the point. We don’t expect works of art on this kind of advertising photography and we use the picture as a rough guide to the property. The other extreme can be seen in the up market world of "Country Life" and other similar magazines. The adverts in these magazines are almost works of art in their own right. Being detailed studies of the buildings, including the interiors in many instances. The image sells the property in this case and so much more care is required. A skilled photographer using medium and large format cameras is therefore essential.

Apart from selling property, photography is used to sell design concepts and architects services. Professional magazines like "The Architects Journal" contain many images in every issue detailing the workings and styling of various projects. Architectural firms use images from their more innovative buildings to advertise their services and so, again, good quality photographs are required. This kind of photography can be a lot more complex as the buildings tend to be large commercial sites, built in a city landscape where they are surrounded by other buildings, lighting is complex and there is little room to manoeuvre around the property. The interior of the building is generally more important than the exterior and this generates its own set of problems. The light levels are generally to low and the fluorescent lighting will normally produce a colour cast if care is not taken. The photographer has to be skilled at using lights to create an effect.

The skills of the architectural photographer are often called upon during the building progress to record the various stages. This is especially true of prestigious projects like the millennium dome where there is a lot of public interest. Apart from their use as a historical record, these photographs are typically used to publicise the building, the building contractors and or a specific material or process used in the building’s construction.

The design and planning of buildings is a long and convoluted process which typically starts with a vague request from a client and a site survey. Photography is often used in the initial stages to give the architects a feel for the location of the new building. The brief for the photographer would be to not only record the site but to photograph the surrounding buildings and landmarks. The model makers, who would make a mock-up of the street with the new building so that the client can see what the final result will be like, also use these images to ensure accuracy. Often these models themselves become the subject for the architectural photographer as the images are required for planning applications, brochures and leaflets.

The photography of buildings is also used to form a historical record for reference in the future. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England which includes the National Monument Record and the National Building Record is a national archive of information about historic and listed buildings, which includes photographs in its collection. Survey teams are sent across the country to record all types of buildings from sheds to factories. A record is made of the interior and exterior of the building, the materials used in its construction, and any peculiar architectural practices. Study is also made of the use of the building and this is especially important when recording industry and old industrial processes.

Whereas architectural photography is mainly concerned with portraying an image and selling a product, record photography is concerned with portraying facts. Every image must convey as much factual information about the subject as possible pushing artistry from the main focus to a minor priority. The techniques and problems faced by the photographer, however, are the same in both cases.

The toolkit for a true Architectural Photographer is extensive and will vary depending on what kind of shot is required by the client. In order to get the flexibility and quality, a field or technical camera is typically used. These cameras are very simple devices consisting of a plate to hold the negative, a plate to hold the lens/shutter mechanism and a flexible bellows between them. The lens can be moved in any direction relative to the film plane and this one feature gives this camera its versatility and strength. The different movements essentially improve control over depth of field and distortions caused by wide-angle lenses and awkward camera angles. The most commonly used feature of these cameras is the "rising front", which raises the height of the lens relative to the film plane, and corrects the distortion commonly known as converging verticals. Other movements can be used to correct or create distortions to provide a dramatic effect. Medium format or 35mm cameras can be used, however, the smaller negatives and lack of control outweighs the size and cost benefits of these formats. Shift lenses are available for these formats although they only produce a limited amount of movement and tend to be very expensive.

Due to limitations caused by room size or the space between buildings, wide-angle lenses are typically used in order to capture as large an area as possible on film. Wide-angle lenses have a wider angle of view, greater depth of field for a given aperture and are typically faster, i.e. have a larger aperture. Their drawback or limitation is the distortion that can occur at the edges (fish-eye effect) causing the curving of lines and an exaggerated sense of depth. These problems increase in magnitude as the focal length of the lens reduces. The fish-eye effect can be reduced or avoided by using aspherically corrected lenses and by avoiding vertical edges at the edges of the frame. The fish-eye effect can be exploited however to give an interesting viewpoint as in figure 6.

