47 City Skylines to Inspire You
This morning I received an email from a dPS reader who was heading to New York for the weekend ahead. She was seeking a little inspiration and advice on taking cityscape shots. I pointed her to some posts in our archives but thought it might be fun to find some great cityscape images on Flickr too. Of course there’s so many different approaches to photographing a city – but here’s some of what caught my eye.
While not every shot will be to everyone’s tastes my hope is that this city skyline image collection might inspire some photographic explorations of the cities we live in and travel to.
Click the images to get information on who took them where they were taken (and to view them at larger sizes).
![Vista desde la torre [ NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS ] Abril 2010](http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4003/4505884856_c8da8a1887_z.jpg)
49 Responses to “47 City Skylines to Inspire You” - Add Yours
July 26th, 2012 at 2:22 am
Amazing and some of them unbelievable!
http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/
July 26th, 2012 at 2:36 am
Stunning images! They really are inspirational. Thanks for the post!
July 26th, 2012 at 3:02 am
Really nice but only one shot of Hong Kong? No other skyline comes even close! May I humbly offer:
http://spikesphotos.com/2012/07/24/heres-one-i-missed/
http://spikesphotos.com/2012/07/05/fei-ngo-shan-july-3rd/
http://spikesphotos.com/2012/05/04/another-hong-kong-harbor-shot/
Sorry if this is too many or deemed to be self-promoting, which I suppose it could be. But I do shoot the HK harbor and skyline pretty often and I don’t think any other skyline matches it, even New York!
July 26th, 2012 at 3:18 am
The London Eye at night is impressive:
http://wildlifeencounters.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/London-scenes/G00006G6EmXMr9Ac/I00005INHqMB2ULI
July 26th, 2012 at 3:28 am
Ohhhhh what wonderful pictures! Amazing. I wonder what were the vantage points for the NYC snaps
July 26th, 2012 at 3:53 am
So much bad HDR.
July 26th, 2012 at 4:58 am
I love the pictures, but I don’t know what cities they are of. Sure, some are hard to miss, such as New York City, Paris, London, Sydney, Dubai, etc., but some I just cannot make out or don’t have any iconic landmarks that I recognize. Naming them would have been useful. I know I could have clicked on each file, looked at the original Flicr image, and then know where they are, but that is pretty time consuming 49 times.
Despite the comment about too much HDR, I have to admit that I like some of it. Sometimes it is necessary and sometimes adding extra colors in helps the image jump off of the page. Of course, like everything else it is subjective.
Frank
July 26th, 2012 at 5:10 am
Cool set of shots – I’ve never been much into cityscapes though – but these are certainly cool. I prefer heading out to where the lights aren’t so darn bright and shooting the night sky – http://www.phogropathy.com/kayaking-under-the-stars/
July 26th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Incredible set of photos, I especially appreciate the perspectives of Paris I’ve never seen before!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lendog64/5431477442/
July 26th, 2012 at 9:05 am
It is missing pictures of San Francisco!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meandfrenchie/7111757769/in/photostream
July 26th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Hey Darren, not sure this constitutes “inspiring city skylines” but many have commented at flickr that they have enjoyed it. It was shot pre-digital as a double in-camera exposure. Maybe your readers would also enjoy.
…dave
July 26th, 2012 at 9:35 am
my share
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6725026515_de13b85451.jpg
July 26th, 2012 at 10:46 am
Wonderful set of images. They are all inspiring!
July 26th, 2012 at 11:26 am
splendid photographs,
provides inspiration to all,
I liked the pic of one with pigeon.
Here’s mine
http://raghavendra-mobilephotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/train-comes.html
July 26th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Here’s the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveterry/117865851/
…dave
July 26th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
very beautiful photos
HDR works wonders on these
i have recently been to Zalsburg in Austria
made some photos of this beautiful city from the fort in the old city:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirpaz/7267463386/in/set-72157629789258364
i especialy like this one, the composition and the HDR effect:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirpaz/7272586428/in/set-72157629789258364
lovely post, always nice to travel the world on the net
Amir
July 26th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
Splendid collection of cityscapes near and far. I like all the different styles of presenting our cities through the eyes of so many photographers, including my own of Hong Kong. Thank you. I am in the business of making exciting cityscapes in photography, so please visit my website for more international and American cityscapes! A feast for the eyes, especially if you love urban landscapes and aerial photography of different cities!
July 26th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Check out my set of photos from La Défense in Paris:
http://photographr.net/wordpress/?p=1350
It’s a real paradise for architecture-lovers!
