Buildings make superb subjects for your camera – and there is no shortage of them. The diversity of buildings, in style and size, means that your photographs will be equally varied.

There are a number of useful techniques to help you add a little more impact to your pictures. This tutorial will cover the following areas:

• Basic equipment
• Optical zoom on your PowerShot or IXUS
• Alternative viewpoints
• Capturing the detail
• Old versus new
• Time of the day
• Black & white

Grande Arc Paris, You Connect member Stefan Leisi, Canon EOS 40D

Basic equipment
One of the benefits of photographing architecture is that you don’t need lots of equipment to get started; the zoom on your IXUS or PowerShot will let you take a wide range of photos of buildings. Being an optical-type zoom, image quality is maintained.

Ideally you also need a tripod but full size ones can be awkward to carry around – an alternative the smaller type with flexible legs permitting it to grip to some objects.

If you don’t use a tripod set a fast shutter speed; this will help to reduce the effects of camera shake. In lower light, increase the ISO speed setting will let you shoot with faster shutter speeds.