Architecture Photography

Buildings are more than structures — they're expressions of culture, ambition, and craft. Photographing them well requires an understanding of geometry, light, and the relationship between a space and the people who inhabit it. This section covers exterior and interior architecture photography, from tilt-shift lenses and perspective correction to working with natural light at the right time of day.

Barcelona's Top Five Photography Locations

In the lead image above can anyone mention who was inspired by Gaudi's rooftop sculptures in Hollywood? For first time travelers to Barcelona these are my five favorites photo spots. I am expecting many readers to add their best spots that are not on this list. Please make sure to Google pin your exact locations in your comments.

Landscapes of Uncommonly Deserted Cities

Nicknamed the city that never sleeps, New York City is commonly known for busy streets and people on the go at any time of the day or night. When one photographer sees the opportunity to photograph these commonly hustling cities into a uncommonly deserted areas, the results are a tranquil look into the true heart of some of the worlds most famous locations. 

Stairways That Take You Back to the Future

Balint Alovits is a photographer based in Budapest, Hungary who created a showcase of Bauhaus and Art Deco caracoles. He calls them "Time Machines." He assures me that these stairways really exist and that they aren't computer generated.

Landscape Photographer Shows How You Can Capture Beautiful Images Right in Your Neighborhood

Whether it's the glamor of Paris, the captivating shores of Ireland, or the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon, it is very easy for a photographer to assume that one must go above and beyond to capture the landscape images that he or she desires. Dennis Ramos, a world-renowned fine-art and landscape photographer, took a completely different approach.

How Your Smartphone Can Benefit Your Photography

I never really used to take photos on my phone; in fact, I used to be really against it because I never thought the camera was good enough to capture what I wanted. Of course, it's great to always have a camera on you so you can take a photo, which makes the smartphone one of the best tools around.

Grant Legassick Does Multiple Exposures Differently

We've all attempted multiple exposures. We do it when we want to create a specific feeling when shooting portraits, and we do it when we want to expose correctly for an architectural photograph client, to correct in post. We use a tripod, to make sure the images are identical, and we either use the camera's automatic stop metering to compensate and expose all the needed information correctly.

Mike Kelley Photographs Modern Architecture Behind The Scenes Episode 7

Our behind the scenes series during the filming of Where Art Meets Architecture 2 continues today with Episode 7. In this episode we continue shooting an incredible modern home in the middle of a lava field and we attempt to entertain ourselves in a few different ways while we are out in the middle of nowhere.  

Where Art Meets Architecture 2 Behind The Scenes Episode 6

Our behind the scenes series during the filming of Where Art Meets Architecture II continues today with episode six. In this episode we fly to Hawaii, get ripped off by Delta, lose one of our bags and our drone, and film our first lesson at a house built in the middle of a lava field.  

Nature Meets Modern Architecture in Stunning Time-lapse

A transportive time-lapse is something that never gets old, particularly when it looks and sounds as elegant as a waking dream. Forcibly poetic diction to describe lengthy slider moves and dramatically shifting clouds, perhaps.

The Next Season Of Fstoppers Behind The Scenes Begins Now

It all started last year when Patrick and I flew around the world twice to create Photographing The World with Elia Locardi. We documented our entire three months of travel and edited it all down into 16 behind the scenes episodes. Earlier this year we created a behind the scenes series with Joey Wright covering our Swimwear Photography tutorial.

Mike Kelley's New Tutorial On Architectural Photography Is Now Available

Four years ago we filmed Where Art Meets Architecture: How To Photograph Real Estate, Architecture and Interiors Tutorial, and it has been the most successful tutorial Fstoppers has ever produced. We've teamed up with Mike Kelley again to produce Where Art Meets Architecture 2: How To Photograph Luxury Homes and Advanced Photoshop Techniques, and it's available now. 

Why Long Exposure Photography Is So Much Fun, but So Hard to Get Right

The first time I saw streaky clouds and silky smooth water, I knew I needed to learn how to do that. However, after buying my first neutral density filter, I realized it wasn't so easy to do. It was really hard to focus, and some photos were too dark, while others were too bright.

Photographer Reshapes Landmarks into Cartoons with Paper Cutouts

Rich McCor sprung to 175k followers on Instagram, with his creative approach to landscapes. Adding his own paper cutouts to the frame, we’re treated to a cartoon view on famous landmarks. They’re playful, well made, and definitely a creative way to travel the world.

Facing Away From Historic Landmarks

Searching for a photo of Christ the Redeemer on Flickr returns 26,615 images. How many photos are taken facing away from the landmark? Probably not a lot, which is why Oliver Curtis’ series of photos explores the other side of famous destinations. 

Architecture in Motion: Emile Rafael

When it comes to shooting homes, Emile Rafael takes it to the next level. As a real estate photographer and videographer, I see the potential in shooting videos for agents; the only problem is they don't typically want to pay much, and they need things turned around fast.

Critique the Community with Mike Kelley - Submit Your Architectural Photos

The Fstoppers team has been working on a new project with Mike Kelley. While we're with him, we wanted to give some of our readers the chance to have their architectural images critiqued by one of the best in the field. Join us for our next episode of Critique the community by submitting some of your pictures below in the comments.

