The photography of buildings is called a number of different things, depending on what you are photographing, the purpose of the photos and where they are. Here are 11 different types of building photography.
- Architectural photography
- Building photography
- Construction photography
- Drone photography
- Product photography
- Real estate photography – residential premises
- Real estate photography – commercial premises
- Travel photography – buildings in nice places!
- Urban landscape photography
The purpose of this post is to explain these different types of building photography, rather than having everything under a blanket label such as architectural photography, which is the norm these days.
For me each of these are specialisms within the overall subject of taking photos of buildings. Architectural photography as a broad subject base does not work for me – is construction photography part of architectural photography?
I don’t think so.
But architectural photography can be part of building photography.
Architectural photography for does not logically cover all types of building photography, and in this post I will tell you why.
Why building photography?
For me, building photography is a better overall term than architectural photography. Building photography simply describes the specialism that is the taking photos of buildings. And architectural photography is merely one niche area within the broader area of photographing buildings.
If we think in this way it makes more sense, and puts the various specialisms within the area together, but distinct in a logical way. Breaking these things down under the blanket of building photography makes sense.
OK – that is where I am coming from.
But who am I?
I am Rick McEvoy. I am a photographer based in the UK. I photograph buildings. I am professionally qualified in both photography and construction. Yes, really. So these are both my thing. This is what I do.
I am also the host, creator and well everything at the splendid Photography Explained Podcast. And I am a nice chap too.
I specialise in two things
- Photographing buildings
- Explaining photography stuff in plain English on my blog, podcast and in my courses.
Right, let’s look quickly at these 9 in a little bit more detail.
1 Architectural photography
Architecture is defined as “the art or practise of designing and constructing buildings” (Source Oxford Languages).
OK so I have shot myself in the foot right at the beginning of this post. Architecture is the practise of designing and constructing buildings. Now I am not disputing this definition, no it is not my place to do that.
But I am disputing the understanding of this term, based on over 35 years of working in the construction industry. I am a construction project manager, and for me architecture is about the design, the aesthetics, the buildability. All that good stuff.
But we do not call the people who build buildings architects. No we call them builders, contractors, construction workers. And this is where the term falls apart for me.
And I would not be surprised if there are more construction projects that do not have an architect anywhere near them than do.
This is what architectural photography is to me
So for me architectural photography is this. And bear in mind this is what I do.
Architectural photography is the photographing of a completed building, typically for the architect. The photographer is engaged in a single commission to photograph a completed building to a brief set by the architect.
The photographer is commissioned to record the completed building, before or immediately after occupation, to provide a permanent record of the building, as constructed.
Architectural photography is also the photographing of existing buildings placing an emphasis on the architecture, and the design intent that inspired the design of the building.
So architectural photography is the photographing of both new and existing buildings, with a strong emphasis on the architecture and the intent of the design – at the time of design/ construction.
Right, now that I have got that out of the way I can look at the other areas.
2 Building photography
Well for me the term building photography is the overarching term for any photographing of buildings. It covers all aspects of taking photos of buildings.
Building photography is taking photos of buildings. Full stop.
And I am a building photographer. I photograph buildings. And I teach people how to take photos of buildings and also how to make money from taking photos of buildings.
3 Construction photography
Here I am specifically referring to construction sites themselves, and the various stages of the construction process that lead up to the completed building.
This is a fascinating specialism, which requires specific equipment for not only your camera but you as well. And you will need to know how to work safely on live construction sites, another subject all of its own.
Construction photography can include specific construction techniques, and also record stages of the construction process.
You wouldn’t call taking photos of a live construction site architectural photography would you? Hopefully, you are getting the point.
4 Drone photography
I know, I could of possibly should have called it this aerial photography. But drone photography is so prominent and accessible now that the need to have to hire a plane to take aerial photos has virtually been eliminated.
Drone photography serves a number of sectors, and can be used in the planning and design stages, as well as upon completion of works. Or just simply to get cool aerial photos of buildings.
Drone photography also spills over into the service sectors of property, providing previously unobtainable, invaluable data for surveyors, engineers, landlords/ landladies and property owners.
You wouldn’t call drone photography architectural photography would you? OK, I won’t make that point again…..
5 Product photography
A niche within a niche. I have done a lot of this, photographing products for construction product manufacturers. I have photographed products from some of the biggest names on the planet, such as Dulux, Rockwool, Catnic. Yep big, big global products that little old me has photographed.
And every construction product that has ever been sold has probably had photos taken of it, so this is a massive, seldom talked about specialism that comes under the overarching term building photography.
6 Real estate photography – residential premises
Photographing buildings for real estate agents. You know, you are looking for a new house – these are the photos that I am talking about. We all know them, we used to look at them in newspapers back in the day, but now we look at them online and in real estate agents shop windows.
I use the term real estate, but in the UK we tend to use the term estate agent rather than real estate agents, well certainly for domestic residential properties.
But this applies all over the world, and I think that the term real estate is familiar to most people.
And yes, this is another of the things that I do, and teach. I have written a course called “How To Become A Real Estate Photographer” – check out the courses page of my website if you want to know more.
And there is loads of info on my website all about real estate photography.
7 Real estate photography – commercial premises
I think that for many people real estate photography is the photographing of homes for sale online. Far from it. There is another massive area of real estate photography, covering everything else that is not a house or a flat.
I am talking here about taking photos of commercial premises. This is a massive area. If you think about it, any premises where there is a business is commercial premises.
Let me repeat that. Any premises where there is any kind of business activity is commercial real estate. Any business activity…..
So that is a massive area, and quite different from residential real estate photography.
8 Travel photography – or as I like to call it photographing buildings in nice places!
Yeah, buildings in nice places. I love photographing them. This Is what I do when I am on holiday, I photograph buildings in nice places. And I love placing ordinary buildings in exotic, spectacular, unusual locations.
It gives my travel photography a twist, a different angle.
And is how I find places many do not, by going out and exploring and finding stuff.
Now there is no restriction here on what buildings I could photograph – here are some of my favourites
- Historical buildings
- Buildings in exotic locations
- Derelict buildings in nice places
- Unusual and distinctive buildings
- Buildings that capture the sole of a location
9 Urban landscape photography
Well there is a genre of photography called urban landscape photography, which is all about taking photos of buildings and the environment that they are in. Buildings are the main subject of urban landscape photos, with the photographer having free rein to creatively record the urban landscape.
I love urban landscape photography because you have free rein in how you want to convey buildings and their surrounding environments, and that freedom can be happily applied to processing of images.
Urban landscape photography gives photographers a chance to photograph familiar scenes and convey them in different ways, providing interesting, innovative and eye catching photography. And best of all it is of scenes that people are already familiar with.
Great fun and very powerful.
And my last example of a different way of photographing buildings.
OK that is that little lot done.
Related viewing
Check out the video on my You Tube Channel for this blog post. Now I recorded this before I wrote the blog post, so you might well find that I refer to 11 things and not 9. When I was writing the post I reconsidered, and got rid of engineering photography and infrastructure photography, ones for another time and another area of photography of the built environment.
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OK – how can I find out more about this stuff?
Simple.
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Thanks for visiting my small but perfectly formed website, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers from me Rick
