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Miguel Santos Novoa's picture

Newbie in Architectural Photography looking for CC.

I am asking for CC.

This is the HQ of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Blindern, Oslo, Norway. The photograph features the tower of the new green building Tallhall and the old building from late 1800's.

- Do you consider this photo an architectural photograph or more a landscape photograph?
- As this was not a comissioned photograph, there are some items out of my control. Having said this, do you see anything that could be improved?

Thank you.

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15 Comments

Hi Miguel, Im no expert and only just getting into architectural photography but really love the feel of this image, the building looks really interesting and the mix of ambient light and interior lights work really well.

my only small thing would be that Id think about maybe going back and shooting a just a bit to the right so that you don't get the left tree in the shot, as I think it sticks out over the building a bit to much. Id also be tempted to clean up the snow a little in the middle of the image as it looks a tad messy.

Great photo though, keep it up!

Thank you for your input, I was thinking about the trees too. The snow I am not sure what to do with it, probably best will be to shoot the building again when it is gone.

I would consider this to be more architectural since that is the focus of the photo. The sky is acting as an accent. I love the pastel shades in the sky and the warm glow of the light coming from the windows and on the street. Perhaps edit out some of the distracting details like the streetlight, the satellite dish on the building, and the antenna to the left of it.

Like Alexander, I am also no expert though and would look to others for a ​more serious critique!

Thank you for your input :)

I love the colors of the sky and the edit. Is it possible to straighten out the right side of the building?

I think that's an architectural detail of the building - it looks skewed perspective wise but it's actually not completely vertical from a construction standpoint. at least thats what it looks like compared to the verticals in the rest of the building.

oh interesting! I wonder if there's a way to photograph it so that this feature is more exaggerated.

As Rob mentioned, the building has this architecture feature that is not a square.

Hey! It's an okay composition with some things you probably can't do much about. The trees framing the main subject is okay, but it could have been executed and spearated from the buildings a bit more, especially on the left side. You could have cleaned up the snow way more in post, cloning out the brown, clean up the street and such things.

Overall I like the mood and the soft sky, as other people have already mentioned, but still I kind of see a bit of an HDR glow on the edges and especially on the left building. Hope that helps :)

Thanks for the input, you are right it coukd have been executed better in that regard.

I like the lighting and the fact that you can see the overhang of the building.
However, I would walk around the building to see what is on the other side. I suspect there is a better view that contains more of the unique aspects of the building.

I always recommend walking all around a building before settling on a certain view.

Also you need to learn how to straighten your verticals. The new building seems that it is purposely not vertical but the older one needs to be vertical because leaning buildings were never good in the old days. :-)

I have other photographs from different angle, however I know where I failed and I think I need to fix those first :). Anyways, if you want to see one of the finished photographs here it is. And from the back of the building there are mountains of snow and cannot shoot from there during winter.

Thnk you for your input.

That view looks interesting. This sort of building really calls for a series of images.
On this image It would benefit if you could have been further away but often one cannot do that.

An enjoyable image, with its colours and mood. Agree about the left-hand tree ideally not obscuring the building, but recognise that we can't always attain these "ideals" in reality. One wouldn't want the right-hand tree to obscure the new building too much, either.

Can't agree fully with the remarks about the snow. If it looked too pristine, the whole thing could look a bit like a gingerbread house Christmas confection. Maybe I'm thinking landscape rather than architectural photography.

I peeked, and was surprised to see that you didn't use a shift lens, nor your widest focal length. The perspective looks good, nicely highlighting the interesting angles on the new building. Good work.

Thanks for your input. :) By the way, how did you notice it was not the widest focal length of the lens and more importantly how did you determine it was not a TL through the EXIF, not sure I am able to see them myself in the photo I uploaded. :)