An ultimate guide to architecture photography | Top 10 architectural photographers in India

A photograph can tell any given number of stories depending on the individual seeing it. A photograph may not have a story at all but will be precious for a person just because they have a memory attached to it. Now when you try to bring this use of photography into a field like Architecture – Architectural Photography – where art, design, and calculations are technically balanced, this must have a pre-defined role and definition to be present there. Architecture photography is a specialisation intended to hold onto the design, rendering, and aesthetic features of structures and other built environments. This category has been broadly divided between exterior and interior architecture photography: exterior architectural photography concentrates more on presenting the building’s external characteristics, surroundings, and landscape, while interior photography highlights architectural design, light, and spatial relations inside a building. The architecture photography niche in India is picking up quickly because of the architecture boom in the banking, residential, and commercial sectors, as photographers are increasingly required to cover properties, hotels, restaurants, and other built spaces in an attractive and visually stunning way. This makes architectural photography an appealing and lucrative career choice for photographers in India.

Now this same strategy if used in architectural photography, will bring a broader definition to the photo itself while enhancing its visual language to the common public to not look at it just as a photo but also as an art display. But again, why have I used the first word “Intersecting” in my heading? That is because many photographs must have been taken at the same structure or location, but is that going to define its language forever or the emotions too?

No, they were taken at the same location but by different individuals in different situations with varying emotions.

Architecture Photography – A Perspective

So, saying or justifying a definition of the photo forever will never work. It all depends on the moment and purpose. Now let us understand the subject more technically.

What is architecture photography?

Architectural photography is exactly what it sounds like: the photography of architectural structures. Great architectural photography needs to make the most of a structure’s design and environmental setting. Architectural photography is an interesting domain evolving in India.

Architecture photography should not turn to real estate photography

Real estate photography showcases properties with the intention of making a sale. Architectural photography, on the other hand, is focused on capturing the aesthetic and intention of a structure most interestingly and uniquely possible. You really must understand the architect’s design intent to fully capture some amazing moments of the particular structure.

Basically, if you want to sell a house, hire a real estate photographer. But If you want to show off the distinct character and art of a structure, you need to hire an architecture photographer.

Why do you need an architectural photographer?

Architectural photographers can create images that are as bold and imaginative as the structures they are photographing. Architects put so much thought, time, and energy into their designs, so it is important that they hire a photographer who can do justice to their designs.

Everyone has a camera.  Everyone knows how to point and click, and, yes, for selfies and fun memories these photos are simply fine, but for your business…probably not.  In order to represent your business in a way that customers, clients and other professionals will respect and to get them interested in what you have to sell – it makes sense to use a professional architectural photographer to create high-quality, striking photographs that truly represent your brand.

No matter if you are an interior designer, architect, business owner or building materials supplier, you want your expertise highlighted. You want the colour combinations of the room, the angles of the structure or the texture of your stones to impress your client.  Awkward, dark, or boring photos will not do you or your product justice.

Every business needs to market itself. Whether used for print advertising, marketing brochures and materials, your website, or even just Facebook, your photos need to maintain the consistency of your brand.  First, you want to maintain your brand personality.  Is your company formal or more fun-loving?  A professional photographer who specialises in your industry will stage the photos in the most appropriate way.  Whether your photos involve products, people, buildings or food, a professional photographer knows the tricks of the trade to highlight the best features of your product.

Second, you want your actual photographs to look amazing.  Poor-quality photos can be a reflection of your business itself.  People have an unconscious association: the photos are bad = the product is bad and/or the business does not even care enough to have good photos.  So, even the best staging can be wasted if the lighting is not right or the angles do not capture the dimensions of the product while still having the emotions and artistic concept linked to it.

Speaking of lighting, professional lighting can truly make all the difference.  Lighting can affect colour, depth perception and more.  We have all heard of celebrities demanding lighting to make them look better. Bright lighting can highlight certain features and deliberate shadows can hide flaws.  This is true of architecture and design as well.  Lighting happens to be my personal favourite – how light plays with space, both interior and exterior.  The goal is to always maintain the integrity of the colours and lighting, as the architect and interior designer intended.  It is important to evaluate the space at different times of the day to determine how the normal light (natural or otherwise) plays on the space.  The final product must look completely natural as if you are standing right there.  Capturing the natural shadows in these spaces should always be a great opportunity.

Additionally, a professional architecture photographer needs to be careful not to over-light an area.  When you shoot a lounge area, for example, you should always maintain the drama of the shadows on the textured walls.

