Urban Landscape Photography
By Diane Bohlen
DEFINITIONS
Street Photography
It is defined by its candidness and produces ironic amusement and it is a mirror image of society displaying unmanipulated scenes of unaware subjects.
Architectural photography
The photographing of buildings and structures that is aesthetically pleasing and accurate.
Cityscapes
It is photographing the city landscape from outside or above the city.
Urban Landscape Photography
It is usually associated with imagery of cities, buildings, streets and subways. Anywhere humans have made an impact on their environment.
Urban landscapes go beyond capturing the big picture cityscape, which is usually polished and clean.
Urbane landscapes are less interested in the building and its architectural style and more interested in what happens in and around it.
Urban photography focuses more on the city itself and its life rather than candid shots of the people who live in it.
It is the best way to document your experiences when traveling. There are so many colours, shapes, symbols and people that our senses get overwhelmed. So capturing urban landscapes is important to help you remember them later.
GEAR
Smartphone, Point and shoot, Bridging or DSLR camera. If you use a DSLR you need a wide angle lens and a zoom. A tripod for night photos or a monopod is handy. You can get a dazzling display of streetlights, neon’s and lights from windows it adds ambience. Use a wide aperture and a long exposure. You can get light trails with buildings in the background to make stunning images.
A neutral density filter is useful too. A long exposure and a neutral density filter can remove people and cars. It also makes water and clouds look smooth and interesting.
A polarizing filter can reduce unwanted reflections off glass and water.
TIPS FOR URBAN LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
COMPOSITION.
As always remember to use the rule of thirds.
Have an interesting foreground.
Framea whole building with a wide-angle lens or with panoramic on a smart phone or some cameras and post processing programs can stitch a series of photos together.
Fill the frame to draw the viewers into the shot.
Use leading lineslike roads, bridges, rail lines a moving bus to help the viewers enter your image and look at what you want them to focus on.
Use layers,have a series of focal points leading into the image.
Include reflections as they add an extra dimension. Reflections can be found in windows, water, wet streets, sunglasses, rivers and puddles. To get the perfect shot you need to try lots of angles.
PeopleA constant challenge in urbane landscapes is that cities are places where people gather. They tend to become the focal point whether you want them to be or not. You need to learn to work with people by either eliminating them from the shot or using them as a focal point or to enhance the area. Ask your self are they adding to the composition or are they distracting?
Humans can’t be controlled so a lot of photographers leave them out. Urban landscapes without people can show evidence of people and the way they live both good and bad. So look for evidence of people and make it a feature in your image it can be very powerful. On the other hand photographers have created unique shots by including people.
Architecture. Architectural images should not only be aesthetic and graphic but be dynamic and show movement. Do this by using lines, patterns, curves, circles, light, shadow, textures, reflections, symmetry and details.
Look for buildings in interesting locations like churches on top of hills, like old buildings nestled in between modern buildings. Photograph iconic buildings in different light and different weather.
Go insidebuildings and arcades. Don’t forget constructionsites.
Look for contrastsbetween architectural styles, building materials, and colours. You’ll end up with some very interesting shots.
Look for themeslike people’s homes, doors, windows, alleys, lanes, sculptures, bicycles and murals.
Explore different locationswithin a city. Within a short distance you can move from a business area to a commercial area or to a grotty run down area or a trendy residential or shopping area.
Perspectives.Photograph cities and buildings from different angles. Go up to observation decks or go for a helicopter ride and shoot from above. Shoot straight up from under a building. Find angles that are different and places that are hidden from the average photographer. Look for shapes like domes and get them with a background, which shows off the shape.
Walk around a site, work the area and find that unique perspective.
Be careful of distortion or use it to your advantage to create tension. To avoid distortion use a wide angle lens or move further away. It can also be fixed in post processing.
Add a sense of scale by including people or everyday objects like cars, trees or benches.
Use a small aperture to keep it sharp throughout the image or use a wide aperture for a narrow depth of field and effect.
Street scenes. Show what people are doing in the street or how humans have had an impact in the street.
Suburban or Rural. Don’t think you are restricted to cities.Suburban streets and buildings as well as country towns also lend them selves to urban landscapes. In fact tumbledown barns andsheds can make fascinating images.
LIGHT
A different type of light and different direction of light creates different images. The direction of light causes contrasts, shadows, textures and reflections. High level of contrast needs bracketing and HDR. Soft morning and evening light is very good but harsh light is not impossible. You can always escape it by going inside buildings or arcades.
In the early morningthe sky diffuses the light and there are no harsh shadows. There are also less people at this time giving the scene a lonely mood. People are doing different activities too. The streets are cleaner with less litter and clutter.
In the eveningcities change incredibly when the lights turn on. Something that was drab can become something with a lot of character and mood. In the twilight zone you can still get some colour and light in the sky to illuminate details like buildings and bridges but you also get the impact of city lights.
You can also get silhouettes at this time. Expose for the sky to get a dark foreground. Use negative exposure compensation.
Catching the sun setting on buildings ca make interesting photos too.
Different weather and seasons provide different lighting and different moods. A town can look entirely different in different seasons. Autumn with its amazing colours , snowy winter scenes make it look quiet and summer the people dress in brighter clothes. In our part of the world, the sub tropics, the seasons are not so different but we can use the light from different weather. Thunder storms can give an urban landscape a completely different look. Rain makes the roads give colourful reflections at night.
CONCLUSION
John Barbiaux says, “Be bold, Its not good enough to photograph a beautiful urban scene anymore. Anyone can do that. You need to wait to capture an image that is impossible to replicate.”
John also say, “By studying multiple genres of photography you open your mind to perceiving better, more unique composition as opposed to approaching your goal wit tunnel vision. You’ll see beautiful images where you have never seen them before.”
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