Architectural Photography for Building Professionals -

Course Description

This is a comprehensive class on architectural photography taught a photographer with over 20 years of experience. Both interior and exterior photography is covered.  Students leave with a good working knowledge of architectural photography techniques. Marketing and new business development professionals working for property management, design and building firms.  Professional and amateur photographers that are interested in expanding their skills to include photographing building interiors and exteriors should also strongly consider taking this course.

Course Outline

This class is divided into three days. The first day is in the classroom. The second two days will be a combination of location photography and classroom image enhancement.

Day One.

Introduction from the instructor. Class overview. Post class student support program explanation and access information.

Lesson 1
Equipment discussion about cameras, lenses, lighting, accessories, computer and software.

Lesson 2
Camera controls – aperture, shutter speed , ISO and white balance. Light, incident and reflective. Depth of focus, subject movement.

Lesson 3.
Design in Photography. Elements of design. Principles of compositional design.

Lesson 4
Photoshop for Architectural Photography; interface basics; layers, masks, selection tools, filter, RAW file format and working with High Dynamic Range (HDR).

Lesson 5
The creative photographic process.

Day Two and Day Three are interchangeable based on weather conditions and building availability.

Exterior Photography Day

Our goal on this day is to get a good comprehensive collection of images of several buildings. These will include overall daytime shots, detail shots and hopefully a “night” shot. We’ll then bring the images back to the studio for critique and computer enhancement.  Be prepared to get up before sunrise. Our night shot may be in the morning.

Interior Photography Day

On this day, we’ll gather a good collection of building interior images. Students gain a good understanding of using available light and photographic lighting. In addition, the process of HDR imaging will be demonstrated and discussed. Subsequently, we’ll bring the images back to the studio for critique and enhancement.

Course Prerequisites

The intsructor will be taking photographs on days 2 and 3 which you can share from, however, we do recomment you bring some basic equipment which should include a digital SLR camera, wide angle and telephoto lenses and a tripod.

This class assumes you have working knowledge of computers and operating systems, a fundamental understanding of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and that you are familiar with the camera you bring. If you are bringing your own computer, make sure you have a recent version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements software. In the event that you are not knowledgeable in the use of computers or software, the instructor will not be able to take time away from the other students to teach you.