Architectural Photography

Another self explanatory genre, Architectural Photography is when the main subject matter of the photograph is a building’s exterior or interior. These shots tend to be pretty accurate representations of the construction that are taken in a way that is also aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Exterior shots usually use daylight to capture the building along with nearby landscaping features. They can also be shot at night using ambient lighting from street lights, surrounding landscape, or moonlight.

Interior shots can be complementary to exterior shots to further depict a particular architectural style or can be used as a standalone.

Perspective control is a key aspect of this niche due to the sheer size of most buildings. The large format view cameras of olden days, tilt/shift lenses, and post processing can all contribute to getting a great shot of a big building.

The world’s oldest surviving photograph is an architectural photograph taken in 1826 or 1827, making the genre one of the first genres of established photography. As architectural trends have shifted and buildings of different styles have been erected around the world, photographers can delve deep into this niche, focusing their efforts on a specific architectural style such as Contemporary, Tudor, Postmodern, Gothic, Victorian, Classical, and beyond.