Post-production is an important component as well.  A professional architecture photographer should be able to use a series of different techniques to correct any blemishes in the original shots while keeping them looking completely natural.

Top 10 architecture photographers in India

Ishita Sitwala

She beautifully captures the essence of built environments with maximum precision.

Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia

The duo has done breathtaking architectural photography that meets the perfect blend of artistry and technique.

Maulik Patel & Vidhi Patel

Their collaboration transforms spaces into beautiful works of art and sincerely gives value to them.

Prasanth Mohan

One of India’s finest architectural photographers in India, he tells untold stories of architecture through sensitive and atmospheric photography.

Kunal Bhatia

Often interested in illuminating the beauty of built environments with an eye for details and composition.

Hemant Patil

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He is one of the finest architectural photographers, who focuses on visually arresting stories that demonstrate the conjunction of architecture and human experience.

Ricken Desai

Raising the bar of architectural photography with innovative perspectives and a flair for the extraordinary, he ranks among India’s top architectural photographers.

Edmund Sumner

Building his reputation from powerful large-format images communicates the drama and intricacies of masterpieces in architecture.

Pulkit Sehgal

For him, photography represents a way to explore the people, the spaces, and the relationships that lie within built environments. He is one of India’s most sought-after architectural photographers.

Nivedita Gupta

She is a consummate architectural photographer, weaving together architecture with light and story to form elegant visual narratives and she is a maverick in India.

Good photography is important in architectural design

We are an image-obsessed society with extremely short attention spans.  Images are registered and processed in the brain automatically.  A photograph that contains people in some sort of setting not only tells their story but also showcases the subject and draws the viewer in allowing them to focus on the details.  Architectural photography is no different, except the subject is most often a building.  Photographing the space means a couple of things such as the job is complete, the building is whole, and the client is satisfied.  Showcasing the client’s building is a privilege and should be treated as such.  Take pride in creating the images.  I suggest hiring a professional photographer who specialises in architectural photography.

Often though, a professional architecture photographer is not available due to schedules or budgets.  As with any photography, insist on taking photos in the best light possible.  Take photos at different times of the day.  Shadows can create drama while sunsets create a warm inviting feel.   Look for angles.  Take photos from high angles and low angles; getting both perspectives allows you to create more interesting images.

Do not forget the details.  Think of a wedding.  There are so many details put into planning a wedding and you want to remember it all.  You have photos of the cake, the rings, the flowers, the place cards and even the program.  The same is true in photographing a finished building.  There are hundreds of intricate details put into the design.  Pay attention to lines and light and how they interact with one another.  Lines draw the eye and can create an illusion of distance and depth.  Look for textures of the interiors, and the details of the railings and light fixtures.  Take several images of the exterior as well as the interior.

Once you have your images, bring them into a photo editing software and finish telling the story.

Focusing again on the intersection of photography with architecture

Architectural photography is about a balanced transcription of a three‐dimensional world onto a small flat surface. It is also the testimony of the interaction between two closely related and yet somewhat distinct disciplines, whose interplay has grown entangled in recent times: while architects and historians continue to deploy photographs as indexical records of artefacts, buildings and sites are growingly identified with their photographic image as a consequence of the emphasis placed today on architecture as a form of mass communication.

The history of the partnership of architecture and photography is captivating for numerous reasons: it interrogates photography as an automatic drawing or a direct imprint of the constructed world, but it also accentuates the rhetoric and ideology of the photograph as an image crafted toward a particular communicative goal. From the start, when the invention of photography was publicly announced in 1839, a long series of enthusiastic observations by historians and photographers reported on the experience of physically “being there,” while holding a small daguerreotype of a Venetian palace or counting the detailed panes of glass of a window imprinted on a paper negative of one’s own home. These striking statements—articulated by John Ruskin (1819–1900), William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877), and numerous other travellers and historians of a time past—became layered with contemporary accounts that privileged the position of the architect as the main orchestrator of a message.

In his compelling study of Second Empire photographs by Édouard Baldus (1813–1889), Barry Bergdoll notes that “the photographer remained for the architect a nameless presence” and that “the photograph, or dessin photographique as it was often called, could be signed by the author of the building rather than by the author of the representation.” Furthermore, this seemingly transparent record responded to a precise agenda. Baldus’s photographic “style” carved buildings from the urban context with the specific intent of interpreting Baron Georges‐Eugène Haussmann’s (1809–1891) politics of dégagement, where monuments appeared as new beacons within open vistas. This attitude persisted for a long since early twentieth‐century architectural historiography built its narratives on the identification between objects and their photographic representations.

