10 Tips for Breathtaking Cityscape Photography (+ Examples)

A Post By: Richard Schne

Capturing stunning cityscape photos might seem hard, but it’s actually pretty easy – once you know a few tricks, techniques, and secrets.

In this article, I share my best advice for cityscape photography, including:

• How to keep your images consistently sharp (even in low light)
• How to deal with pedestrians in your cityscape scenes
• How to capture beautiful compositions using foreground elements
• How to get incredible cityscape night photography
• Much, much more!

So if you’re ready to capture cityscape images like a pro, then let’s dive right in, starting with:

1. Shoot during the blue hour

If you want breathtakingly gorgeous cityscape photography, then I recommend you pay careful attention to the light.

Now, you can create stunning cityscape photos at any time of day (or night) – but if you want the absolute best of the best results, I recommend you head out just after sunset.

(You can also go out before sunrise, but many photographers struggle to get up early enough!)

You see, this time is known as the blue hour, and while it’s great for all sorts of photography, it’s especially amazing for sweeping cityscape shots. During the blue hour, the sky grows darker and the city lights turn on. The balance of light – between the sky and the city – often becomes nearly equal, and you’ll witness a stunning combination of tones:

Working during the blue hour is very rewarding, but you’ll need to bring special low-light gear (see my next tip!), and you should also be careful; always tell someone in advance where you plan to be, keep an eye on your surroundings, and carry a phone just in case.

2. Use a tripod and a remote release for sharp cityscape photos

If you want to shoot during the blue hour, at night, or even during the golden hours (i.e., the hour or two just before sunset and just after sunrise), you’ll need to carry two essential pieces of equipment:

• A sturdy tripod, which will keep your setup supported while shooting.
• A remote release, which will let you trigger your camera without pressing the shutter button.

Once the golden hour sets in, the light will start to drop, and you’ll need to lengthen your shutter speed if you want to keep your photos well exposed. Unfortunately, longer shutter speeds lead to camera blur – unless you can keep your camera completely still, which is what the tripod and remote release are designed to do!

Simply mount your camera on the tripod, dial in your preferred shutter speed, then use the remote release – not your finger! – to trigger the shutter. (Pressing the shutter button with your finger will create camera shake, which will blur your images. Resist the urge!)

One more tip: If you don’t want to purchase a remote release, you can always use your camera’s self-timer. If your tripod is sturdy and your setup is light, a two-second timer should do the trick.

3. Bring a wide-angle lens

It’s possible to create stunning cityscape photography with a telephoto lens – you can use it to zoom in and highlight individual buildings and small details – but I’d really recommend you start out with a wide-angle lens. A good wide-angle field of view will let you capture sweeping scenes, and you can even combine foreground and background layers for a three-dimensional effect:

What type of wide-angle lens is best? Beginners should try out a 24mm prime lens, which will cost very little yet still offer a wide field of view (and crisp optics). If you’re willing to spend more and you want extra flexibility, a 16-35mm lens is a good bet; it’ll let you capture various wide perspectives as you zoom from the ultra-wide 16mm to the tighter 35mm.

4. Incorporate leading lines into your compositions

Beginners often point their camera directly at city skylines and fire away – but while there’s nothing wrong with such an approach, it can get repetitive after a while, plus the images tend to look flat.

On the other hand, if you can incorporate a foreground line (or three!) that leads the eye into the image and toward key background elements, your shots will have tons of three-dimensionality. They’ll also be far more interesting, as they’ll take the viewer’s eye on a journey from foreground to background. Check out this next image, which uses a path to lead the eye toward the mysterious light in the background:

I’d also mention that leading lines can help create order in an otherwise chaotic scene. If you’re shooting in an area with lots of pedestrians or cars, for instance, a nice leading line – such as a road – can cut through the confusion and help bring the composition together.

5. Shoot long exposures at intersections

Do you want to capture cityscape photos like this next example?

The good news is that it’s not as hard as you might think, and it doesn’t require any Photoshop wizardry, either!

Simply find a busy intersection in a city, and get up high. You can shoot from an observation deck, a roof, or a parking garage; just make sure you have an unobstructed view of the high-traffic areas.