A lot of architectural detail is above eye level and this causes a problem for the photographer. To get a frame filling shot with a wide-angle or standard lens, you have to be very close and square on to the subject which is often not practical. By standing further back and using a zoom or tele-photo lens, the detail can be made to fill the frame and distortions caused by the viewing angle minimised. This is the main use for these lenses in architectural photography as the narrow field of view and shallow depth of field makes them impractical for general use.

Using a tripod is essential as it removes the risk of camera shake and leaves the hands free to adjust the camera and the set. Filters have an important role to play, especially when photographing indoors with artificial lighting. Tungsten lamps give a brown cast to the images and fluorescent lighting is typically green although it can vary. Applying a colour correction filter neutralises the effect (blue for tungsten and red for fluorescent) and is essential when using slide film that is not tungsten balanced.

Lighting building interiors and exteriors is extremely complicated. The exterior shots are normally taken in daylight, however, there will be a right time of year and hour of the day when the sun is in the best position to bring out the texture and detail in the building. A careful study of the building and the path of the sun will identify the best time to photograph it. Many buildings now have flood lighting installed making shooting in the evening feasible. The best time to do this kind of shot is sunset or dusk when there is still some colour in the sky and some ambient light which prevents the background from going black and giving some detail in the shadows. "Painting with Light" is a technique used when there is no flood lighting available. The camera is set for a long exposure time (5 to 10 minutes) and once the shutter is opened, the photographer goes round the building firing a flash gun at all the areas of the building that will appear in the shot.

The interiors of buildings can be as awkward as the exteriors because the illumination is not designed for film. Bright sunlight streaming through windows and dark murky corners creates a large amount of contrast which film cannot cope with easily. Clever use of reflectors and fill in flash are generally adequate in small rooms but larger areas may need a complex arrangement of studio flash equipment to ensure fairly even lighting throughout. Bright sunlight is a problem that can be overcome by waiting for a cloudy day or covering the windows with tracing paper to cut down the light. Care should be taken with the light levels as, if they are too low, the effective resolution of the film will decrease and the final image will be grainy with low contrast. If large amounts of contrast cannot be avoided, for example in churches, use negative film which has a larger dynamic range and expose the film for the mid range light level. Bracketing either side of this value will ensure that you have a range of prints at different exposures, which can be assessed later to find the optimum.

The choice of film will depend very much on the final use of the images and the effect that is required. Faster film will work in lower light conditions but the results are grainier than slow film. The client may require slide film, however, care must be taken to ensure colour casts caused by artificial lighting are avoided. There is also less exposure latitude, which means that either the metering must be very accurate or bracketing used. The prints from colour negative film, however, can be corrected for colour casts and some exposure problems. The bigger technical cameras use sheet film, which is very expensive, compared to 35mm. Sheet film has to be pre-loaded in a dark room, into light tight containers or slides, which mount on the back of the camera. To save cost and time, a Polaroid instant film is often used to gauge the exposure settings before taking the final image on proper film. Colour film tends to produce warm images while black and white is better at picking out detail and textures. Lithographic, and other high contrast films, can be used where the capture of fine detail is important. The choice of film is as important as the choice of lenses or camera position so great care must be taken.

Architectural photography has come a long way over the last century as lens and film technology has developed. There is now a much wider range of materials and camera hardware available while lighting equipment has become smaller and more powerful. The skill of the architectural photographer, therefore, lies in his ability to put all the technical factors like film, camera and lighting together to realise both his own, and the clients previsualised concepts.

Appendices

Appendix A - Architecture of Kingston Portfolio

Appendix B - Buildings & Architecture Portfolio

Image Copyright

Figure 1 – House Advert © unknown

Figure 2 – House Advert © Country Life

Figure 3 – Millennium Dome © unknown

Figure 4 – House Interior © J Blunt

Figure 5 – RCHME Photographer © RCHME

Figure 6 - Carriage Shed © Images of England, RCHME

Figure 7 – Taff Merthyr Colliery © RCHME

Figure 8 – Durham Cathedral © RCHME

Bibliography