Architectural Photography, Part 1: Perspective

This is the first in a series of brief introductory articles on architectural photography. We’ll cover everything you need to know in order to plan, execute and process your images of buildings to a high standard.

In this part, we’ll consider perspective and how it applies to architectural work.

A Brief Recap of the Development of Linear Perspective

As our main focus is photography, this section is abbreviated - for a fuller account, see The History of Perspective.

But why bother with the history of perspective? It’s worth reviewing as the principles have informed representations of buildings in art, drawing, engraving and more for over 600 years, and arguably much longer.

The Renaissance

Perspective is the representation of a three dimensional scene onto a two dimensional picture plane (a sheet of paper, a canvas, or a camera sensor). While the roots of perspective can be seen in antiquity, such as in the frescoes of Pompeii, mathematically correct geometrical rules were first developed in the early 15th century and were employed by artists and architects such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Piero della Francesca.

Artists of the renaissance frequently used single point perspective, favored for its symmetry and simplicity. One point perspective is characterised by lines converging to a single vanishing point located within the picture plane. A famous example is Raphael’s School of Athens: all the lines converge to a point behind the central figures of Plato and Aristotle.

Note how horizontal and vertical lines that are ‘on-axis’ to the viewer remain parallel to the frame, allowing renaissance artists to achieve beautifully balanced compositions with a nod to classicism and antiquity.

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The 17th and 18th Centuries

The foundations of modern representational imagery of architecture were laid in the 17th century in northern Europe by Dutch painters such as Vermeer, in his View of Delft, Pieter Saenredam in his precise depictions of church interiors, and Gerrit Berckheyde’s townscapes, such as The Grote Markt and Grote Kerk, Haarlem:

Dutch-born Gaspar Van Wittel exported this tradition to Italy, moving there in 1674 and adopting the name “ Gaspare Vanvitelli ”. He created “ vedute ” (views) of Venice and Rome, which informed the development of the famous Italian vedutisti of the 18th century and beyond such as Luca Carlevarijs, Canaletto, and Guardi.

It was not until the 18th century that two point perspective came into regular use. Two point perspective employs two vanishing points on the horizon line. If you depict the corner of a building, the lines of each façade converge to different points, often lying outside the picture frame. Only vertical lines remain parallel to the frame.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi grew up in early 18th century Venice, surrounded by its stunning architecture and light, and in proximity to its busy theatre scene, where scene painters such as Bernardo Canal, together with his son Antonio “ Canaletto ”, were busy reducing buildings to effective two dimensional stage representations to dazzle audiences.

Piranesi, like fellow Venetian Antonio Visentini, was primarily an architect who earned fame as a draughtsman and artist. Both Visentini and Piranesi recorded the architecture of Venice and Rome in highly popular collections of drawings and engravings. But the styles of the two differ significantly.

Visentini’s work and his collaborations with Canaletto mostly use single point perspective, such as in The Canal Grande with San Simeone Piccolo and the Scalzi. He ventures only into two point perspective to accommodate the twists and turns of Venice’s canals that place some buildings off-axis to the viewer (see San Geremia and the Entrance of Cannaregio).

In contrast, Piranesi frequently makes use of two point perspective, for example, in this view of the Tempio di Bellona (more correctly called “ View of the Atrium of the Portico of Octavia ”):

Essentially all the 18th century view painters and engravers, and their successors through to the 20th century, employed a mix of single and two point linear perspective - although some used additional tricks, discussed below.

Three Point Perspective

Three point perspective introduces an additional convergence point: the verticals converge to a point either above toward the zenith or below toward the nadir.

While the technique was known in the 17th century (it was illustrated by Hans Vredeman de Vries in 1605), it was not routinely used by artists until much later. The ever-imaginative Piranesi employs it in some of his studies (this example from his Six Studies of Colonnades is particularly fascinating).

Artists of the 20th century use three point perspective much more frequently in their depictions of buildings, perhaps the most familiar being M.C. Escher, for example in Escher’s 1928 woodcut The Tower of Babel) or Howard Cook’s views of the 1920s New York skyline, within the verticals converging to the zenith.

Three point perspective is used to create a sense of scale, or a feeling of unease - such as ‘falling’ to the nadir - in the viewer.

Arguably, the day-to-day role of depicting buildings was usurped in the 19th century by photography, causing artists to seek out new ways of expressing character and atmosphere.

Visual Language of Perspective

If you draw only one conclusion from the brief history of perspective above, I hope it is that we have been conditioned for hundreds of years to expect depictions of architecture that use one or two point perspective. Three point perspective is the relative newcomer.

More fundamentally, single point perspective provides a powerful compositional tool to emphasize the impact and monumental nature of architecture. It allows for symmetry, provides space in which to emphasize repeated elements - repetition being such a powerful visual aphrodisiac - and affords a sense of immediacy and depth for the viewer’s eye to explore.

Two point perspective allows the artist or photographer to highlight volume and shape, to explore contrasts of lighting, and selectively to reveal or obscure secondary elements (a distant landscape, a neighboring building) by careful choice of viewpoint.

Three point perspective - assuming it is employed intentionally - destabilizes an image for the viewer, in the sense of looking over a void or leaning back to absorb the view that looms over your head. Gravity has taught us that leaning buildings tend to fall down. Standing next to leaning buildings makes people uneasy - even if it is only a picture of one.

Architectural photography should be guided by a desire to reflect the character and merits of the building in the best way possible. If the architect is striving for stability or symmetry, then it’s likely inappropriate to seek to undermine this by use of three point perspective. Worse yet, to do so unintentionally. If on the other hand, the architect has included an element of whimsy in the design, a playful three point perspective might be the perfect complement.

