digital camera magazine - complete photography guide - urban
TRANSCRIPT
8/8/2019 Digital Camera Magazine - Complete Photography Guide - Urban
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There’s more to landscape photography than the countryside, says Steve Bavister, ashe takes to the streets to capture the sights of the city…
FEATURE
YOUR GUIDE STEVEBAVISTER
Steve Bavister is an experienced photographic journalist and freelance photographer. He iseditor of The Photographer, a leading magazine for professional photographers, and author often books on photography including Digital Photography and Take Better Family Photos
www.dcmag.co.uk/SteveBavister
URBANLANDSCAPES
PORTFOLIOSTEVEBAVISTER
hink of landscape photography and it’s almost
certain that images of rolling hills and green
valleys come to mind. But there’s another kind oflandscape – one that’s more accessible to many of us and
offers equal potential: the urban landscape. Towns, cities and
villages offer creative opportunities for the photographic
enthusiast, and unless you live on a remote island, there’s
bound to be a wealth of subject matter close to hand.
In a typical city you’ll find: bridges; skyscrapers; flyovers;
subways; historic monuments; sprawling motorways; road
signs; speeding cars; taxis and trucks; urban sculptures; train
stations; neon signs; billboards; roadside cafés; industrial
estates; hotels; factories; shipping ports; building sites… and
that’s just for starters.
Of course, visiting some of the great cities of the worldis bound to get your creative juices flowing. Think of the
skyscrapers of Chicago, the watery elegance of Venice and
the bright lights of Las Vegas. However, even in a small town
or village – in fact, any built environment – there are plenty
of subjects to photograph. It’s not just a matter of what you
photograph, it’s how you photograph it. Your backyard can be
a fertile source of fantastic imagery – a row of terraces or a
semi in the suburbs can be photogenic when approached in
the right way.
A brief history of
urban photographyFrom the early days of photography, urban subjects have
been popular. The oldest known photograph, ‘View
from a Window at Gras’, by Niepce, includes
buildings. In those days, exposures were
extraordinarily long (eight hours in
the case of View from a Window), so the static nature of
buildings made them ideal subjects.
As early as 1843, Fox Talbot, one of Britain’s pioneeringphotographers, was taking pictures of architectural subjects,
including the construction of Nelson’s Column and street
scenes in Paris. Astonishingly, the Architectural Photographers
Association was founded way back in 1857, and a whole
string of magazines featuring buildings – including
Architects’ Journal and Architectural Review – launched
between 1895 and 1897, taking architectural
imagery out to a wider audience.
Over the past 100 years there’s been a lot of
fantastic urban photography, and everyone will
have their favourites: the classic cityscapes of
Stieglitz, perhaps; the metropolitanabstractions by Andreas Feininger
and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; the
‘decisive moment’ of people in the
city streets captured by Henri
Cartier-Bresson; or the edgy
urban tales by modernists
such as Lee Friedlander.
Urban landscapesT
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WHY WE CHOSETHIS PICTURE
4Converging verticals don’thave to be your enemy –here, they add a sense ofdynamism to the shot
Shooting at duskbrought out theblue in the sky andgave the building’slights more impact
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ABSTRACT THINKING
Buildings can be used as a basis for more abstract
compositions, taking advantage of their shape and geometryto create something more original. The edge of a wooden
building against the sky or repeated patterns in the glass
frontage of an office block, are just two of the many
possibilities open to you.
Going even closer enables you to concentrate on the very
fabric of the building. Bricks, panelling, stonework and
roofing tiles all have wonderful textures that, in the right
light, are magically revealed. Shooting abstracts isn't
technically difficult, and requires no special equipment – it's
just a matter of thinking about your subject matter in a
different way.
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Light and the citySkilled use of light is what sets apart many of the great
urban images of the past 150 years, and remains one of
the most crucial things to consider when taking pictures
of towns and cities today.
As a general rule, you’ll find that sunlight brings
buildings to life, but the time of day when you shoot
is important, too. The soft illumination of morning
and afternoon is often better than the harsher light you
get around midday, when the sun is high in the skyand casting heavy shadows downward. Conditions are
also more atmospheric earlier and later in the day
because the light is warmer than the bluer light found
around noon.
The angle of the sun is extremely important. Best
results are usually achieved when the light strikes a
building obliquely and brings out the texture of
the materials used, especially stonework. For many
subjects, nothing beats the ‘raking’ sunlight you often
get at the end of a bright day, which gives a strong
sense of depth. Placing the sun so it strikes the buildinghead-on will lead to flat and disappointing results. With
CHOOSE A COLOUR IMAGE WITHGRAPHIC POTENTIALSearch through your files for pictures with
strong shapes and tones that will look good in mono.
