Architectural Photography with a Smartphone

I was recently asked by someone who thought I took good pictures to put together a short presentation on architectural photography for their contractors’ association. I’m certainly not a professional photographer, but I’ve been taking pictures for a long time with a modest degree of acclaim… and I’ve found if you take thousands of pictures, you’re bound to develop a style and figure out a few things!

Putting together this presentation caused me to take a critical look at my own process and the techniques I rely on when taking pictures. I have distilled some of my basic ideas into a “top ten” list of techniques. Keeping in mind that good photography is somewhat subjective, I’m pleased to share some of the concepts that I find myself using as I take pictures with my smartphone.

1. Consider how the photo will be viewed

Much of the time, my purpose for photographing buildings is personal: I want to capture the element that speaks to me, whether it’s the building’s form, its texture, its scale, or something else; I’m taking the picture for me with no other goal than to take a good picture. Other times, I’m taking photos for the benefit of others. I’m documenting a specific set of information for a specific purpose, for example, how the masonry is used, to communicate a particular story or message.

In this latter example, where the photo has an intended purpose, a little planning goes a long way. As you take the picture, consider how the photo will be viewed. For example, will it be projected in a PowerPoint presentation? Will it be posted to Instagram? Will it appear in a marketing brochure or website? Each of these types of media lends itself to how the frame can best be composed. At the very least, considering the method of viewing will help you decide whether you hold your phone vertically or horizontally.

2. Clearly identify the subject

I’ve viewed enough photos that seem to have an identity crisis… I can’t tell what I supposed to be looking at. If the subject of the photo is unclear, it’s not a successful photo. Before clicking the shutter, ask yourself what are you trying to show? Give the subject top priority. Background objects can provide important context, but everything else in the frame should support the subject. In compositions with many items at various distances from the camera, just before shooting, tap the subject on the screen to optimize focus and lighting.

3. Pay attention to the light source

Ideally you should have good, indirect lighting on the subject. Try to avoid harsh shadows. Position yourself and your subject to optimize the lighting available. In architectural photography, it’s often not possible to relocate the subject, but it’s always possible for the photographer to change position. When the desired view is direction-specific, for example an exterior shot of a building’s west elevation, plan your shoot to avoid morning hours when you would be shooting into the sun. In this example, it may be best to capture the west elevation at the golden hour, just as the sun has set below the horizon.

4. Take a moment to compose the frame

Back when film was expensive and processing it was even more expensive, a good photographer wouldn’t dare click the shutter until they were confident that their composition and camera settings were as good as they could be. Now that we have virtually free access to digital photography, our collective standards seem to have declined. Now, we might glance at the phone screen to make sure we’re not using the selfie camera by mistake, but how carefully do we really look before we click?

I encourage you to look closely at the composition (how your subject fits into the frame relative to other elements in the foreground and the background) before you tap the shutter. Use the full frame. Compose an image that is visually interesting, an image that includes everything important but nothing unimportant to your photo. This might mean you need to bring your subject or your vantage point closer or farther away.

5. Identify prominent vertical and horizontal lines

Our eyes are naturally drawn to strong vertical and horizontal lines. In professional architectural photos, all vertical lines like building corners and interior walls typically appear truly vertical and parallel to one another. If you’re not careful, a smartphone’s wide zoom feature will quickly distort these vertical lines and cause them to converge if the angle of the phone isn’t 90 degrees. So hold the phone straight to avoid converging verticals.

The secret to keeping horizontal lines truly horizontal is shooting “straight-on” to the subject, rather than shooting from an angle. Straight-on shots will result in one-point perspectives, keeping horizontals true and parallel. Otherwise, if the subject is shot from an angle, both horizontal axes will appear to converge resulting in a two-point perspective.

6. Convey a sense of scale

Include enough information in the photo so the viewer can appreciate the scale of the subject relative to the surroundings. This could be as subtle as a tree or a sky in the background, or a person somewhere in the frame for a scale reference.

7. Sometimes a crop is as good as a zoom

Use the zoom feature of your smartphone’s camera, but use it wisely. Zooming in too tight can be limiting, especially once the camera’s optical zoom has been overtaken by digital zoom… at that point you may as well stop zooming and just crop the picture later.

I almost always intentionally overshoot, meaning I capture a little more in the frame than I want to, knowing I will crop it out later. When I do my cropping, I’m not limited to the original aspect ratio of the photo. For example, if the photo has too much of an uninteresting sky or ceiling at the top, I can crop out as much as I want while keeping the entire width of the image, resulting in a more horizontal proportion.

8. Unusual angles add visual interest

For interesting effect, try taking photos from an unconventional vantage point. For example, if a tile or terrazzo floor features prominently as the subject, place the camera very near to the floor to capture it in an interesting way. Alternatively, shoot from atop a ladder looking straight down at the floor. Because we’re used to experiencing the world from eye level, very high or low vantage points can have a striking effect because they are out of the ordinary.

9. Always edit photos after you take them

Very few photos are perfect exactly as you’ve taken them. Most can be improved with cropping, slight rotations, and corrections to lighting, color settings, and even filters. It takes a little time to do this, but with practice the editing can go quickly. Spending just a minute or two editing your photos can make a world of difference, often giving them a professional look.

10. Have fun taking pictures

Don’t take these tips too literally. Some of the best photos break all the rules.

Scott Conwell, Director of Industry Development with International Masonry Institute, is an architect and hobbyist photographer living in Chicago and frequently on the road. He uses photography to discover and document beauty in the built environment. Looking beyond the obvious, his goal is to capture the details in the urban streets, structures, and spaces of our world. His photos have been published in architectural product catalogs, manufacturer websites, industry technical publications, trade journals, and architectural magazines. View Scott’s personal architecture photo galleries at https://sites.google.com/view/scott-conwell