However, your “ go to ” compositions should be one or two point perspective.

Perspective in Practice

Some Terminology

Thinking about your camera mounted on a tripod, here are some terms we’ll use in the explanations below:

• Pitch – Rotation up or down, like nodding your head “ yes ”. – The camera tilts forward or backward, changing the angle of view vertically (e.g., from the horizon to the sky or ground).
• Roll – Rotation side to side, like tilting your head to the shoulder. – The camera rotates around the lens axis, so the horizon appears slanted or level.
• Yaw – Rotation left or right, like shaking your head “ no ”. – The camera pans horizontally, changing what’s in the frame from left to right.

Here are three examples of one, two and three point for the same building - the Moot Hall in Hexham, Northumberland:

One Point Perspective

This single point perspective photo east elevation of the Moot Hall illustrates a couple of key points:

• The horizontal and vertical lines of the main structure are essentially parallel to the picture frame - allowing for a little medieval imprecision on the left hand roofline
• Pitch and roll are both zero: the camera is level
• The lines of the terraced houses to the left and right of the image converge to a single point within the picture frame on the horizon line

The building is presented as the central focus of the image in a static, slightly monumental view.

Two Point Perspective

In the two point perspective image, the camera has moved to the right of the previous position, and rotated to the left to provide a corner view of the building (yaw adjustment). Due to other buildings opposite, the camera is also necessarily closer to the building and so cannot show the full height. Key points to note:

• The verticals remain parallel to the picture frame (pitch is zero)
• The horizontal stone lines on the east elevation converge to a vanishing point off to the left of the picture frame
• The horizontal lines on the north elevation (darker, on the right) converge to a second vanishing point off to the right of the frame
• Roll is zero - the picture is level, but yaw is adjusted such that the camera is now off-axis to the elevation of the Moot Hall that we showed in the one point perspective photo above

Three Point Perspective

Finally, in this three point perspective shot, the vertical lines converge to a point outside the top of the frame - towards the ‘zenith’. Otherwise, the shot is the same composition as used for the two point perspective image above - the only difference is that the camera is pointed upwards (positive pitch adjustment).

Remember too that you can have converging verticals in an image that is otherwise one point perspective: in such a case the horizontals remain parallel to the picture frame, but the verticals converge towards the top of the frame in this camera back shot of Durham Cathedral:

Here’s the critical point: to capture one or two point perspective shots straight out of the camera, it must be level to the horizon. Here we’re talking about pitch: the lens must not be pointed either up or down, but must be aligned level towards the horizon. This is not the same thing as a level horizon (the ‘roll’ of the camera) - having a ‘wonky’ horizon does not change the perspective (but it will usually detract from your image).

To master your use of perspective you’ll need to get comfortable identifying each type. Check out the images linked above and observe how the building horizontals and verticals behave. Then pick up an architectural photography book or magazine and do the same. Repeat until you can confidently identify the type being used - you’ll likely find most collections are dominated by single point perspective examples.

Some Practical Realities

Art is not photography. Cities are not laid out on perfectly rectilinear grids.

It’s sometimes impossible to construct a reduction of a scene to ideal linear perspective. Let’s look again at the Berkheyde Haarlem image:

In trying to identify the vanishing point for the Grote Kerk and the house on the far left of the frame, it appears that they converge separately. Nonetheless, the image ‘feels’ like it is executed in one point perspective. Why might that be? Perhaps Berkheyde was not strictly following the rules of single point linear perspective, either deliberately or unknowingly. Or perhaps it is simply that the two buildings are not laid out strictly opposite one another - and in fact, we can use Photo Ephemeris to demonstrate that this is indeed the likely explanation:

In other cases it has been shown that artists have chosen not to follow strict linear perspective. Repeating elements, such as windows, colonnades, or the arches of a bridge, recede into the distance as expected, but occupy greater width in the image than they would if drawn strictly according to the rules.

The effect is such that the final drawing or painting is a synthesis of multiple viewpoints, carefully chosen to make a better impact on the viewer. Both Piranesi and Canaletto have been shown to do this.

Bruno Postle’s piece Piranesi’s Perspective Trick shows convincingly how this was accomplished, explained in simple terms. A rigorous analysis of the same phenomenon has been published by Joanna Rapp: A geometrical analysis of multiple viewpoint perspective in the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: an application of geometric restitution of perspective.

As photographers, we cannot achieve exactly what Piranesi and Canaletto did in a single image - we can’t fully replicate their “ look ”, even when the buildings they drew or painted remain standing today. I haven’t quite worked out whether it is possible to accomplish this by compositing multiple images - an intriguing possibility.

But there are some things we can and should do.

Perspective for Photographers

Be Intentional

Successful architectural photography starts with planning and intentionality. Know what it is that you’re photographing. What is the function of the building? What impression was the architect seeking to make? What references to preceding styles or buildings can you identify? What is the context of the building, its surroundings and situation?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you decide on how best to employ perspective in your photographs of it.

Single Point Simplicity

Well executed single point perspective will often give high impact results. You’ll still need to think about focal length, precise view point selection, camera alignment, lighting and much more, but it’s a great starting point.

Restraint in Three Point Perspective

Three point perspective should be used only sparingly and never unintentionally. Employ it only for suitable subjects. Be extremely careful not to overdo the vertical convergence - Howard Cook shows us how it can be incorporated into your images successfully.

Avoid (or Fix) Converging Verticals

The most common ‘tell’ of naïve architectural photography is unintentional converging verticals. They are a natural consequence of needing to tilt the camera (almost always) upwards in order to accommodate the building within the frame, but generally they should be corrected, unless you were actually intending to use three point perspective.

How? We’ll cover that in Architectural Photography, Part 2: Equipment.