Notes (p.179-197) Architecture and Urban Lanscapes

• photographs are indirect portraits
• can be formal or informal

LOOKING BACK

• ear;y film were slow
• buildings are stationary so photographs had a lot of detail, varied tones and value
• Charles Negre- 1840s, used photography to create studies for his paintings; intended to use photographs as "sketches" for his paintings

PHOTOGRAPHING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Thinking Artistically

• structure's setting is an important consideration when composing an architectural image
• building's visual relationship to things around it can also reveal a great deal about its "personality"
• patter-usually part of the image; help to enrich and strengthen photo

Camera Settings

• have as much image sharpness as possible
• smaller f-stop gives a greater depth of field; f/11-f/22
• slower film for most detail

Value and Texture:

• low-key- mostly darker values

• high-key mostly lighter values

Film

• architectural photographs can be divided into two types, commercial and artistic
• commercial- for magazines and brochures and most always shot in color
• artistic- black and white

Lighting

• if shot with regular film with incandescent bulbs= orange, correct by using deep blue 80A filter
• for fluorescent lighting, use FL-D filter

Lenses

• wide-angle lenses are very useful
• wider the lens, the more distortion you get

Camera Support

• slow, fine-grained film and lots of depth of field
• use tripod
• monopods, single-legged camera supports for walking around, but not for interior photographs

Filters

• using yellow or orange filters will separate the clouds form the sky and the clouds stand out; will also bring out the texture in the stone and concrete

• polarizer can darken a blue sky ti increase the separation between clouds and sky and will reduce or eliminate reflections in shinny, nonmetallic surfaces, like glass windows and doors

THE BIG VIEW

• shooting with wide-angle lens is convenient, but does have drawbacks
• perspective distortion- the closer you are to building, the more distortion you'll get
• get as far as possible and use the least wide-angle lens possible
• shooting straight from the front will make building look flat and 2D

Detail Shot

• features the individual architectural elements of a building's interior or exterior
• telephoto lens, is that you can stand at street level and zero in on an intriguing element

Interior Views

• need wide-angle lenses to photograph entire rooms for the big view
• interiors look better when nearly everything in the picture is in focus, requires great depth of field
• closer to the subject= m,ore depth of field so higher f-stop

Berenice Abbot (U.S. 1898-1991)

• 1918 at 20 moved to Paris to become sculptor
• worked as a photographer's assistant to Man Ray
• 1925 worked on her own as portrait photographer
• work characterized by exquisite lighting, interesting poses and precise, formal compositions
• became friends with Eugene Atget
• Changing New York 1939- comprehensive portrait of the city