Keystoning
The term 'keystoning' refers to a type of distortion caused when an image projector is not placed perpendicular to the centerline of the screen onto which an image is being projected.
- Maintaining parallel lines in an image (particularly vertically)
- Achieved by keeping focal plane perpendicular to ground
- Take notice of whether the vertical lines in your image are converging near the top. If they are, and you’re not attempting a purposeful exaggerated distortion, then try to correct the image by making those lines parallel to each other.
White Balance
White doesn’t always look white
- Consider warm vs cool lights
Use a Tripod
- Set a 2 second timer on your camera, so that the vibration of you snapping the picture doesn’t interfere with the image
Lenses & Focal Length
- Always double check that your lens is clean
Details
Shooting
- Consider taking pics at belly button level
- Consider keeping height of wider shots consistent
Lighting
- Consider avoiding flat lighting where there’s an even amount of lighting coming onto the subject, especially from the point of the direction of the shooting. It doesn’t allow for types of shadows that you tend to covet.
- Your main source of light should be coming toward or perpendicular to the camera. Note: this is a good guiding rule, but it is very flexible.
- Consider time of day and weather
- I think you’d most enjoy taking pics at sunset (twilight) — particularly when artificial lights are in the shot
- For interior photography, aim for natural light
Simplify & Declutter
Exposure Triangle
- You have essentially 3 ways you can allow light into a camera (aperture, ISO, and shutter speed)
- Shoot with a narrow aperture or narrow F Stop
- Typically between F8-F13
- When you narrow down your aperture you cause your lens to see a much larger range of where things will be in focus
- You know those portrait photos where the background is super blurry? Those are the opposite of what we want in architectural photography. So their aperture would be wider. Typically around F2.8-F1.2
- A longer shutter speed makes everything that moves during its timeframe blurry — not necessarily a bad thing considering architecture doesn’t tend to move, but it’s not a style you gravitate to.
- For architectural photography, this should usually be as low as possible — typically somewhere around 100
Aperture
Aperture refers to the opening of a lens's diaphragm through which light passes. How big the hole in your lens is.
Shutter Speed
How long the shutter stays open when allowing light in
ISO
The setting for how sensitive your sensor is to the light that the aperture and shutter speed have let into your camera
Composition
Tell a good story
- Consider the angles you’re shooting at
- Consider lines, shapes, and patterns
- Symmetry and leading lines are good composition guidelines
- Consider experimenting with abstract shots
- Consider taking advantage of foreground elements to obscure part of your image view
Landscape Photography Rules
Tools
- Lightroom
File Format
- Shoot in “Raw” or “Raw & JPEG”, rather than just “JPEG”. This gives you more flexibility in post.
Exposure Bracketing
Exposure bracketing is a technique where, instead of taking a single photo, you take three (or more) that are all exposed slightly differently; normally one is correctly exposed, one slightly underexposed, and one slightly overexposed. That way you can combine them in post later on to take advantage of your ideal sunset meets artificial light combo.
- Look for a setting called “self timer during bracket” in “bracket settings”
Photo Sketching
Taking rough pictures of a place you might want to return to for a proper shoot in the future.
Resources