Step by step: Shoot from the bottom up
When we think of architectural photography we tend to imagine crisp, clean images of buildings that show the main façade of a structure front-on. In this tutorial, though, we're going to demonstrate how to add impact to images of tall buildings by shooting straight up at them, and blurring moving clouds as they pass overhead.
Modern architecture, with its blocky shapes and heavy use of glass to create smooth, reflective surfaces, is the perfect subject for shooting from this extreme perspective. Converting images to black and white also suits this technique, with the silvery tones giving images a futuristic look.
The key is to time your shoot for when there are fast-moving clouds passing overhead – the faster the clouds, the easier it will be to get that dramatic, streaky-sky effect.
Once you've got your subject and sky sorted, you'll need to blur the clouds, and to do this you need to set a long exposure. However, in daylight you may not be able to set an exposure long enough without running the risk of over-exposure, which is where neutral density filters come in. Here's how it's done...
