Architecture Photography

Our modern image-obsessed culture has led us to consume a great deal of architecture through photographs, in opposite to physical and spatial experiences. The advantages of the architecture photography are wide, it permites people to get a visual understanding of buildings that they might never have the opportunity to visit in their life, creating a valuable resource that permit us to extend our architectural vocabulary.

The following images were taken in Madrid, these are the "Four Towers Business Area" which is a business district located in the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid (Spain), except for the last one that was taken in the Europa Park located in Torrejon de Ardoz in Madrid (Spain) and it is a park with monuments associated with the different countries that make up the European Union.

To get started, the first photos of the "Four Towers Business Area" were taken at sunset, the sky was so beautiful and I thought it would be a good idea to reflect the sky in the building facade because it is a business area and provide a warmth as opposed to what it really is. The next two photos are from the same location but transmit something totally different from the previous ones, the sky is blue and the photos were taken from a very counter-dive position unlike the others that the point of view is more perpendicular and the sensation is different in them.

The last image was taken in the Europa Park, which like I mentioned before, is a park with monuments associated with the different countries that make up the European Union. This photo is from the Eiffel Tower replica and was taken from the centre upwards. I like the sensation that produces because is like you are looking up and seeing the whole structure above you.

Here are some tips to enhance the visual strength of your architectural photography and the stories it can tell beyond the individual images:

1. Take different pictures depending on the weather and time of day. It can help to form a more complete story between the building and their environment, like the photos of the "Four Towers Business Area", just changing the sky or the perspective and showing the environment it makes they are very different between them.

2. Lighting is important. The architectural lighting helps to emphasize a space, a specific structure or an atmosphere. Sometime the artificial light is difficult to use to photograph some buildings and we have to take advantage of natural light.

3. Play with the perspective. Changing angles can mean to find shapes that can go unnoticed or an abstraction of a detail that can give place for another level of beauty and appreciation of their shape. It is not the same to take a picture from below or from the side because each image will inspire totally different things. 

4. Do not be afraid to include people. The architecture would do not exist without us, so it is not necessary that the image is complete clean from people.

5. Explore the details. Buildings have a lot of little details that could be lost when a whole facade is captured in a framing. Pay attention to the architecture in general but also in the details in particular.

6. Try not to objectify the building. The whole building needs to be spatially contextualised to understand the building in more than one points of view.

7. Use post-processing tools. Softwares such as Photoshop or Lightroom have tools such as lens correction that are very useful in this type of photography, as well as being able to adjust your images to your own personal preferences in relation to the importance you want to give to some details over others. 

8. Invest in the right photographic equipment. A tripod is very useful to take photos in low light conditions and the angular lens are more suitable for photograph buildings and interior spaces.

9. Visit the space several times. Returning to the same place again and again can reveal you different things of the architecture, it can serve to communicate the development or the degeneration of a building over time.

10. Research the building before. Reading the history and context of an architectural site before visiting is an indispensable resource that will undoubtedly help you focus the photograph on a relevant story or idea that captures the essence of the building. The history of the "Four Towers Business Area" is not the same as the history of the "Europa Park".