Quick primer – photographing cities, monuments, etc.?

Dave!

Hey guys,

I'm going to Valencia (Spain) for a month tomorrow, and was going to bring my DSLR with me. I've not been using it for too long, but I'm comfortable enough with it that I'd usually use manual mode and know how to adjust the settings, etc.

I tend to get some nice shots of my family at that kind of thing, but I've yet to get any shots of non-human (or dog!) subjects—i.e. buildings, rivers, etc.—that I'm impressed by/happy with.

Anyway, I don't have time unfortunately to go into much depth on the subject (should have joined the Dublin Photography Club!), but would any of you have some tips on what to be aware of/conscious of when taking photos of the likes of churches, old buildings, and that kind of thing? What are you generally thinking about? What settings would be most common?

FYI I have a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55mm VR kit lens. So I won't be doing anything terrible fancy

Thanks a bunch!

draiochtanois

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eoglyn

I've recently spent most of a week between seville and cordoba - it was amazing and i came out with about 90 photos that i was reasonably happy to show people - that's out of about 600 taken.

Your question is difficult to answer briefly, but my main tip would be that it is you are unlikely to take a photograph of one building in one shot that is in any way interesting.

On a larger scale streetscapes are more interesting, the collection of buildings and how they influence the space around which they are arranged - you can try to convey how people use that space or your impression of the space once you turned the corner to arrive there. Don't wait for people to get out of the way of your shot - wait until they are in a position that works for the shot.

On a smaller scale the details of buildings and how people interact with them are what will create decent images. For example a door of a building is where activity takes place - a detail of a door may be interesting or people entering and exiting. A window frame may be interesting, or what you can see through the glass might be.

Think about the story of each image you take - even if it has little story beyond a pretty detail, how will contribute to the overall narrative of your holiday - is it a moment or item that you'll enjoy being reminded of? If not, why bother taking it?

Finally be mindful of the simple composition rules like rule of thirds, framing, leading lines, patterns etc. when taking your photos - worth a quick google.

DaireQuinlan

All good advice above. This...

Dave! wrote: »

FYI I have a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55mm VR kit lens. So I won't be doing anything terrible fancy

... always gets my goat a little. In a modern DSLR with a kit lens you have an image capturing machine that's vastly superior in practically every respect to anything photographers had in the last 200 years of photography. It's what you stick in front of it that counts.

draiochtanois

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