[Photography] 6 Ways to Improve your Cityscape Photography

Cityscape photography is becoming increasingly popular and can be a welcome change to capturing rolling hills and scenic vistas. Urban landscape environments can offer you, the photographer, attractive buildings, patterns and lines to capture stunning scenes and an alternative to the familiar nature shots found in the countryside.

Here are 6 elements you will want to consider to improve your photographs of cities:

1. Shoot at different times of the day

Think about blue hour, golden hour, and daytime for your city images.

As the sun goes down and darkness falls, cities come to life when buildings and architectural details become illuminated and can make for some spectacular image opportunities. However, a common mistake people make when doing cityscape photography is to capture images too late at night when the natural light has disappeared and the sky is completely black.

Shanghai skyline at night.

Total darkness is generally not the best time to photograph buildings as they will appear less attractive with little detail.

If you intend to photograph in the evenings, I would recommend that you arrive at your location for sunset and wait for dusk to fall. You could shoot during blue hour, a period of twilight when the sun is at a significant depth below the horizon and when the sky takes on a predominantly blue shade.

Although it is called the blue hour, it usually occurs for a window of around 20-30 minutes, depending on your location and the season.

Golden hour is another good time for cityscape photography. During the early morning or late afternoon, you’ll have beautiful long shadows to work with, as well as soft golden light.

Daytime shot of the same city.

Alternatively, photographing during the day allows for a more interesting composition as scenes can be more crowded. Just add people in your frame that can make intriguing subjects combined with buildings.

2. Use ambient light effectively

If you capture the final elements of ambient light in the sky before darkness falls and combine it with the artificial light of the buildings, this will usually result in good photographs.

Once the city lights come on there is usually a window of about an hour to capture pleasing cityscapes. Shooting scenes at this time will allow you to balance the sky with the artificial lights of the city.

3. Consider color

Look for patterns and blocks of color that may offset one another. Buildings may be painted in different colors that work well together, for example.

The cool blue sky of the blue hour complements the warm, golden, amber hues of street and building lights perfectly. The harmony of an image is apparent when colorful tones come together, such as this image of Oxford at night.

Also, the sun can create different colors as it strikes buildings and reflects off them.

4. Consider composition

It is best to try and exclude any distracting and unwanted objects from the frame such as trash bins, signs, and any unsightly buildings that will make your image less attractive. Re-compose your image until it’s free of clutter and you are happy with the way the image looks.

Work with the light if you’re capturing cityscapes during the day. Usually, you will want to shoot with the sun lighting the buildings for the best results and to ensure everything in your view is illuminated.

5. Experiment with exposure

Cityscapes often provide a great opportunity to experiment with your exposure. You will discover that after sunset, as the light fades, you will be less able to hand hold your camera to capture your cityscape scene. Recording long exposures in cityscape photography will create motion and that feeling of movement is only possible by using a tripod.

As twilight unveils, you can capture the low ambient light by using slow shutter speeds to create mobility within your image. The stillness of buildings contrasting the movement of clouds or light trails from traffic, for example, make for an interesting image and can add drama to your composition.

Using fast shutter speeds can help to freeze the motion of different objects in the scene. I recommend that you experiment with different shutter speeds to see what different moods this creates and see which style of image you like.

6. Get creative

Add some beauty to your shot by capturing close up objects such as bridges or signs with the cityscape in the background. You could even try photographing people and the cityscape to show the full setting you are photographing within.

Don’t be afraid to get closer to your subject and focus on the action. I suggest that you play around with various angles to capture something truly unique and inspirational, one that you are proud of.

Cityscape photography requires a great deal of practice and you most likely won’t walk away with award-winning cityscapes overnight. Keep shooting and with these tips, you will become more adept at capturing urban imagery you can be proud of.

Now it’s your turn, please share your cityscape photography images and tips in the comments area below.

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