Bring a tripod, bring your remote release, and capture some long-exposure shots. I’d recommend using a shutter speed of at least five seconds, but you may wish to shoot for longer depending on the speed of the traffic. The goal is to keep the shutter speed long enough to blur the cars into lines of light.

(Pro tip: Make sure that your scene features some curves. Traffic moving in a straight line can look okay if you include interesting structures in the composition, but if you’re focusing on the roadways from above, I highly recommend you include some bends and corners.)

6. Look for fountains

I love fountains in cityscape photography. They look great when incorporated into long-exposure shots – the water will turn into a beautiful blur – and they’re also just stunning points of interest to add to your compositions.

Happily, most cities are full of fountains. If you’re not sure where to find a fountain or two at your next cityscape destination, pull up Google Maps and do a quick search.

Then, when you’re out shooting, look for ways to include the fountains in your compositions. For instance, you can use the water to frame buildings, like this:

Or you can use fountains as interesting foreground subjects to add three-dimensionality to your images.

7. Use patterns to improve your cityscape compositions

If you’re after more subtle cityscape photography, you don’t need to capture stunning vistas of skyscrapers at night; instead, take a walk during the day, observe simple city scenes, and look for patterns.

You see, patterns have the ability to bring a sense of visual rhythm and harmony to an image. And when you incorporate them into the overall scene – here, a wide-angle lens is a big help! – you can create a calming, even meditative image.

Look at how the two patterns, made of the trees and the pedestrians, elevates this shot:

And by the way: Most scenes feature patterns of some kind, even if they’re not immediately apparent. So if you’re drawn to a scene but you can’t find a pattern, stop, take a deep breath, and look around. I’m guessing you’ll be able to find some repeating graphic elements, such as shapes, lines, or even colors.

When you do, include them in your composition, and let them add interest to – or even unite – the overall scene.

8. Use long shutter speeds to blur pedestrians

Many beginner cityscape photographers struggle to deal with pedestrians. After all, if you like the surrounding scene, you may view pedestrians as a distraction.

And it’s true: Pedestrians can be a distraction when rendered in sharp detail.

But if you lengthen your shutter speed to 1/5s and beyond, pedestrians will blur. They’ll begin to lose detail, and they’ll appear as an interesting ghostly presence:

Note that you can always experiment with different shutter speeds here, and your results will vary depending on the speed of the pedestrians.

Pro tip: If you want to blur pedestrians but you’re shooting in bright light, I’d recommend mounting a neutral density filter in front of your lens, which will block light from the sensor and prevent overexposure.

9. If you can’t use a tripod, then improvise

While tripods are allowed in most places, certain areas – such as city parks, business plazas, and city observation decks – may have a “no tripod” rule. (Alternatively, they may require you to pay to bring in a tripod; it’s up to you to decide whether this is worth the money.)

Before heading to a new location, I recommend you call ahead to find out whether tripods are allowed. And if they aren’t, don’t give up; just be prepared to do your best with what you have.

For instance, you might bring a hard-shelled backpack, or look for tables, pillars, benches, and anything else on location that is flat and safe.

Then position your camera stably and safely, and use a remote release or self-timer to trigger the shutter. While you won’t have the same level of compositional flexibility offered by an actual tripod, you can still get great results, even at night:

10. Don’t be afraid to shoot in bad weather

Many photographers stay indoors during bad weather, but stormy skies, rain, and snow can offer plenty of cityscape photography opportunities.

For instance, a foreboding sky might act as a moody backdrop to a skyscraper, while snow will create plenty of atmosphere as it falls around city buildings.

Personally, I like photographing during and after rain, as the moisture causes the city streets and buildings to glow (especially at blue hour):

But if you want to capture beautiful cityscape photos in rough weather, you must take steps to keep your equipment (and you!) safe. Use a waterproof cover to protect your camera and lens, and never change lenses out in the open. Also, be sure to wear a coat of your own, and if things get really bad – for instance, you see lightning – then head inside. No shot is worth jeopardizing your safety! 

