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 
     • Different lenses for different photos 
     • 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; an EOS camera with a standard zoom will let you take a wide range of photos of buildings.

Ideally you also need a tripod but they can be awkward to carry around – an alternative is a monopod which gives better support than hand-holding a camera but takes up less room and weighs less than a tripod.

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.