Architecture photo techniques book. Which one?

[abiggs]

As an avid landscape photographer, and one who has little experience with flash photography, what would be a good starter book for shooting architecture?

 

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Thanks in advance.

[psychophoto]

By far the best I have found is Norman McGrath's "Photographing

Buildings Inside and Out," ISBN 0-8230-4016-X. I bought 3 or 4

different books when I first started doing architectural stuff, and

this one has by far been the most helpful.

[neil_poulsen1]

I took and can recommend Norman McGrath's workshop, which is offered

through the Calumet Instutute in Salisbury, Meriland during June. He

also offers one through the Maine Photographic Workshops during

August. He pretty much starts at the beginning, shows equipment, goes

on site, and offers topics after dinner. He covers flash, large

places, small places, outside, inside, etc. He's an excellent teacher

who's able to get around to all of his students.

 

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One opportunity, he tends to wait until the given day to decide on and

locate that day's on-site location. Still, we didn't lack for good

architecture to photograph in the Salisbury area. All in all, it was

an excellent experience.

[mike_mahoney]

Andy, this question appears from time to time, and the above-

mentioned McGrath book seems to get the most votes each time.

[david_rose3]

There are a couple of older View Camera issues that focused on

architectural photography. They are a good supplement to the McGrath

book. Also, the book by Gerry Kopelow is quite good.

[john_bailey1]

Dear Andy

 

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I have, enjoy and found benefit from Sinar's Creative Large Format-

Architectural Photography book. In fact, I was going back and

reading sections only this weekend. Obviously, there is bias for the

use of Sinar, but not exclusively. Some of the contributed images

were shot with other camera brands.

 

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Thanks to the other people who responded. I will look for this other

book to add to my library as well. Good suggestion.

 

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Regards,

 

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John

[merg_ross]

Andy-

There are a couple of older books that might be helpful:

Architectural Photography, John Veltri/Amphoto and one that I found

helpful many years ago: Photographing Architecture and

Interiors/Julius Shulman/Whitney Library of Design. Somewhere I

recall hearing that the latter has been updated. Also, go to a

library and look at what is being done in the architectural magazines

such as Architectural Record (assuming they are still publishing).

Hope this helps. By the way, a 90mm is an excellent choice for 4x5.

Regards, Merg

[john_bailey1]

Dear Andy

 

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Have you seen the book "Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography

at Hedrich Blessing"? They are a leading Chicago based photographic

firm which specializes in architectural photography. Wonderful

images and terrific ideas, but it does not give much in specific

information. However, it should go on your bookself!

 

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Regards,

 

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John Bailey

[christopher_campbell2]

A year ago I decided to enlarge my repertoire of large format

techniques (and clients!), by seriously studying and practicing

architectural photography, and so I went about purchasing every

available volume on contemporary architectural photography.

Norman McGrath's _Photographing Buildings Inside and Out_ is

certainly the most comprehensive, and the volume best

illustrated with examples. I would also, however, recommend the

two Michael Harris books, _Professional Interior Photography_,

and _Professional Architectural Photography_ (this second

volume deals largely with building exteriors). Harris' book on

interior photography is the only one I've found that gives

completely documented examples of balancing multiple light

sources: how to measure ambient light from windows, how to

measure flash fill, how to set up the ratios of the two sources

and control them precisely, suggested bracketing patterns.

There are also some good examples of specific situations in the

book _Interior Shots: A Guide to Professional Lighting

Techniques_ by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz.

[psychophoto]

I second John's suggestion for the Hedrich Blessing book.

You're not going to gain much of anything technical from it, but I

have yet to see any body of architectural work that is so artfully

done, or much that comes close. I've got my copy right here in

front of me, and it really does show you exactly wat *can* be

done with architectural photography.

[e._grim]

Whether McGrath's book will be useful to you or not depends on what

kind of architectural photography you want to do. I bought a copy;

his book is mostly about taking color photos of newer buildings using

lots of artificial light if necessary. I sold the book because I am

interested in taking pictures of historic buildings in B&W using

available light.

 

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I do not know who McGrath's clients are, but would gues that they

include architests and colored-glossy magazines.

 

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Good luck.

[david_rose3]

OK- one more suggestion. The absolute master of professional

architectural photography is Ezra Stoller. His book "Modern

Architecture" is a beautiful collection of his best work with

insights into his process. It's not focused on nuts and bolts- but it

is an inspiration.

[masayoshi_hayashi4]

For learning about lightening, I read and found

Light-Science & Magic : An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

by Paul Fugua, et al. 2nd ed. to be excellent. Focal Press; ISBN:

0240802756. Amazon has sample pages too. Cheers.