 

Aperture in Photography

A Post By: Darren Rowse

What is aperture in photography? How does it work? And how can you use it to capture photos like the pros?

Aperture is an essential camera setting; in my opinion, it’s where the magic happens in photography. So in this article, I’m going to take you through all the ins and outs of aperture, including:

• What aperture actually is (in simple, easy-to-understand terms)
• How you can use aperture to capture artistic images
• How to choose the perfect aperture for landscape photography, portrait photography, and more
• Plenty of other tips and tricks!

If you can master aperture, then you’ll gain a huge amount of creative control over your photography.

Ready to take your photos to the next level?

Let’s dive right in, starting with the most important question of all:

What is aperture?

Aperture is the opening in the camera lens. A larger hole allows more light to hit the sensor, lightening your photos. A smaller hole allows less light to hit the sensor, darkening your photos.

And by adjusting the aperture setting on your camera, you can adjust the size of the aperture (and, in turn, affect a photo’s brightness).

The aperture is that (bladed) hole inside your lens!

Aperture and f-stops

Aperture is measured in terms of f-stops, also known as f-numbers. Like this: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/22, etc.

As shown in the diagram below, the smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture hole:

As the f-number increases, the aperture size decreases.

Now, each full stop corresponds to a halving of aperture size. So when you go from f/2.8 to f/4, you cut the aperture in half. And when you go from f/4 to f/5.6, you cut the aperture in half again.

(Of course, to double the aperture size, you just go in the reverse direction: from f/5.6 to f/4, and from f/4 to f/2.8.)

So f/2.8 is a much larger aperture than f/22. And f/11 is a much smaller aperture than f/4.

Does that make sense? It can be confusing at first, especially because large aperture sizes correspond to smaller f-stop numbers and vice versa. But stick with it, and it’ll become second nature.

How does aperture affect your photos?

At this point in the article, you should know what aperture is: a hole in the lens that increases and decreases depending on your camera settings (i.e., your f-stop value).

But what does aperture actually do? How does it affect your photos?

In the next two sections, I’ll discuss the primary effects of aperture:

1. Exposure
2. Depth of field

Aperture and exposure

As you may already know, exposure refers to the brightness of a photo.

In general, the goal is to end up with a photo that’s not too dark and not too bright; instead, you want a shot that’s just right, one with lots of detail.

So where does aperture come into play?

Aperture is one of the three key variables that affect your exposure. (The other two variables are shutter speed and ISO.)

Remember what I said above? By widening the aperture, you let in more light, which brightens your image. And by narrowing the aperture, you let in less light, which darkens your image.

So if you’re photographing a beautiful sunset and your photos keep turning out too bright, you can always narrow the aperture to darken down the image. (In fact, using a narrow aperture is often a good idea when shooting sunsets!)

A sunset scene like this will often benefit from a narrow aperture.

And if you’re photographing a forest and your photos keep turning out dark and shadowy, you can always widen the aperture to brighten up the image. (As you might expect, this is a standard low-light photography practice.)

If you’re photographing a subject in the shade, a wider aperture will brighten things up.

Of course, aperture isn’t the only variable that affects exposure. If you want to brighten a photo, you can also lower the shutter speed or boost the ISO. And if you want to darken a photo, you can raise the shutter speed or drop the ISO.

In terms of exposure, widening your aperture by a full stop has the exact same effect as lowering your shutter speed by a full stop or boosting your ISO by a full stop. A key consequence of this: different exposure variables can cancel each other out. Increase your ISO by a stop while decreasing your aperture by a stop, and you’ll end up with an identical exposure.

The point here is that, while aperture does determine exposure, you can’t think about it in isolation. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO work together to give you a well-exposed (or poorly exposed) image.

Aperture and depth of field

Aperture also affects the depth of field in your photos.

What exactly does that mean? Well, depth of field (DOF) is the amount of your shot that is in focus. So a photo with a large depth of field will have most of the image in focus, like this:

Do you see how sharpness stretches from the foreground to the background? That’s thanks to the large depth of field.

