Pentax 67, 300mm f-4.5 lens, Fuji Provia 100, Bogen tripod and pan/tilt head. Spot metering with Minolta Auto Meter IIIF and 5 degree spot attachment, 1/125 at f-11.

Architectural photography is about making a broad view or details of the buildings. Your aim is to show a building's character. You may want to photograph an old church to show its history or older design. Modern buildings photographed together show a city's character and how it is different from others. The main concern in architectural photography is to keep the vertical lines parallel. Architectural photography is the subject that calls for tilt and shift lenses. When working with a wide angle lens pointed upward the building appears to converge. This can sometimes be to your advantage if you want to show a more dramatic image such as a very tall modern building. But most of the time keeping the lines straight produces much better results. Since most of the time you photograph at ground level with a normal or wide angle lens, your only alternatives are tilt and shift lenses or using a view camera with roll film back for maximum lens movements. Almost all medium format systems include tilt and shift lenses, and if you do a lot of architectural photography, you should seriously consider purchasing one. A tilt/shift lens or a bellows camera with vertical shift can keep the lines parallel if you shoot from a low viewpoint.
Certain times of the day are best for photographing buildings. Clear early morning light creates high contrast between a building and the blue sky, but the same scene at high noon can turn into a dull photograph. Direction of light is very important as it can change the mood, and either bring out or wash out interesting details. You should always use a spot or incident meter reading from the lightest and the darkest parts of the building, and decide the best exposure setting. High contrast scenes require careful metering. You can easily underexpose or overexpose your shots. Learn about your film's exposure tolerance (usually -/+2 stops with slides), and work within this range. Best thing about photographing architectural using slower medium format cameras is that you can take your time and evaluate the whole scene. Unlike wildlife or sports photography where faster lenses and motor drives are required and are much easier with 35mm cameras, architectural photography where main concern is detail can be photographed easily with the slower 21/4 format. A beautiful building whether old or new took time and careful design to build. Take your time and with your 21/4 camera you can show every detail and produce more impressive architectural photographs than with smaller formats. See also Architectural.

This is a must-have guide both for aspiring students and for established professionals who need to keep up to speed with the current impact of recent digital developments.
In this highly visual, full color text Michael Harris shares his professional secrets and demonstrates how to achieve top quality architectural images. Brief histories of both architecture and architectural photography lay the foundations for the technical applications that follow. This third edition provides increased coverage of the revolution in digital photography, which is forcing all photographers to review their practices. The pros and cons of these developments are assessed through a comparison of the film and digital mediums and the highly debated variances in their quality and cost.
Michael Harris is a freelance photographer specializing in architectural and interior photography. His work covers a wide spectrum from industrial and commercial, to residential photography. He is author of 'Professional Interior Photography', also published by Focal Press.
*Learn how to achieve top quality architectural images from a leading expert
*Up-to-date advice on the pros and cons of digital photography in this field
*Step by step guide to typical, profitable shooting sequences on assignment