Urban Landscape Photography Tips
Last week I was reading an issue of Digital Photographer Magazine (issue 50) which had a good feature on Urban Landscapes.
In it they interviewed an urban landscape photographer (Mark Bury) and asked him for his top 5 tips on his craft. I thought I’d share them here.
The headings are his the descriptions are my paraphrases of his tips combined with some of my own thoughts.:
1. Early Bird Catches the Worm - First thing in the morning is one of Mark’s favorite times to shoot for a number of reasons including that the light is diffused and the ’sky acts like a giant filter’. I’ve done a little urban photography too and also find that early morning shots can be great for a two other reasons too:
- Clean Streets - Most street cleaning happens over night and the early morning often finds urban scenes with less litter to clutter your shots.
- People Free Shots - Shots around dawn have less likelihood of being cluttered by people. It’s amazing who lonely a city can look if you’re able to get a people free shot.
- Different Activity - Of course you might want people in some of your shots - It’s amazing how an urban area can change depending upon who is around. While at 9 am you’ll get a peak hour feel to your shots and on the weekend at midday you might get a crowd of shoppers - in the wee hours of the morning there’s a whole different group of people wandering the streets can give your shots a whole new focal point.
2. Prospective Perspectives - Mark suggests that the shape of the buildings that you’re shooting should alter the way you frame your images. Buildings with domes should include background to help viewers appreciate it’s form and square buildings look best when shot at a 45-60 degree angle in Mark’s books.
3. Up and Coming - Don’t just photograph the finished product when it comes to buildings but also focus upon construction areas and what is being built and/or renovated.
4. Permission to Shoot - Some places don’t allow public photography and you might need to get a license and/or other form of permission to photograph them. Mark likens it to getting a model release when photographing people. Getting permission can mean the difference between owning copyright or not of the images you take in some instances. This will of course vary from place to place.
5. Angle Attack - Find new angles to photographing well known buildings. Find areas of them that are hidden from the average photographer and look for interesting patterns, shapes, textures, reflections and angles that highlight the details of the building that might have previously been missed by others.
Read our previous tutorial on photographing urban landscapes and submit your urban landscape shots to the Urban Decay Assignment in our fourms where the above photo was submitted by wbrag17 from Photos by Will.
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Oh good post! I was tempted to buy that issue, but bought Black and White Photography instead. Nice to have those heading to fall back on as urban photography is a favourite of mine.
Point 3 is important to me, as it’s recording a moment in time in the growth of a city or town. Cork City where I live has been changed completely, but I’ve recorded that process in several places. Here’s one I took a few months ago. This street is now almost finished, there are wide pavements, beautiful tarmac and clean lines. Quite a change from this:
http://inphotos.org/de-construction-on-grand-parade/
Go photograph the ordinary, you’ll love it when it’s extra ordinary :)
I love this stuff. I’ve always been fascinated by the urban jungle. I rescently moved near New York City, and I can’t get enough of it. I’ll be taking these tips with me on my next trip into The City.
Great article :-) I’m trying to get competent at urban photography recently at this is solid advice.
You put ‘who’ rather than ‘how’ in the second bullet btw
As an urban photographer hobbyist, I can appreciate getting up early to capture the city before when it is filled with people.
It has become more and more difficult to obtain permission to photograph on most private property, however, I will offer that standing on the sidewalk (public right of way) is license to take as many images as you want. I have on many occasions had security request that I not take images of their buildings, and I gently remind them that I am on public right of way, and they have no authority to prevent me. I love a good challenge, and being challenged has pushed me to work harder at being creative (and thankful for a decent zoom).
What a great article…I loved the tip on early morning photography. Being a novice photographer, I had never thought of that time of the morning for taking pictures.
Some good points here. Early morning and late after noon to dusk are prime shutter-releasing time.
Great post. I am back into photography after many years absence. The weather conditions on those early morning shoots also change the atmoshere so much . A sequence of same place shots in different time slots in varying weather situations can give such a completely different feel to the image. Its great to be back!
I would like to investigate Devyn’s assertion that you can always photograph from a sidewalk or public thoroughfare. As a journalist or as an artist or hobbyist maybe, but don’t ever let the owners of the Chrysler Building catch you using the image of their building for advertising!!
some real good points!
i particularly keen on strange view points
try to get right underneath or above or snap parts not seen by others
its kind of like when u can see the strings of a pupet but on a building
Just to help out anyone stumbling on this site about the copyright of buildings…..
‘In general, buildings erected after December 1, 1990 do not pose a big problem either. There is a “photographer’s exception” to a building’s copyright owner’s rights that permits the photography of buildings. This gives a wide leeway to the definition of “building”; everything from gazebos to office towers are included. As long as the building is in a public place, or visible — and photographable — from a public place, there is no infringement of the building’s copyright owner’s rights. This rule includes private as well as public buildings.’
“http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/copyright/publicbldg.php”
that may give an insight into what you can and cannot shoot or rather what you wont get in trouble for =)
Hi
I have a question. When we increase the sharpness, will it not lead to grains in the photo?
In responce to Nair, you would have to explain what you mean by ‘increasing sharpness’ i presue you mean in the processing stage using software to increase sharpness?? and if so in photoshop for example increasing sharpness will increase the noise (grains) in the photograph.