Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
Buildings look as if they are falling backward because when the camera is tilted up the sensor stops being parallel to the facade; holding the camera level, moving away or shooting from higher up keeps the vertical lines parallel. The language of architectural photography is finding the building's idea through a reading of the building and building the frame according to it: a frontal elevation view for symmetry, a corner view for mass; the person in the frame shows the building's scale and use, and their face in shade is kept in its own tone with the metering taken from the face.
Learning goal
Before photographing a building you will be able to read it, finding what its designer brought forward, its symmetry, its material, its repeating windows or the relationship it sets up with the street, and build the frame according to this idea. Remembering that a building's looking as if it is falling backward comes from tilting the camera up, you will keep the vertical lines parallel by holding the camera level and changing your viewpoint. You will decide whether to photograph a building straight on, with its front facade, or from a corner showing two of its facades at once, according to what each one tells. To show the building's scale and use, you will give a person a place in the frame, show this person not as a decoration but as someone who uses the building, and keep their face, left in shadow in front of sunlit stone, in its real tone. You will take the first step of the architecture track.
The question
After finishing the night track, your friend goes back to the city by day. A hundred-year-old inn built of cut stone next to the covered bazaar catches their eye: arched windows, a large door in the middle, a thin cornice at the top. Standing in the narrow street opposite the inn, they shoot by tilting the camera up. Looking at the screen, the inn seems to be leaning back; its two side edges curve toward each other at the top; the arches large at the bottom, small at the top. When they looked with their eye, the building stood bolt upright. Why do buildings look as if they are falling backward?
Context
In your first look at architecture, you saw that when you tilt the camera up the building's vertical lines close in on each other, that this is not a lens flaw but a result of perspective, and that the direction of a facade decides when it will catch the sun (Lesson 16.4). In the composition lessons you met lines that carry the gaze from one part of the frame to the subject (Lesson 14.1). In the lens section you also calculated that perspective comes not from the lens but from the viewpoint (Lesson 12.4).
The architecture track opens this first meeting into eight lessons: perspective correction, light and time of day, detail, interiors, window light, cityscapes and historic buildings. Before all of them there is a question: is photographing a building only fitting it into the frame? A building is still, but it carries an idea; finding that idea and building the frame according to it is the language of architectural photography. Keeping the vertical lines straight is the most basic grammar of this language.
Simple explanation
What do you look at in a building?
Reading a building is trying, before photographing a building, to understand its main idea, what its designer brought forward. A building's idea can be a symmetry: a large door in the middle and equal windows on either side. It can be a material: the texture of cut stone, the warmth of wood, the reflection of glass. It can be a rhythm: arches or balconies repeating at the same interval. Or it can be the relationship the building sets up with the street, the square or another building.
To find this idea you need to walk around the building, look at different times of day, even go inside and come out. When the idea is found, the frame is built according to it: for a symmetry, straight on and from the middle; for a rhythm, from an angle that stresses the repetition; for a material, from side light that raises the texture. This reading isn't a rule; two photographers can see the same building with two different ideas. What matters is that the frame carries an idea and that this is a conscious choice.
How are the verticals kept straight?
A building's looking as if it is falling backward appears when, as you tilt the camera up, the sensor stops being parallel to the facade. The most direct solution is to hold the camera parallel to the ground; the level and the grid on the screen are there for this. If, with the camera held level, the top of the building overflows the frame, you need to change the viewpoint: move away from the building, shoot at a wider angle and crop the lower part of the frame later, or shoot from higher up, from the window of the building opposite, from a staircase, from a hill.
Shooting from higher up works especially well: as the camera comes closer to the building's middle height, both the lower and upper parts of the building enter the frame with a camera looking straight ahead. In a narrow street this is often not possible; then how to make the correction in software or with a special lens comes up. You will compare these options in the next lesson. A frame that looks up knowingly and markedly, on the other hand, is a separate choice made to stress the building's height; a half-hearted tilt is often read as a mistake.
Straight on, or from a corner?
A frontal elevation view is a frame shot straight across from a building, holding the camera parallel to the facade, that shows the building as a flat surface like a drawing. It shows symmetry, order and proportions most clearly, but reduces depth and volume. A corner view, on the other hand, is shot from a corner of the building, from an angle showing two of its facades at once; the horizontal lines run off in two directions, the building appears as a volume, and the light falling differently on the two facades raises the form.
Which one to choose depends on the idea the reading of the building found: a symmetry can call for the front facade, a mass for the corner. A person in the frame shows the building's scale and use; a shopkeeper coming out of the door, someone sitting in front of a window, say that the building is a living place. A face standing in the shade of a doorway in front of a sunny stone facade goes dark when the exposure is made for the facade; on dark skin this erases the detail completely, while light skin can turn gray in the shade. Calling the person to a place the light reaches, or taking the metering from their face and leaving the facade a little bright, shows them in their own tone.
