Tips for taking the best architecture photo

The most important thing to capture buildings is the perspective. You'll see that there are many more ways to capture a building than you'd think. A building is often the least interesting if you stand right in front of it. Walk around the building and find the corner of it, for example. Take a few steps to the left, to the right, or bend your knees a little until you've found the most interesting angle.

A photo becomes more fun to look at if you can see an angle of view. That's because your eyes automatically follow that line to the most important part of the photo. A building usually has very sleek lines, both vertically and horizontally. Use these in your photo. For example, make sure a line of the building goes from the bottom left to the upper right in your photo. Or have several lines come together at one spot in the photo.

In photography, symmetry is almost always avoided. That's because it makes a photo boring. But in some cases, symmetry works very well. Architectural photography is a great example of that. Are you standing in front of a building that's 100% symmetrical? Use this in your photo. If you didn't capture it exactly in the middle of the image, you can adjust it later by cropping the photo.

Just like symmetry, rhythm can also help to give your photo of a building a different perspective. Rhythm in patterns creates a peaceful effect. If you use this, make sure that you can't see the surroundings on the photo. You can also use rhythm to show depth in a photo. You can show some surroundings in that case, such as street lights.

Framing a subject attracts attention to it. You can do this with an angle of view, but also by taking a photo through an opening. This could be a window or between two pillars, for example. You can also create a frame by using your surroundings. If there's a tree next to a building, you can use the green and the branches as a frame. The same applies to indicators and subway signs.

Though this isn't always an option, it's fun to know that photos taken at dawn or dusk are more beautiful. At the beginning and at the end of the day, the colors outside are softer. Buildings often have very strong dark colors, which are softened by the light colors of the sky. Keep in mind not to take photos directly into the sun, but with the sun behind you.

The colors of modern buildings often provide a great contrast to the colors of the sky. Taking photos with a black and white filter helps increase this contrast. In addition, incident light stands out more with with black and white photography. The part the light shines gets more attention, as you're not distracted by colors. You can intensify the black and white effect in the editing process by increasing the contrast.