Photographing Architecture
The iPhone's lens (focal length 37mm equivalent) permits you to fit giant buildings into your frame. Keep it in portrait mode to fit in tall buildings and in landscape mode to fit in wide buildings.
The first thing you want to do to get a compelling architecture shot is to keep the sun behind you. It's best if the sun is cast upon the building you are shooting. Figure 5.6 shows a building shot lit by the sun. Note that the sky is blue behind the building. That only happens when the sun is on the other side of the sky from where you are shooting.
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Figure 5.6 Architecture shots should be taken with the sun behind you.
Figure 5.6 Architecture shots should be taken with the sun behind you.
You can vary your architecture shots in the following ways, still remembering to shoot so that the sun is cast upon the building to get that much-needed blue sky in the shot.
You'll want to get a good balance of contrast between building and sky when the sky has beautiful clouds. To get a picture evenly exposed, you can tap around on the iPhone 3GS and tilt/angle/move your camera on the iPhone 3G. If you tap on the sky to expose your photo on the 3GS, you'll get a dark building below. If you tap on the building, you'll get an overexposed sky, as shown in Figure 5.7.
- Figure 5.7 You'll get an overexposed sky if you tap on a dark building.
To get better contrast in your entire frame, building and sky, tap on a place that's neither too light (like the sky) nor too dark (like the building). In Figure 5.8, I tapped the roof of the building so that both the sky and the building would be exposed better. When the sky is as compelling as the one you see in the figure, you'll want to tap around so that it is exposed correctly, while watching that the building doesn't get underexposed. If you're using an iPhone 3GS, you can tilt and turn the camera to get the best overall exposure.
- Figure 5.8 You'll get a more evenly exposed photo if you tap an area where the light is neither light nor dark.
Just as with any camera, when you tilt the iPhone upward when taking a photo, you'll get converging lines in the frame. In Figure 5.9, you can see how the columns in the frame lean in toward each other. This happens because of the orientation of the lens with respect to the building. (The camera was tilted upward to take the picture.) Because you'll probably be tilting your camera upward when you're taking a photo of a building, all the lines that building makes will converge into each other as you move up the frame (unless you photograph the building from above, in which case the lines will converge into each other as you move down the frame).
- Figure 5.9 When you tilt your camera upward, you'll get converging lines in the frame.
One way to avoid converging lines is to shoot architecture from a distance, as shown in Figure 5.10. When you're a bit away from the building you are photographing, you don't have to tilt your camera.
- Figure 5.10 A picture of a church with no converging lines.
Sometimes it's just not possible to keep lines from converging in a photo. Finding a place to photograph buildings so that lines don't converge in the frame can be a challenge. The building in Figure 5.11 was shot from across the street, some distance away from the structure. The iPhone still created converging lines in the frame. In this photo, though, the lines are compelling because they repeat and offer a pattern in which the middle line is straight up and down, and the lines to the left and right of that line fall toward to it. Adding to the interest of this photo is that each balcony contains an interesting vignette, which keeps you looking around the frame to see what's there.
- Figure 5.11 Converging lines can be interesting.
Finally, there are times when converging lines serve the iPhone photographer well. In Figure 5.12, two buildings are joined at a line that connects one building whose face contains murals of people on balconies and the side of a building that contains empty balconies. If the image contained only the mural as it was seen straight on without converging lines, it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting as seeing the perspective of the images as they get smaller as you go up in the frame, with the empty balconies on one side and the blue sky on the other.
If you frame two structures of similar designs, you're bound to bore your viewer. Contrast usually provides the human eye with a vivid experience. A building of mundane architecture can be made more interesting by including another structure or building of different, more elaborate design.
In Figure 5.13, the bottom part of the Golden Gate Bridge has been framed with one of the buildings beside it. The curves and vertical and diagonal lines of the bridge's steel work contrast with the tan building's nondescript design. Also impressive is the negative space—the color and shape of the sky above and below the bridge, the top a triangle of darker blue and the bottom a semicircle of lighter blue.
- Figure 5.13 Part of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and a building beside it.
In Figure 5.14, the tower at Park Guell is framed with a lamp that has a red sign attached to it with some graffiti on it. If only the tower was included, the shot would look like any tourist took it, but frame it with the stylized lamppost, and you have yourself the beginning of a work of art. Add the bit of graffiti as shown in the shot, and you're telling a story about how man's markings can range from the artful and complex (the tower and lamp) to the simple and juvenile (the red sign tagged with someone's name).
- Figure 5.14 The tower at Barcelona's Park Guell with a lamp beside it.
Finally, there is the issue of framing architectural elements—isolating them, if you will, examining shape, texture, and form. If you see something up high on a building that you'd like to isolate in a frame, you're out of luck. The iPhone doesn't have a zoom lens, and unless you're Spider-Man, you're not likely to get a picture of an exterior building up high. But this doesn't mean you can't take close-up art shots of architectural elements. Figure 5.15 shows a thick iron fence set against wooden doors. It's a nice picture, to be sure. It's the added element—the reflection of the thick iron—that really makes the shot. If you look around, you can not only take beautiful close-up shots of architecture (as long as you can get your iPhone near the element), but you can also usually find that something extra that will make your picture a "Wow!" photo.
- Figure 5.15 Frame architectural details.
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