In fact, if nineteenth‐century photography of architecture was characterized by an invisible and yet ongoing history of image manipulation and physical retouching, these considerations informed modernist practices even more radically. Beatriz Colomina and Jean‐Louis Cohen have profusely written on Le Corbusier’s (1887–1965) alterations of photographs in order to support his theories, and his profound understanding of the printed media as “a new context of production, existing in parallel with the construction site,” as exemplified by his early publications, in particular the journal L’Esprit nouveau.

Similar considerations about the symbolic use of photography apply to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s (1886–1969) early photomontages, where the architect cut and pasted photographic reproductions and drawings of a projected glass skyscraper (1921–1922) and of the Adam Department Store (1928–1929) into the existing urban texture of Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, in order to build realistic—and yet unrealized—graphic projects. These alterations vary from perfect camouflages to Mies’s visible manual alterations, where the architect’s work—or signature—prevails over the mimetic qualities of the photograph. This symbiotic history of modern photography and architecture moves back and forth, from a critique of photography as a form of disconnect from the real (in particular, with Adolf Loos [1870–1933]) to its embrace as mechanical and industrial reproduction (with Walter Gropius [1883–1969] championing Bauhaus photography), to the challenge of translating the asymmetrical plans of Konstantin Mel’nikov’s (1890–1974) Constructivist architecture (in particular, his temporary pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition of Decorative Arts of 1925) into a well‐organized photographic description. Throughout the history of modernism, photography and architecture became intertwined in the publication and discussion of new projects, but the collaboration of these two media raised questions about representation and the experience of the building.

Such contested authorship, deeply ingrained in nineteenth‐century photographic commissions, has reached a complete turn with the postmodern debate, informing contemporary practices, and inducing architects to think increasingly “photographically.” As Benjamin Buchloh has observed, “advanced postmodern architects direct their design towards a newfound ability of architectural masses, materials and spaces to yield to the laws of the photographic surface in an endless process of transforming the tectonic and spatial into the spectacular.” Similarly, contemporary photographers perform architectural practices, as in the case of German sculptor and photographer Thomas Demand (b. 1964) who transforms printed photographs retrieved from media into models constructed‐to‐be‐photographed.

It is evident from these brief notes and the existing literature—mostly elaborated by historians of architecture and contemporary art theorists—that a debate on the relation between architecture and photography can only be produced through an interdisciplinary approach that takes into consideration the context of production and media distribution of images entailing two distinct—yet interconnected—authorships.

Architecture photography – Between documentation and interpretation

In the post-postmodern era that we are living in right now, reality itself is neither clear as a concept nor as a relevant parameter. When referring to ideals and perfection, people make conflicting comparisons. We often say that something artificial is so perfect that it almost seems real, whereas a nearly perfect experience is commonly described as almost unreal or dreamlike. Architecture is a discipline that works with both terms and reflects on the real and the illusive simultaneously. Therefore, both reality and simulacrum can be defined through various perspectives. We can talk about the reality of materials like the weakness of concrete or the solidity of glass. Analogously, architecture can be compared to the image of architecture. What is it, really, that an architecture photographer wants to accomplish when displaying architecture? Are they trying to report on architecture and document its appearance, or trying to use the visuals to point out immaterial features? Is architecture used as a frame for events, and is it responsible for creating a certain atmosphere and provoking feelings?

Architecture is not only about the building itself. Let us look at an obvious example: According to dailymail.co.uk, the Guggenheim Museum in New York is the most photographed landmark in the world. The round-shaped spiral building, that looks nothing like the floor–wall–false-ceiling system we think of when imagining houses, has now become maybe even too familiar. The photographs expose it from so many angles (in and out, from above and from the ground), and as a result, people who have never visited the museum probably know what most of the building looks like. Guggenheim Museum has such a strong character, and yet it almost became a neutral space, something rather ordinary. The most interesting part is that, although photography mostly tends to preserve, in this case, it helped reveal the nature of a building of a certain age. Even more importantly, it demonstrated the simple fact that architecture is not resistant to decay. It does not have to become a physical ruin for its aura to become – well – old.

