Photographing Indian Architecture

Architecture Photography is a gener of photography that is often associated with Travel Photography, specifically in a country like India where almost every tourist place has one or more monuments to photograph. Like any other gener of photography, photographing architecture or monuments has certain guidelines to follow for successful outcome. In this article I will cover some of these guidelines, using some of the snaps that I published under Glimpse Of Badami Caves. 

Exterior View: Almost every important monument is recognised from it's view from outside, and each must have been visited by tousands and  photographed as many times. So, always look for capturing the exterior of the monument or place and possibly covering the environment; however, the differentiating factor would be to choose an unusual but asthetically pleasing view point for composition, like the image of this cave in Aihole, on the right. In this case the pillar, the circular lawn-grass provide depth to the overall composition and at the same time led the eyes to the cave. Lack of any other subjects like people etc., adds to the feeling of a distant past.

Wherever possible look for interesting composition which can give an insight into the environment. This picture of one of the caves in Badami, on the left is one such. The combination of the stairs, wall, cave and red-stone-wall gives enough insight into the rocky red-stone environment. At the same time the stairs led the eyes to the caves which is the center of interest. The overall composition is a semi-abstract one and the viewer needs to give a close look to see the details.

Here is another example that highlights the stone-steps and warm color of the overall environment. Composition has played an important role here to keep the photograph interesting.

Design & Sculpture Details: The hidden beauty of any Indian monument lies in the architectural details, and these can be found almost everywhere.

Pillars - This snap of the pillars that support the caves have beautiful patterns carved on them. The picture not only highlights the carvings, but also indicates the massive monolothic nature of the structure.

Walls - It pays to give close look at the carvings on the walls, which is normally filled with beautiful designs and patterns. A close-range shot is required to isolate the designs from the other parts. If it is not possible, take a reasonably close-up shot and later crop it to isolate the details. It is necessary to take special care of the horizontal and vertical lines while capturing the details. Here are few examples of such sculptures that can be found on walls.



Roof & Floor - There can be interesting and beautiful sculptures on the most often missed places like roofs and floors. This photograph of the mythical serpent is found in one of the caves' roof, and can be easily missed. It is quite difficult to capture such snaps in standing position and maintaining the horizontal / vertical lines as well. It is better to sit on the ground and carefully compose shot with special care for the horizontal and vertical lines. If the camera has a grid-view, enabling that will help.

Similarly, here is another easily missed snap of the stone-step in one of  the caves which not only has lotus flowers carved on it, but also gives the feel of the solid-ness of the stone structure.

Wide-angle Interior View: It is possible to capture stunning pictures of the entire interior of any monument. Most often this is a wide-angle view of the monument covering the floor, roof, walls as well as the main center-of-attraction. The photograph on the right captures the complete interior of one of the caves in Badami, with the distant statue as the point of interest, with the pillars, roof and floor leading the eyes to it. This also gives a glimpse of the detailed architecture on each and every stone of the monument.

Technical Notes: Like any other gener of photography, technical aspects do play an important role in achiving better results.

• Lens - The ideal choice of lens is a wide-angle one like 18 mm, so that a single shot can capture the entire or substantial part of architecture. Though a this can result in distortion like merging parallal lines, it can add to the overall artistic composition. 

• Flash - Use of flash is to be completely avoided, unless it is real pitch dark for the camera to capture any detail. This will help maintain the warm-tone of the sculptures.

• ISO - A lower ISO value like 100 or 200 with a slow-sutter-speed is preferrable than a higher ISO value with a faster-shutter-speed. This will capture the architectural details without adding any noise to the snap.

So, next time you plan for capturing the snaps of any monument, keeping these points in mind will help achieve better outcome.

[Snaps Taken: October 2011] [Canon EOS 550D, 18-55 mm IS Lens]