Architectural Photography, Part 2: Equipment

In this second post about architectural photography, we’ll discuss equipment selection (cameras, lenses, tripods, and tripod heads) and some of the implications of what gear you have at hand, particularly in post processing.

A Smartphone is Enough

You don’t need to invest thousands in specialist equipment to achieve good results. A handheld modern smartphone can produce excellent images. As long as you don’t need to blow up the resulting photographs for large scale print display, you’ll likely be fine.

Here’s an example from Siena, Italy, showing the Piazza del Campo in evening light, shot on an iPhone 14 PRO:

The photo was taken using the stock camera app, and wasn’t even shot in RAW. However it has had a lot of work in post to fix several issues in the original shot - we’ll cover the types of adjustments that were required in a later post.

Things you should do when using a smartphone for architecture:

• Shoot in RAW, using the highest resolution possible
• Keep the camera as level as possible (more on this ahead)

Avoiding Converging Verticals

To avoid converging verticals in camera, you must ensure everything is level - the picture plane, i.e. your camera’s sensor, must be aligned to the horizon and not pitched up or down. If you’re unsure why it’s important to avoid unintentional converging verticals, read Part 1 of this series on Perspective.

First off, some words on equipment. All of the following will help you get your camera level, as well as ensure you can capture sharp images.

Camera Support

If at all possible, use a good quality tripod.

For travel, a lightweight model such as the Gitzo Traveller series is perfect. You’ll find many more options from other manufacturers too.

Where weight isn’t a consideration, a larger tripod such as the Gitzo Systematic series will add more stability and give you the best chance of capturing the sharpest shots you can.

If a tripod is not a possibility, a good monopod will still be helpful. In the absence of that, find a wall, a lamppost, a park bench and use good camera handling technique - arms tucked in tight, breathe out before shooting, etc.

Tripod Head

Many professional architectural photographers use geared heads, which allow fine-tune control of camera alignment, usually in three axes (pitch, roll, yaw). If you have the budget, this is highly recommended. The ability to make micro adjustments is extremely useful in the field. You might never go back to your old ball head again! Additionally, geared heads are great for astronomical and even landscape work - the only tradeoff is usually higher weight.

At the top of the range, you’ll find things like the Arca Swiss D4 Series. You will need a healthy bank balance to buy one. Alternatively, you can find remarkably similar products from Leofoto at a fraction of the price, or even lower cost options from other makers.

Camera Mount

For smartphones, something like the Oben ASPTA-20 is a great choice (it’s made of solid aluminium). You can pair it with a Bluetooth remote such as the Joby Impulse 2.

For cameras, an L-Bracket is a great choice. Three Legged Thing makes some nice models, but beware mechanical interference with remote releases. I had to switch from a hard-wired model to a wireless remote to avoid problems in portrait mode when using the ZOOEY QD model on my Nikon Z8.

Note: the central tripod column is slightly extended in this photo. Best to avoid that unless strictly necessary.

Levelling the Camera

Many cameras, particularly higher end models, include a digital level in the viewfinder or rear screen. If your camera does not have this feature, then some tripod heads include a two-axis bubble level. You can also add a hot-shoe bubble level to your camera directly.

If you’re shooting on iPhone, some camera apps may include a digital level for both pitch and roll (although the stock camera app only shows roll). Alternatively, if you’re using the phone with a tripod and mount, you can level the camera using the Augmented Reality AR view in Photo Ephemeris:

Durham Cathedral - East Elevation

Let’s look at an example. Here’s a one point perspective view of the east face of the glorious Durham Cathedral in England. I’m using a 14-30mm zoom set to 19mm on a full frame camera. The camera is perfectly level as shown by the green digital level marks and we have avoided converging verticals:

Oh dear.

Even at a short focal length, the vertical field of view is nowhere near wide enough to encompass the full height of the building. We can’t move the camera any further back - there’s nowhere to go:

Even opening up the lens to 14mm won’t accommodate the full structure. We’re forced to pitch the camera lens upward. This is a very common scenario.

Perspective Control Lenses

We can fix the converging verticals in post-production, but if you’re doing a lot of architectural work, a tilt/shift or perspective control lens may be a good choice. You can avoid a lot of pixel pushing with a tilt shift lens, capturing what you need directly in camera. For large volumes of work, this can be a real time saver.

The downsides of a tilt/shift are cost, weight, and in the case of some a lack of weather sealing or the inability to use filters. They’re also manual focus.

Switching to a 19mm Tilt/Shift, we can adjust the shift upward to bring the building into the frame:

This is accomplished simply by moving the lens upward relative to the camera using the shift control:

The tilt function changes the focal plane of the projected image circle relative to the camera sensor. We don’t need that here.

You might notice that even with the tilt-shift lens shifted almost to its maximum, we’re still not quite capturing the full height of the towers. So even here, a small degree of upward pitch is required - sometimes, you just have to stay flexible!

So, we end up with slightly converging verticals, but it’s a whole lot less than when using the 14-30mm zoom:

This image is not usable as-is without fixing the converging verticals - it just looks weird.

You might say, hold on - that’s more upward pitch than was strictly required. There’s a reason for that which will become clear when we try to correct the convergence, which we’ll come to in a later article in this series!