A photo with a small depth of field, on the other hand, will have only a sliver in focus, like this:

As you can see, the effect is pretty artistic; you get a sharp subject but a blurry background. Neat, right? Because a blurry background helps the subject to stand out, this is an effect you’ll often see in portrait photography.

As for aperture, the wider the aperture (and the smaller the f-number!), the shallower the depth of field.

So an image with an f/2.8 aperture will have very little in focus:

And an image with an f/16 aperture will have all of the scene in focus:

Got it? If you’re still struggling to understand – and if you are, don’t be embarrassed! – let me illustrate using two pictures I took in my garden:

The first picture was taken with an aperture of f/22, while the second picture was shot at f/2.8. The difference is obvious, right? The f/22 picture has both the flower and the bud in focus and you’re able to make out the fence and leaves in the background. Whereas the f/2.8 shot has the left flower in focus, but the right flower is less in focus and the background is completely blurry.

That’s all thanks to aperture, which controls the depth of field.

4 simple aperture examples

Here are a handful of additional aperture examples to help you wrap your head around its effects – in particular, how aperture affects the depth of field.

First, take a look at this landscape shot. It was captured with a narrow aperture, which resulted in a deep depth of field and sharpness throughout:

Now take a look at this street photo, which was taken with a wide aperture; it has a shallow depth of field:

And here’s a third example, which has a midrange depth of field. The entire photo isn’t sharp, but the main subject plus some of the surrounding area look crisp:

Finally, here’s one more example with an ultra-wide aperture for an ultra-shallow depth of field:

What’s important to know is that the aperture offers you creative control as a photographer. Want to create a blurry background? Pick a wide aperture. Want to keep your shot sharp throughout? Pick a narrow aperture.

Of course, you also have to remember the effect of aperture on exposure, which is what makes things a bit more complex (but a lot more fun!).

Adjusting the aperture on your camera

Now that you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering:

How can you actually change the aperture on your camera? What do you have to do?

Fortunately, adjusting the aperture is easy. You just set your camera’s shooting mode to Manual or Aperture Priority. Then rotate the relevant camera dial to change the f-number. (The specific dial will depend on your camera model; if you’re struggling, consult your manual.)

Which aperture is best?

When photographers first learn about aperture, this is a question that crops up constantly.

But as you’ve hopefully gleaned from the sections above, there is no single best aperture that you can use all the time. Sometimes you’ll want a deep depth of field or you’ll want to darken down a too-bright shot, in which case you’ll need to use a narrow aperture. Other times you’ll want a shallow depth of field or you’ll want to brighten up a too-dark shot, in which case you’ll need to use a wide aperture.

That said…

There are apertures that get used consistently in certain genres. I’ll cover them briefly below, starting with:

The best landscape photography aperture

Landscape photographers gravitate toward small aperture settings, such as f/8, f/11, and even f/16.

Why?

When you’re shooting a sweeping photo of the land, sea, or sky, you often want to keep the whole shot sharp. That way, the viewer can appreciate every little detail of your majestic scene.

Landscape photos like this one generally require a narrow aperture.

Plus, a deep depth of field makes the shot feel more real, like the viewer could physically step into the scene.

The best portrait photography aperture

In portrait photography, it can be handy to have your subject perfectly in focus but the background nice and blurry. That way, your main subject stands out and the background doesn’t become a distraction.

Wide apertures work great for portraits!

In other words, use a large aperture to ensure a shallow depth of field.

It’s a trick used by family portrait photographers, headshot photographers, fashion photographers, and more.

The best macro photography aperture

Macro (i.e., close-up) photographers tend to disagree over aperture.

Some macro photographers use a very narrow aperture because depth of field gets shallower at high magnifications. And by using a narrow aperture, a macro photographer can ensure that their entire subject is in focus, even if the background is blurred.

This macro photo was shot at f/13; at such high magnifications, keeping an entire insect in focus is tough.

Whereas other macro photographers embrace a shallow depth of field. They use a very wide aperture for a soft-focus effect.

A soft-focus  effect looks great in macro  photography.

Which is the way to go? That depends on your preferences! Both approaches work well, and there are plenty of professionals using each technique, so don’t stress about it too much.

195.5K