July 26th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Hey Darren – thanks for including my photo of Sydney in this great collection! It’s an honour mate
July 27th, 2012 at 12:56 am
Amazing collection! I think that the one with the buildings poking through the clouds. Very cool!
One of my favorites:
http://blog.jeffejensenphotography.com/2011/06/top-of-world.html
July 27th, 2012 at 12:57 am
Another favorite:
http://blog.jeffejensenphotography.com/2011/06/new-york-city-panorama.html
July 27th, 2012 at 1:34 am
So a single building shot up close now constitutes a skyline? I think it’d be ok to reject submissions once in a while.
July 27th, 2012 at 1:50 am
Wonderful ….. Good Job ….
July 27th, 2012 at 2:02 am
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RsZFiTMkfQk/S-UOwiCfi6I/AAAAAAAANGQ/pRsItUv4g9E/s912/snap%2520351.jpg
July 27th, 2012 at 2:09 am
Some nice ones but *yawn*, somebody wake me when vulgar HDR finally gets put to rest…
July 27th, 2012 at 4:17 am
Wow awesome post! This is great! I’m going to be doing some cityscape shots soon and I was just thinking “I need to know how to do it well” and then this post is here.
Thanks DPS!
http://disney-photography-blog.com/
July 27th, 2012 at 4:27 am
Hey Darren – great to see my photogenic Chicago home represented so often in your collection! I happen to be lucky enough to look at that great skyline and Lake Michigan every day from my 34th Floor condo on the North side of town and love the play between clouds, water and city. Here’s my favority after a Memorial Day storm 5/29/11! And by the way your great tips are terrific – keep them coming
!
July 27th, 2012 at 4:43 am
Photography seems to evolving into a new form of painting.
July 27th, 2012 at 4:49 am
I f…ng hate bad tonemapped HDR images, and these are catastrophic.
July 27th, 2012 at 9:14 am
One of mt most favorite photographic studies.
Some fab work
July 27th, 2012 at 9:17 am
One of mt most favorite photographic studies.
Some fab work
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/7311147386_3abc6d8774_s.jpg
July 27th, 2012 at 9:27 am
some absolutely breath taking pictures!!! Ahhhh!!
July 27th, 2012 at 10:57 am
Here is one that likely isn’t familiar to most.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_I9ow640xxFE/TPBuP829ZqI/AAAAAAAACBU/1q1Z919A9dU/s1600/DSC_0648.jpg
You can see it in context at http://tomandmargotsphotos.blogspot.com/2010/11/trip-to-beijing-and-tianjin.html
Tom
July 27th, 2012 at 11:39 am
Great set of images! Thanks for the inspiration!
July 27th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
stunning stuff
here s my share
http://mikhailanand.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/lightworks-2/
July 27th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Absolutely awful collection of over saturated, over HDRed snapshots.
What’s the point? Some of these are beautiful cities with great personality and individuality… all of that is wiped out via manipulation for the sake of contrived “perfection” & uniformity. Its’ not a joke that many of the cities in these snapshots are unrecognizable: they’ve been put through a blander! How very, very sad.
July 27th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
There are some great shots here but am I the only person out there who is sick to death of over photoshopped photos? It’s like with music. The industry has given up quality for technology…. Perhaps it’s me….
July 27th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Wonderful compositions but the heavy processing, on all but a few, really diminishes what otherwise is great photography.
July 28th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
The photos are amazing but also discouraging to those of us who are not photoshop pros. Even if we take an equally wonderful photo it pales in comparison to the heavy post production work. Stops me from entering contests even when I think my photo itself makes the grade.
July 28th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
I love hdr city scape images.
I live in a rural town, there’s no tall buildings around to photograph or to use as a vantage point.
July 29th, 2012 at 9:21 am
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July 29th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Missing pics of Seoul…..
July 30th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Thanks for including my pic of London-Trafalgar Square in this beautiful set!
July 30th, 2012 at 5:43 am
Quite a range of styles on display. Impressed with the Paris shot from Notre Dame and the Shinjuka Tokyo neons put Piccadilly to shame
July 30th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
verry nice photo
August 3rd, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Romania, East of Europe
http://marius-fotografie.blogspot.ro/2012/06/neatza.html
August 16th, 2012 at 8:17 pm
You were right, amazing skylines and I’m inspired….. but nothing like this in our neck of the woods
August 20th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Some truly amazing skylines! Thanks for sharing! I saw a link to this post on http://www.shootnshop.nl, à dutch photography website.
August 24th, 2012 at 2:48 am
wonderful pictures, but i think it’s missing this place
it is Makkah in Saudi Arabia
and here is from the top
i didn’t take these photos but my opinion it is the best place in the world
thank you
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