Architecture and Urban Landscape
indirect portraits- buildings materials, styles and scale provide clues to who the people are that built them where and what their lives were like.
- lets us examine the formal aspects of design
-has a lot in common with landscape photography
Looking Back
architecture was popular b/c:
- moving pictures took to long
-buildings were stationary
-emphasis on creating EMOTION through use of lighting and shadows
Photographing the Built Environment
Thinking Artistically
- a visual recording of a building
- a casual "sketch" of a place and the emotions connected to it
-details of a building
Lines-=can be used to lead the viewers eye or cut the image into different sections of values or textures
pattern- the repetition of any of the elements or art
- adds visual complexity
Camera Settings
smaller f-stop creates greater depth of field, bringing more of the scene into focus
use bigger camera format for the most detailed images
a slow ISO setting creates a finer image
VALUE AND TEXTURE
value most important in black and white photography
value helps determine the shapes of objects and the direction of the light source
contrast- the greater the difference in the tonal values, the more 3-dimensional the image will look. the more similar the values in a print are, the more 2-dimensional it looks
low-key print= has darker values
high-key print= made up of mostly lighter values
texture- the tactile or "touchable" quality of a surface
- enhances the 3-dimensional quality of a photograph
Film
Color- emphasizes color, setting (commercial)
Black and White- emphasizes values, shapes and textures (artistic)
Lighting
important for interior architectural photography
incandescent-regular household bulbs (appears orange)
quartz- modern spotlights (appears yellow)
fluorescent- (appears greener)
daylight
Lenses
wide-angle lenses are preferable b/c in an enclosed space it can be difficult to get the whole image
Camera Support
tripods are best used in using a slow shutter speed b/c it creates a fine-grained film and lots of depth of field
preferably a light weight one
Filters
a polarizer can separate images and reduce shininess
The Big View
(commercial) wide-angle view, overall view
perspective distortion- appears as strong converging lines in a building, where the sides of the building angle toward each other instead of looking parallel as they are in reality
straight forwards shot creates a 2-dimensional image
a bit to the side will reveal better textures, forms, and shadows
Shadows
great way to tune into the visual world around us
The Detail Shot
features the detailed architectural elements of a buildings exterior or interior
want to use telephoto lenses so that you can stand at street level and zero in on intriguing elements
Interior Views
can create a presence of the of the people who live in and use a room
wide-angle lens for big view
the higher the f-stop the more depth of field you get
- good for close range/ detail shots
tripod preferable b/c most likely will have slow shutter speed and aperture
