The Professional’s Guide to Architectural Photography: Tools and Techniques

My name is Arcangelo Piai, and I have been a professional photographer for over 30 years, specializing in industrial, landscape, and architectural photography. My clients include industries, construction companies, local authorities, and wineries. My work involves "telling the story of companies," and often architecture is an integral part of this narrative.

Architectural photography requires patience and precision and, in my case, also adaptability and flexibility. The light for exteriors is always natural and cannot be moved. Sometimes I can choose the most suitable moment to capture my images with the best light; other times, I have to adapt to the client's availability. In both cases, my task is to tell the story of the building in the best possible way. To do this, I use medium format mirrorless cameras and tilt-shift lenses. The larger sensor size (25% more than full frame) along with the 102MP resolution are ideal features for architectural photography, where sharpness and the ability to capture even the smallest details are essential.

What makes my work truly professional is the use of tilt-shift lenses: they are impossible to use a handheld. Therefore, they require a tripod, an always-with-me piece among my tools. These lenses need a particular manual setup on three axes, which can only be done with a firmly fixed camera. The "tilt" function allows the lens to be adjusted to increase or decrease the depth of field; with the "shift" function, we can move the lens to the correct perspective and converging lines without moving the framing. The "shift" function enables the correction of vertical lines and thus prefects the framing. Thanks to this capability, it is possible to achieve correct perspectives directly in-camera, reducing the need for corrections in post-production.

A tripod is always with me because stability is crucial in architecture photography. A sturdy tripod keeps the camera steady, ensuring sharp, high-quality images. My choice has always been Manfrotto, specifically the 055 Carbon Tripod paired with the .

The 055 Carbon Tripod is made of carbon fiber, making it lightweight and easy to move around the studio or outdoors. Despite its lightness, it offers excellent precision and sturdiness. The is ergonomically designed for ease of use, featuring innovative micrometric knobs that allow for precise angle adjustments. Simply turning these knobs improves the accuracy of my shots. The built-in leveling bubble provides an extra layer of quick precision setup. Additionally, the superior locking system allows me to move the axes safely and quickly while working. Thanks to these special innovations, I can get to work with minimal fuss and maximum efficiency.

To photograph the Giusti Wine Winery, I had to adapt to the needs of the owners, trying to capture details that would effectively tell the story of the winery, given the available time and light. I had the opportunity to shoot one afternoon in June, between 4 PM and 6 PM. I had to focus on specific details where the available light allowed me to highlight certain features of the building. I therefore focused on utilizing the interplay of light and shadows created by the spiral staircase shot in backlight; the contrast between the corten structure and the blue sky in the shots of the interior staircase with its glass sphere decor, and finally, I waited for an interesting light angle around 6 PM to take the last shots of the building.

In the case of “Casel," the tourist accommodation of the Col del Lupo company, I had the opportunity to return several times with different lighting conditions, always in the afternoon, to take advantage of the soft light of an overcast sky and the warm contrasts of the sunset light. These two different situations allowed me to more comprehensively capture this small building set in the landscape of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Hills, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In both cases, my approach was to explore the location before starting to shoot. I need to understand the light and find the most suitable viewpoints to best capture the subject (in this case, a building). After completing the inspection, I decide where to position the tripod with the camera leveled, and I begin to compose the image, ensuring that all lines are straight and the perspective is correct, checking even the smallest detail to make the appropriate choices for the shot. Simply rotating the camera or changing slightly my position can change substantially the impact of the photo. The lens shift then allows me to perfect these choices.

To achieve the best results, these are the rules I never break: 

1. Shoot in RAW: To fully utilize the camera's features and have more flexibility in post-production. A JPEG file captures millions of colors, but a RAW file captures billions.
2. Use a tripod: High resolution allows for the reproduction of the smallest details, but also all the flaws of the shot. The stability of the camera fixed on the tripod prevents any loss of sharpness.
3. Use the nominal ISO sensitivity: This provides the best tonal range and least noise. Shutter speed is not an issue since the camera is on a tripod and there are no moving subjects.
4. Use a remote release or a shutter release cable: Even pressing the shutter button can cause vibrations.
5. Turn off the vibration reduction functions: Leaving them on, especially with long shutter speeds, can cause unwanted blur and lack of sharpness.
6. Choose an appropriate aperture: For good depth of field without compromising lens quality, I primarily use f/11.
7. Adjust the shutter speed: For balanced exposure without blown highlights or overly dark shadows, it is better to bracket and then choose the best shot during editing.

The use of tripod and digital photography offers technical solutions that significantly improve images. When the scene dynamic range is too wide, I take a bracketing of 3 or 5 RAW shots which I later merge using the HDR function in the editing program.
It is important to:

• Shoot on tripod without moving it between shots.
• Not manually adjust the camera controls but use the bracketing function.
• Perform bracketing by adjusting only the shutter speeds, without opening or closing the aperture. 

Sometimes I find myself in situations where the framing angle captured by my lens is not sufficient, or I need files with higher resolution (perhaps for large format printing). Once again, using a tripod helps me find the solution: panoramic photography and merging multiple shots. However, in architectural photography, it's important not to create panoramas with significant distortions or inconsistencies. For better results, excellent panoramic heads from Manfrotto can be used, but for practicality, we can utilize the tilt and shift capabilities of lenses to create stunning panoramas with a wider angle of view and higher resolution files, without distortions or stitching issues. To do so, you just need to take three shots by shifting the lens (horizontally or vertically) and then merge them in post-production.

To sum it all up, in architectural photography, a good tripod is essential for obtaining excellent images because it enables a broader range of technical solutions, such as HDR or merging multiple images. However, it must be robust enough to keep the camera stable, (and in my case, it is a piece of equipment with an important size) yet light enough for easy transportation. 
It's a valuable work tool and above all, a faithful travel companion.