Is This Photo Fair Marketing Or A Cheap Trick?

In a quaint suburban neighborhood south of Sydney, Australia stands a three bedroom brick home that looks like any other at first glance. It is sharp and modern. The image is bright and vibrant and definitely eye catching. At a quick first look, it is a pretty standard image of the facade of a home.

Photographing Hong Kong With Elia Locardi / Behind The Scenes Episode 13 and 14

Our second tutorial with Elia Locardi: Photographing the World: Cityscape, Astrophotography, and Advanced Post-Processing was all about different types of cities. We started in Cinque Terre, a region of Italy where cities are basically built into the side of a natural landscape. We then moved on to Rome to shoot ancient architecture.

Some Like It Old: The Earliest Surviving Video of London in Existence

Right-o! Let's jump in our "wayback machine" to London, England in the late 19th century to witness some of the oldest known video footage, not only just of the city, but in all of human history. I'm a sucker for finding the earliest cinema and photography have to offer, and if you are too, then click on. 

Check out These Amazing Inception Styled Cityscapes

Flatland is a project created by the Turkish photographer Aydın Büyüktaş. These images resemble scenes from the hit movie Inception, where the city seamlessly curves upward into the sky. Each image takes months of planning, and because of the complex scenery, Aydin must constantly reshoot locations in order to get the perfect alignment.   

See the Epic Photos from the Exclusive Photo Walk at CERN

CERN is a renowned international nuclear research facility located just outside Geneva. Straddling the border between Switzerland and France, it's home to the infamous Large Hadron Collider — the largest single machine ever made by humankind.

9 Photography Tips When Photographing Cityscapes from a Helicopter

Aerial photography has always been something that I have found interesting. Seeing so many of our writers like David Geffin, Mike Kelley, and Noam Galai capture exciting photos and video from the sky has inspired me to finally attempt my first doors-off helicopter excursion. In just one short one-hour ride, I've learned a lot of do's and don'ts as well as a bunch of things to experime

Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse Filmed from a Drone Makes Detroit Look Amazing

To say that time-lapse video and drone footage is everywhere would be an understatement. YouTube is chalk full of amateur aerial video with the recent abundance of inexpensive drones, and time-lapse clips are everywhere. If they are a fad remains to be seen but sometimes we get to see some really innovative videos showcasing some true creativity. 

10 More Photographers You Should Be Following On Fstoppers

Last week I made a list of 10 of my favorite photographers to follow on Fstoppers and a few people complained that too many of them were "portrait" photographers. I've scoured the community again and today I've created a new list with 10 incredible, additional photographers who shoot much more than your average portrait.  

The Things I Wish I Knew Before Launching My First Kickstarter Campaign

As I close in on the last eight hours of my very first Kickstarter campaign, I wanted to share some of the knowledge I’ve gained through this amazing experience that might help other people who are thinking of launching a Kickstarter. It’s a daunting experience but one that can hopefully be improved by learning as much as you can before you start.

 

You Will Never Be Ready for Your First Kickstarter Campaign, and That's Okay (Part 2)

It's been a week since we launched a Kickstarter campaign for my first book, and what an interesting week it has been. As expected, I'm learning a ton about myself, about Kickstarter, about living on two hours of sleep, and about how amazing it is to have people that you don't know or have never met before support you right here and now in real time. 

Beauty Blooms in Blight: Striking Photos Show Burst of Color in Forgotten Home

There’s something about old places that always leaves you with a feeling of uncertain familiarity. Old places and empty places are like ghosts drifting behind us humming childhood singsongs just an octave below audible as we pace through their halls. If you’re from Detroit, you know that these places are aplenty.

Critique The Community: Architecture Edition with Mike Kelley

In this episode of Critique the Community, we are joined by architectural photographer Mike Kelley.  Mike has been a long time writer for Fstoppers and last year Fstoppers produced the highly proclaimed photography and Photoshop tutorial Where Art Meets Architecture.  Today Mike and I give an extended critique of 20 architectural images submitted through the Fstoppers Community.

Today Only: Save $100 off Mike Kelley's Architecture Photography Tutorial

NOTE:  This sale is over and was only good for 1 24 hour period. Fstoppers is having a flash 24 hour sale on some of the products in our store each day leading up to Christmas.  Today's sale comes from Mike Kelley as he is offering $100 off his widely acclaimed tutorial Where Art Meets Architecture.

Beautiful Japanese Photography Studio Designed to Harness Ambient Light

Have you ever wished that you could simply walk into your studio space and immediately have perfect lighting? Japanese architecture firm FT Architects has created a gorgeous photography studio which uses diffused skylights and windows to harness ambient light and do just that. This beautiful studio located in Kanagawa, Japan seems to be the first of its kind. 

How to Quickly Light and Composite Architectural Interiors

A great portion of my business is spent on architectural photography. My technique involves using a mixture of ambient light, flash, and tungsten hot lights blended and masked together in post to create well lit images that are time consuming to shoot and often frustrating to edit.