A good "how-to" book on photographing architecture?

[Ari]

Hi all,
Can any body point me in the direction of a good how-to book, written with the large-format photographer in mind?
Some basic rules, tips, tricks, etc with accompanying images and diagrams of camera movements would be ideal, but I'll look up anything that's been recommended.
Thanks very much.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

This is the best I have seen yet.

http://www.amazon.com/Photographing-Buildings-Inside-Norman-McGrath/dp/082304016X

[Andrew O'Neill]

"Photographing Buildings Inside and Out", by Norman McGrath.

[Merg Ross]

Although published in 1962, Julius Shulman's book is still an excellent choice: "Photographing Architecture and Interiors".

[Heroique]

"Photographing Buildings Inside and Out", by Norman McGrath.

I think this is a great book – one of the useful classics for any photography format.

And I’ve applied a lot of what McGrath shares to landscape work, too.

“Aesthetics, art, expression, communication, ethics, imagination, abstraction, reality, emotion, harmony, relationships, drama, time, humanism, and honesty are but a few of the dimensions to be explored,” McGratch says in the preface.

:confused: All that? In a book about practical photography? Plus well-written and agreeably illustrated?

Yes.

[Ari]

Great stuff, everybody, thank you.
I just bought the McGrath book online.

[Kirk Gittings]

I especially like the McGrath book. That and Shulman's book are probably the best out there. They have allot of good tips, POVs and insights. Simmons' book, Using the View Camera, has some good basic tips too. But speaking as someone who has taught this since the mid 80s, There is no book out there that can even begin to serve as a introductory textbook, analogue or digital. The subject is just too complicated. IMO one first needs basic VC skills and then lots of practice on exteriors before attempting interiors and the complexities of lighting. IE get competent and comfortable with the camera on exteriors and then tackle interior lighting. Interior lighting is another whole ball of wax. There is no book out there, that I have seen, that logically approaches the subject of AP in a structured manner. I have been asked to review a few new digital AP books on my blog, but have yet to see a new one that deserves the effort.

[Ari]

Thanks, Kirk; you're absolutely right.
That goes without saying.
(except right now, of course, as I'm saying it):)

[Kirk Gittings]

Its a source of frustration for me having done this and taught this for so long, but I guess it has always actually been up to me to solve it and I never got around to it. i almost forgot, I wrote a manual once for photographing historic properties for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but at this point it falls far short too, I don't think it is still available:


Gittings, Kirk. Introduction to Photographing Historic Properties., National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1992. 16 pp. Tools, techniques and processes. Artistic and documentary methodologies. Considerations: on-site, selecting film, processing, printing and storage. Focus on structures. Photography standards from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the National Register of Historic Places. bib. illus.