Visual evidence
The next day your friend goes back to the inn and first walks around it. They decide that the inn's idea is symmetry: a large door in the middle, equal arched windows on either side. In the narrow street, the upper half of the inn doesn't fit into the camera held level.
They climb to the terrace on the upper floor of the tea garden opposite the inn. From there, when they hold the camera level with the spirit level, the inn is straight on, bolt upright and symmetrical; the arches the same size at the bottom and at the top. They also shoot a frame from the corner of the street that shows two of the inn's facades: the sun striking from the side lights the side facade, the front facade in shade; the inn like a mass.
A carpet seller, a dark-skinned old man, comes out of the inn's door with a roll of carpet. They ask his permission; in the first frame his face has gone dark in the shade of the doorway. They ask the man to come a few steps forward, to the threshold the sun strikes, and take the metering from his face; his wrinkles and the warmth of his brown skin read, and behind him the inn stands with all its symmetry.
Common mistakes
Common mistakePhotographing the building from a narrow street by tilting the camera up.
The building leans back. The fix: hold the camera level, move away or shoot from a higher place.
Common mistakePhotographing from a random angle without reading the building's idea.
The frame doesn't show what the building tells. The fix: walk around the building and find the idea of symmetry, material, rhythm or relationship.
Common mistakeExposing a face in shade for the sunny facade.
The face goes dark. The fix: call the person into the light, or take the metering from their face.
Summary
Buildings look as if they are falling backward because when the camera is tilted up the sensor stops being parallel to the facade; holding the camera level, moving away or shooting from higher up keeps the vertical lines parallel. The language of architectural photography is finding the building's idea through a reading of the building and building the frame according to it: a frontal elevation view for symmetry, a corner view for mass; the person in the frame shows the building's scale and use, and their face in shade is kept in its own tone with the metering taken from the face.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will read a building and photograph it with two views.
- Choose a building near you that catches your attention, and walking around it, write its idea in one sentence: is it symmetry, material, rhythm, or relationship with the street?
- Photograph the building holding the camera level with the spirit level, first from its front facade, then from a corner; if the verticals don't stay parallel, move away or find a higher place.
- Add someone who uses the building to one of the frames; get their permission, and if their face is in shade, call them into the light or take the metering from their face.
Check yourself
- Does your frame show the sentence you wrote as the building's idea?
- Are the vertical lines parallel?
- Does the person in the frame look like a decoration, or like someone who uses the building?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Reading a building | Trying, before photographing a building, to find its main idea, its symmetry, material, rhythm or relationship with its surroundings. |
| Frontal elevation view | A frame shot straight across from the building, with the camera held parallel to the facade, that shows it as a flat surface. |
| Corner view | A frame shot from a corner of the building that shows two of its facades at once and shows it as a volume. |
Mini quiz
1. Why does a building look as if it is falling backward?
- A) Because the lens is broken
- B) Because the building is really leaning
- C) Because when the camera is tilted up the sensor stops being parallel to the facade
- D) Because the sun is striking from behind
2. If the top of the building overflows the frame when the camera is held level, what can be done?
- A) Move away or shoot from a higher place
- B) Tilt the camera up more
- C) Fit a longer lens and come closer
- D) Photograph only the bottom of the building
3. Which view shows the idea of a symmetrical building most clearly?
- A) Corner view
- B) Frontal elevation view
- C) Bird's-eye view
- D) A random angle
4. How is a face in shade in front of a sunny facade photographed?
- A) It is exposed for the facade and the face is left in the dark
- B) The aperture is opened all the way
- C) The camera is tilted up
- D) The person is called into the light, or the metering is taken from the face
Answers
- C — On a tilted sensor the building's upper part stays far away and shrinks, and the verticals close in on each other.
- A — Moving away or rising to the middle height fits the building into the frame with a camera looking straight ahead.
- B — A frame shot straight on, parallel to the facade, shows order and proportions most clearly.
- D — A person who steps into the light or is metered from the face stays without going dark against the sunny stone.
Summary card
- Read the building first: symmetry, material, rhythm, relationship.
- Hold the camera level; move away or go higher.
- A frontal elevation view tells order, a corner view tells volume.
- A knowing upward look is a choice; a half tilt reads as a mistake.
- Show the person who uses the building; call a face in shade into the light or meter from the face.
Bridge to the next lesson
The inn frame shot from the tea garden's terrace is straight, but the next week your friend wants to photograph a tall apartment building in a narrow street; there is nowhere opposite they can climb. Someone at the club shows them a strange lens that slides part of the lens upward; someone else says, "tilt it, then fix it in the program." Tilt-shift or software? The next lesson compares the ways of correcting vertical lines in the shot with a lens or in the edit with a tool.