Architectural photography is more than just an offhand attempt to document a building, By the 1860s, architectural photography became an appreciated visual medium, and by the middle of the 20th century, architects started cooperating with photographers regularly. Buildings became highly valued subjects of photography, for one reason or another. They display cultural significance, and manifest trends in societies, which is an important matter of photography and its purpose of documentation. Leaders of totalitarian regimes used architecture to demonstrate power and dominance, from Fascist architecture in Italy to buildings in the Soviet Union. These examples are only more recent, whereas the older ones – churches, temples, and castles, are even more obvious. And is there a better way to ensure that these monuments remain permanent than to take photographs of them? Architecture photographers capture time and changes. They acknowledge the synthesis of the old and the new, the neoclassical and the modern, in a refined manner. They advocate architectural design and stage settings, but they also capture spontaneous moments that happen in and around buildings and landscapes and unveil their true character.

Architecture photographers use different techniques, and some of them are the same from the very beginning. To obtain a controlled perspective, they used to use view cameras, positioning the focal plane of the camera so that it is perpendicular to the ground. Today, photographers mostly use digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR), that provide different options when it comes to lenses, depth of field and controlling perspective.

Architecture photography 101: Tips to capture an architectural photograph

Here are a few tips for really remarkable shots of architecture:

• Do your homework: Always try to scout the location, viewpoints, and permits.
• Camera settings: Use a wide-angle lens, shoot in RAW format, and keep the ISO low.
• Composition: Check for leading lines, symmetry, reflections, and context.
• Lighting: You can capture the best photographs in the golden hour and cloudy skies. Always avoid the harsh midday sun.
• Post-processing: This is an important step. Adjust exposure, lens correction, and local adjustments.
• Additional tips: Use a tripod, infinity focus on the lens, and play with angles to capture a masterpiece.

Future of architectural photography

There is one more thing that evolved during the digital era, and its effect on architectural photography was inevitable, even in India. Experts deploy 3D programs for modeling and rendering to make images that perfectly illustrate the debate on whether reality is unreal, or whether the simulation is too real. Almost every architectural studio makes renders to visualize their projects before they are built so that both the investors and the public can anticipate their future appearance. These images can vary, from obvious imitations to complete illusions, and photography seems to take a strange position when confronted with these techniques. It can be either used as a compliment, to work with the render and help provide illusive images that tend to simulate reality or as a concurrent stream that carries what renders can hardly ever provide – a touch of imperfection. My take on this argument technically will be that both are important and if in any case, Renders do exceed the expectations of the photographs, then the photographs can be a part of the as-built stage of the project which will be visual documentation on what was proposed vs. what has been delivered.

FAQs

What is the level of demand for architectural photographers?

There is now a good amount of demand for architectural photographers in India that is increasing because of the growth of real estate and construction companies. Architects, interior designers, dealers, and property developers need high-quality images to showcase their work, and this makes it an exciting time for photographers to specialise.

What is the best lens for architectural photography?

The best lens for architectural photography is a wide-angle lens that can span a focal length of 10mm to 24mm and allow maximum precision. This lens allows one to photograph vast spaces and sweeping lines whilst minimising distortion. Popular lenses include the Canon EF 16-35mm or the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm.

When is the best time to photograph architectural works?

The best time to capture architectural photographs is at the golden hour, just before sunset or immediately after sunrise. The soft and warm light enhances textures and colours, and the shooting angle helps to add a little bit of intrigue because of the long shadows. Midday sun that can create harsh highlights and shadows on your subject should be avoided.

How do we correct lens distortion in architectural photography?

Lens distortion can be corrected in software tools such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, which have distortion corrections or mean unto themselves using already built-in profiles. Some cameras even have lens compensation turned on within their camera settings. Correction of lens distortion is an important step in building a masterpiece.

What are the suggested accessories for architectural photography?

Above all, a still tripod, a wide-angle lens, and a remote release or a timer should be considered the three most valuable accessories when it comes to architecture photography. Other valuable items include a polarizing filter to reduce glare, a neutral density filter for long exposures, and a camera bag for the safety of your equipment.

What skills should I learn to become an architectural photographer?

To become an architectural photographer, one has to learn skills such as camera handling, lighting, and postproduction techniques. Composition techniques, an eye for detail, and an understanding of spatial relationships are important for capturing beautiful architectural photographs. Business methods like marketing and communications are necessary to keep a healthy client-professional relationship.

What are the common rates for architectural photography services in India?

Rates of architectural photography services in India vary based on location, experience level, and project type. Hourly rates range from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 12000, and day rates may run from Rs. 15000 to Rs. 150000. Some charge per image or offer packages. Always research local market rates and prices according to the type of client you wish to attract.

** The featured image used in this article is from Pinterest.com

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