BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE ! Just one of the 51 subjects of photography! When I first saw this subject, my first question that came to my mind was: “how do you classify beautiful architecture?” This could be really subjective. But, let’s take a look at some buildings and see if we can talk about these masterpieces of art – made into a building.

When you want to take photos of beautiful buildings, I have found that generally there are two types of buildings that are classified as either modern or ancient. Interesting that there was so many good architects back in ancient time, and if you get a chance to take pictures of these ancient buildings, you will certainly fall in love with them too. The photo above is some beautiful architecture that we would classify as “modern architecture”. The buildings like this are all in very interesting designs, and part of the buildings are not a building at all, but, an extension of the building to get it’s interesting shapes. If you have ever studied architecture before, if you choose to add a chunk of building off to the side, like the above photo, you know it has to be balanced within, or it won’t stand. And the other interesting thing about modern architecture is that the creator didn’t have any problem showing the beams, and poles, and ceilings within the building’s interior to create these buildings.

The building here above was designed to be efficient, but, you notice all the poles that hold up the stairs, the beams in the ceiling, and in this case, glass in the ceiling. Very modern effect. If you want to get good pictures of modern buildings, it is good for you to get photos of the building that has some strange or interesting character. For some reason, the architects of ancient time probably would have never dreamed of doing this. But, anciently, they used a lot of ornate decorations in the creations of their buildings. Like this:

This ancient architecture still had the interesting designs to the building: the rounded hallways, or beautiful stained glass windows, but, look at the carvings in the building to give it some story to the building.

One thing that will really work on architecture, either modern or classic, is see what you can do with light coming through the windows. This makes the building seem even more artistic, if you can get rays of light to work with the building.

In modern buildings, like the one above, the light seems to be very diffused, not so directional. The lighting is perfect for taking pictures of anything inside.

Here are some good tips that I know will help in taking photos of beautiful buildings:

1- Take pictures of buildings in different weather. It’s amazing how good a building will look when it’s wet.

2- Prioritize good lighting, whether it is outside or inside. Look at how nice the lighting on the Eiffel Tower looks when it’s all lit up:

3- Explore details of the building and get photos of that:

4- Visit the site many times. A good photographer does his homework. Go several times, and walk through the building, walk around the building, look at different ways to take pictures of the building, both in and outside. You will be glad you did. And also, don’t objectify the building. If it seems to have one amazing structural detail, don’t take a photo of just that. A person seeing your photos of the building will want to see what it looks like all the way around, so they know what it looks like if they come to visit.

Here is a few more photos of beautiful buildings, and notice how the photo was taken: