Professional architectural photography & 35mm gears !

I am wondering if there are any professional architecture

photographers in the forum, the reason I ask is, I myself I am an

architect and I work for a firm in DC, and I was asked to shoot

couple of our buildings, after they seen my photographic work.

 

I have 300D and 17-40L & 70-200L, which I am planning to use; I just

wanted to ask whether it�s a wise move to use these lenses other than

T&S lens [or medium format]. Is there any of you guys who use 35mm

gears for architectural photography and correct the perspective

digitally.

 

I also have doubt about correcting perspectives digitally, don�t you

lose any sharpness or resolution quality after correcting in PS or

similar image editing software.

 

All the advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks

Dhiren

I am just a hobbyist, and enjoy architectural photography.

 

While a tilt shift would be fun, using the perspective correction in photoshop will do a very decent job. You will loose a bit of sharpness, but just stop the lens down and use a tripod. If you are expanding converged lines that are blurry, that will just amplify the blurriness.

 

Going to large format will give you tilting and shifting for less than just a 24mm TS-E. I have not used a TS-E, but large format is slow to setup. I also prefer the convenience of 35mm.

 

 

The 17-40 is what I use mainly for them, although if you are doing external stuff, I find the telephoto nice for its ability to flatten the subject.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Robert

Dhiren,

 

what will you do with the images? large prints? magazines?

If you want to go the tilt shift route, Penn Camera at 9th and E NW rents the 24mm T/S lens, so you don't have to buy. I'm looking forward to trying that lens sometime this year when I free up some time.

<p>I like photo.net. However, I work in a section of Minneapolis that has many professional photographers. I haven't met *one* professional photographer who frequents photo.net. 

They are too busy photographing and honing their art to participate here. <br>

<br>

Now, photo.net does have professional photographers, and some outstanding amateur

photographers, but all in all, if you take a real world sample of professional photographers, not many of them participate on photo.net.<br>

<br>

Why do I mention this? I think it will affect the quality of advice you receive on photo.net.<br>

<br>

Now, to your question. You don't have a "35 mm" image sensor. I think it is more the size of a full frame APS exposure on a 300 D.  </p>

<p>But, being an amateur myself, this is what I would recommend.</p>

<p>Buy or rent a 35mm Canon EOS body.  Rent a TS lens (maybe

$15-$20/day).  Bring your 300D for instant gratification, but take your

important shots using the film body.  Use your favorite film (slide or

print).  Buy professional quality film, and have it professionally

processed.  Evaluate your results, have your best shot(s) scanned with a

high resolution scanner possessing good dynamic range.  Your 300D won't be

able to come close to the quality.<br>

<br>

Have you seen these links on photo.net?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/architectural/exterior">How to Photograph

Architecture (Exterior)</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/canon/tilt-shift">Using Tilt Shift Lenses</a></p>

<p> </p>

Hi Dhiren,

 

The limiting factor for your setup will be your 300D. Not for lack of image quality but the small sensor size. If you shoot indoors you'll need all of the FOV that the TS-E 24 can deliver, even on film and on a small sensor Canon body like your 300D this lens provides about a 38mm FOV from a 35mm format perspective. I am often asked to shoot indoor architectural images and even a 20mm FOV is not wide enough on a regular basis. The 38mm equivalent FOV is just too long for most indoor shooting unless the room is very large or you can back up a long way. If you can, rent a 1Ds when you rent the TS-E or shoot it with a film body.

 

HTH

As has been mentioned already you are limited by the small image sensor of the 300D, because I will describe another way of doing external photos. Using the widest angle lens you have photograph the building (as long as it not a skyscraper) holding the camera perfectly horizontal (film plane perpendicular to the ground). This will maintain vertical lines of the building in the photo, but it will also give you wasted foreground space like grass or a parking lot that you simply crop out of the photograph. This will likely work best with your 17-40 on a film camera. The 300D turns the 17mm into only 28mm which may not be wide enough for this techniqe. Good luck!

Even though I rate the Canon T&S lenses very highly, for dedicated architectural work they're at best a partial solution, especially if you don't have a full frame DSLR. For example the tilt and shift positions are locked into one fixed relationship with each other, a limitation that would get very frustrating if these lenses were all you had to do the job.

 

I'd recommend you experiment with correcting verticals in Photoshop before buying special equipment. Remember that many photographers only correct converging verticals up to between 10 and 20 degrees. After that they stop correcting and start tilting the camera up, the reason being an overcorrected building looks worse than an undercorrected one! Consequently, you'll only be looking to make say 15 degree Photoshop adjustments, which won't stress the pixels too much!

Mike,

 

That is interesting. I live in Phoenix and have met some really cool and skilled pro's that work in this area full time. You are right that they are working all of the time, but they are on their computers scanning or using PS and anyone has time to read the forums or chat on IM while waiting for the scanner to finish.

 

Just because you are unable to associate with pro's in your area doesn't discount anyones ability in photo.net.

brooks archetutre class shoots almots souly 35 digi. tse is not nessery unless you want to lay down the focal plane. corections in PS r good if you have the full 7.0 or cs just dont inturpelat (re size) it to much. day time exterror shots are pretty easy but inside shots get involving. If your shooting the inside you better know how to light really well or chanches are it will look like poo.

For those that find the default T/S relationship (right angles) too confining in the Canon lens, Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape has mentioned that Canon can change the T/S relationship for you at a service center -- for a fee.

 

Alternately, Luminous Landscape did a positive review of a Ukrainian lens, called the Hartblei 45mm f/3.5 Super-Rotator, which allows for all degrees of freedom:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/hartblei45.shtml

 

The lens reviewed was for a medium-format camera, but it is also available in a Pentacon 6 mount with adapters for various 35mm cameras. The reviewed lens was $995.

 

There is a good discussion there of what's available in T/S lens/bodies/bellows (mainly, not much, besides the ones that Canon and Nikon make, and the Nikon is only available in 80mm focal length, which doesn't work well with a lot of architectural work).

Yes there are a few pro's who post here.

 

I can only tell you that 90% of my work is now shot on 35mm but....

 

I started many years ago training in a studio which mainly shot

architecture and, although I rarely do it now, if the image is critical ie for

client presentation or display purposes I still use my old MPP 5X4.

 

There are a number of reasons for this not least of which is the focusing

screen. I find the grid very useful to ensure the things I want parallel are.

 

You can do many things with a large format camera to change how a

building looks either changing planes of focus, relationships of objects or

the angles of verticals.

 

There is much more flexibilty with large format camera.

 

All that said you can get good shots with a 35mm but you do sacrifice

control and it is harder to see the effect each shift is having.

 

I guess it's a trade of - portability against image contol.

 

Only you can decide what you need.