01 INCREASE THE CONTRASTUse either the Levels function or the
brightness/contrast sliders to boost the
contrast for a punchy, black and white effect.
03
It's easy to produce a graphic monochromeimage from a colour original in Elements 2SWITCHING TO BLACK & WHITE
88
TAKE OUT THECOLOUR INFORMATIONYou can either do this by switching to
Grayscale mode or use Enhance8
Colour8
Remove Colour.
02
Mood is the magic
ingredient that can bring
any city scene to life, and
one of the easiest ways
of introducing it is by
shooting into the light
2Look for ways of creating a sense of depth in your
urban pictures by including other elements in the foreground –
to avoid everything looking far off in the distance and
two dimensionally flat. Overhanging leaves can frame a
building attractively, and add interest to the sky. Other
features such as bridges and arches can be used in the same
way. If you have direct control over your exposure settings,
using a small aperture will keep everything sharp (though
sometimes having the foreground element out of focus can
be more effective – especially if it's close to the camera).
FRAMING FOR DEPTH2
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some buildings, however, you have no choice, because
of the direction they face (although only north-facing
buildings will see no sun during the course of a day).
Whenever possible, scout out locations before shooting
at different times during the day, in order to get the best
lighting position.
Night movesAlthough few buildings look their best in overcast
lighting, you can still take superb pictures at night – evenon the grottiest of days. As light levels drop so the sky
turns blue, which is the ideal time to take your pictures,
rather than later when it’s gone completely black and
contrast levels are much higher.
In bright city streets you may be able to get
away with holding your camera in your hand if
you select a higher ISO setting, but if shutter speeds
drop below 1/60sec you may need to support the
camera to prevent the dreaded camera-shake. A
tripod offers maximum f lexibility, but you can always
improvise by using a wall or fence. If there’s nothing
convenient around, brace yourself against a wall or
lamppost to minimise the risk of blurred pictures.
Most digital cameras offer auto speeds down to one
second (which should be more than sufficient for most
floodlit subjects or neon signs) and some also feature a
‘B’ setting where you can hold the shutter open for as
long as you want. This is great for capturing light trails
from moving cars, and can help bring city landscapes to
life. Generally, a shutter speed between four and 15
seconds is needed, depending on the circumstances.
Placing the sun so it strikes thebuilding head-on will lead to flatand disappointing results
INCLUDE MORE OF THE SCENEUsing the wide/standard settings on your lens
allows you to include more of the scene.
01 VARY THE ANGLEWalking around allows you to try out different
background to produce the best effect.
03
Using the full range of your zoom lensgives you lots of compositional choicesZOOMING IN
88
CROP IN MORE TIGHTLYZooming in more allows you to isolate
interesting details that have caught your eye.
02
This subtle study, captured in the shaded backstreet of
a village in southern Spain, showcases the rich colours
of the wall and the design of the rail
2
COVER FEATURE URBANLANDSCAPES
Road signs make interesting urban shots –
experiment with different compositions and makeyour images more graphic by creating diagonal lines
2
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Anticipating what colour-illuminated buildings will
turn out in the finished picture is largely a matter of
experience. Tungsten lighting is often used, and the
results will be orange – unless your camera’s whitebalance compensates for it automatically and renders it
neutral. If it does, you may want to override it, as the
results can lack mood and a nighttime feel.
Whether you’re photographing urban scenes at night
or during the day, you need to take care with your
exposure. At night, all the darkness may cause your
meter to overexpose, producing burnt-out highlights.
And certain types of buildings – especially those painted
white or with pale stonework – can fool the meter into
underexposure and flat muddy results.
You should also watch your exposure in any situation
where you’re including lots of sky in the picture –perhaps because you’re tipping the camera back to
include the top of a tall building. It’s a good idea to
check your images periodically on the preview to make
sure things are okay on the exposure front and, if
necessary, tweak the settings with compensation to get
the right balance.
In the days of film-based photography, using filters
over the lens was essential if you wanted to get the
best results: an 81B orange filter to warm up stonework;
a polariser to add punch and saturation; and a half-
coloured graduated filter to add density to bland,
washed out skies. In the digital age, these are not so
The modern urban landscape is full of highly reflective surfaces, most obviously glass but also
things such as metal and water. These can be used to good effect to produce unusual
compositions. The reflections you get in glass-fronted skyscrapers in particular can be
fascinating as they change throughout the day according to how the light is falling onto the
buildings opposite. Using a telephoto lens setting allows you to crop in tight on the reflection
and exclude the building itself, producing a trompe l'oeuil effect where the viewer doesn't
know exactly what they're looking at.
REFLECTED GLORY2
One of the downsides of using a digital camera is that you get used to having everything instantly. But not everything
is available immediately in photography – and that's particularly true of light. If you're lucky, it's coming from the right
direction and has the qualities you want, but that's not always the case. Sometimes you need to return later, when
the sun's moved further round, or has come out from behind the clouds. This is one area where patience really is a
virtue, and if you want to be a successful photographer it's something you need to cultivate.
WAITING TILL THE LIGHT IS RIGHT2
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important, as many of the effects can be introduced in a
more controlled way in an image-editing program.
Getting creativeTry to get creative with your urban landscape work –
look at everyday scenes from a different viewpoint, so
that your images don’t look like postcard clichés.You could automatically go for a wide-angle setting
so that you can fit everything in. Or you could use the
telephoto end of your range to isolate interesting
architectural details such as gargoyles, plaques, sundials
and door knockers, which can all make great pictures in
their own right. Or you might prefer to create abstract
compositions from the unique lines, colours, patterns
and shapes you’ll find all around you.
Converging verticalsOne of the problems with using a wide-angle lens –
especially where space is limited – is that you haveto tip the camera backwards to get the top of a
building into the shot. This creates what are known as
‘converging verticals’, in which the building appears to
be falling over backwards. While it’s possible to
compensate for this problem in a number of ways,
(including in your image-editing program), you can
make a virtue of it by going in close and exaggerating
the effect, so it looks deliberate rather than an accident.
The secret of success is to use the full range of your
zoom, creating a variety of different images, ratherthan the same old thing each time. Walk around your
subject before you start snapping to find the best
viewpoint, exploring higher and lower vantage points.
Simply standing on a wall or crouching down can make
a big difference.
Look for ways of leading the viewer’s eye into the
picture. Often a building will have a path, allowing you
to compose the shot so that it draws the eye from the
foreground to the middle of the picture.
Think also about how you might be able to enhance
the picture on a computer – perhaps by cropping in to
produce a thin, upright composition or a long, thinpanorama. Many image-editing programs include a
‘panoramic’ option that automatically ‘stitches’ together
several images and, with the right subject, you might
consider shooting a series with that in mind.
People powerIf you’re a purist about your landscape photography, and
you want to photograph urban scenes without people in
them, get up early before they arrive or start shooting
when they’re not in the frame. If that’s not possible,
take several pictures of a scene featuring people and
paste the shots together to remove them completely.There are so many interesting characters who live
and work in the city who can be used to show scale,
add humour and create a more complete document of
city life. While grabbing candid shots is one approach,
consider asking people whether they are willing to pose
for you. If you explain what you’re doing, many will
more than happy to help out if they have time. Showing
people and places together results in rich images full of
resonance and meaning – images that will be
fascinating to future generations as they look back on
them, as we do now to the photographs taken by the
pioneers of photography…
■ As long as you're on your own or public property
you're free to photograph pretty much any building you
can see – as long as it's for amateur use. However,
taking pictures of certain defence and military sites is
against the law, and there are also restrictions on
photography or commercial purposes at some
government properties, such as historical monuments,
and they expect to you to buy a permit. On private
property, it's at the discretion of the owner whether youcan take pictures.
■ The reddening effect of airborne pollution in larger
cities such as Athens can enhance sunsets, producing
dramatic results in the right conditions.
■ Take care when shooting in large cities, especially
ones you don't know well. While your attention is
focused on the photography your equipment can be
vulnerable. So keep your bag close to you, with the lid
down, and place your foot inside the strap to prevent
someone grabbing it and running off.
EXPERT TIPS2
Serious architectural photographers avoid converging verticals by investing in a special
Perspective Control (PC) lens – more commonly known as a ‘shift’ lens, because the
elements can be moved up and down, magically eliminating the convergence. Most
enthusiasts don’t have upwards of £1,000 that such lenses cost, and have to make do with
their existing equipment. One option – where there is plenty of space – is to get further away
from the subject and use a telephoto lens to produce a more natural perspective. Another
alternative is to find a higher vantage point from which to shoot – so avoiding the need to tip
the camera back.
AVOIDING CONVERGING VERTICALS2
It’s a good idea to walk around your
subject before you start snapping –to find the best viewpoint
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