HOW TO SHOOT AMAZING CITYSCAPES (WITH A LESSON IN CREATING POSTCARDS AND GREETING CARDS FROM YOUR IMAGES)

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1 46 Session 46 HOW TO SHOOT AMAZING CITYSCAPES (WITH A LESSON IN CREATING POSTCARDS AND GREETING CARDS FROM YOUR IMAGES) A cityscape is much more than a beautiful skyline with towering buildings and magical lines. The definition of a cityscape embodies the mood of a city s architecture its people its colors its landmarks. And mood is not an easy thing to describe in words. That s where pictures come in. Your goal when photographing cityscapes is not only to capture the look and feel of the city but also, on a deeper level, to portray the parts of the city that make it unique. What makes Paris different from any U.S. city? What makes Buenos Aires different from Paris when both cities have similar architecture? Cityscapes don t necessarily have to include cities, either. Your hometown undoubtedly has many cityscapes, from local landmarks to churches to simple things you and your neighbors pass by each day. Take a look at these cityscapes. They aren t pictures of a city per se, though they re still considered These cows... a familiar site in their hometown location near the local airport... are another example of a small town cityscape. Rich Wagner Cityscapes aren t limiting to big, bright skylines. Every city, every town has its own personality... the Farm Store shot is a perfect example. Rich Wagner 557

2 cityscapes because they communicate the mood and feel of the town they were taken in Concentrate on Composition 46 The good news is this: A cityscape or skyline is nothing more than a landscape photograph the same rules apply. (See Session 20 for a review.) As with landscapes, cityscapes do more than just document a few buildings and streets. The good ones generate an emotional response from the viewer (the reason you often see cityscapes on postcards and greeting cards). Also like landscapes, cityscapes don t move. They do, however, change their look during different seasons and even different times of the day. It s up to you, then, as the photographer, to use what you know about light, composition and creating a mood with your photographs to produce saleable cityscape images. So, how s it done? How do landscape and cityscape artists get those stunning shots? Remember to Make Your Photograph Unique All of the rules of good composition apply here and more so. The difference is in the makeup of the subject itself. It will be different from every vantage point. The patterns in the west, for instance, may be gone when the city 558

3 46 skyline is viewed from the south, and those of the north might not be as striking when you re standing on the other side of the city. Your job, as always, is not just to get a shot of the skyline itself, but to try to come up with something different. This means you need to: 1. Try different vantage points north, south, east and west, as well as up high and down at street level and all points in between 2. Figure out exactly when is the best time of day to make your recording morning, afternoon or night to create the mood you want your picture to illustrate 3. Use what you know about good composition (Rule of Thirds, Diagonal Lines, Framing) to add interest to your shot 4. Figure out what makes your city unique. Is it the people? Is it the architecture? Is it the energy? And how are you going to capture these things in a photograph? For the best skyline pictures, you need to get out of town. All major cities have a beltway of some sort these days. Get out and drive all around it. (Be careful not to spend all your time daydreaming about the images you ll make. One wrong twitch of the steering wheel and you ll become a part of the very landscape you re trying to record.) As you drive around take note of how the structures come together to form the skyline shapes and patterns. When you find one you like, record your position on a map so you can return to it. When you have a halfdozen locations mapped out, stop, and then start looking for likely vantage points in or around the positions you ve marked. Very often you ll be able to find a hotel with a friendly manager who will let you use one of his windows as a shooting spot. Remember, the higher you go, the better your skyline will look. Not only that, but from a high location you ll see patterns in the buildings that you had no idea were there when you viewed the buildings at street level. Quick Tip To shoot a mountain or a cityscape try to find a spot that s at least half as high as the highest point of the subject you are trying to shoot. That s your best chance to accurately record the true height of the mountain or skyline. Grab a city map and study it. Many major cities have observation decks that offer great overviews. If you re staying in town overnight, request a hotel room on an upper floor. From there, you can shoot from a 559

4 balcony or window. Turn off room lights to avoid reflections when shooting through glass. Some hotels and other buildings have rooftop bars and restaurants; these also make great vantage points. Stuck for ideas? Go buy some postcards and visit the local tourist office for travel brochures of the city. Don t copy them, just use them for ideas. Here are a few more things you can do to make your photos unique: 1. Capture reflections. Skyscrapers and storefront windows offer a lot of opportunities for great reflection photographs. You ll learn more about this in Session Consider a tour bus. Not only can you get all over the city this way but a lot of tour buses are double-decker with an open roof. You ll get up higher for great skyline shots and you ll get different vantage points from those on the street. 3. Go out in the rain. Few photographers like to shoot in the rain, but wet streets make for great photographs at night and rain during the day opens up opportunities for people shots with umbrellas. 4. Go back at dusk. Power lines, street trash, and ugly storefronts disappear at night. This is your chance to get a completely different view of the city than you got earlier in the day. 46 Use What You Know about Light to Capture the Mood You Want Midday is not the time to shoot cityscapes. Anything you do get will be dull at best. The optimum and most exciting time to photograph a city view is at dusk, just as the light is going but there s still enough prevailing light to ensure you don t need to use extended shutter speeds. Punch up the ISO a little, to 400 or even 800. Scout the location you feel will be best during the day, then go back just before sunset. A few minutes before the sun goes down, try to shoot pictures from the west to catch the last rays of sunlight illuminating the buildings. Now s not the time to take it easy. The light will be changing quickly, and you must be ready to shoot at a moment s notice if you are to capture that one great image. You can finish by shooting after dark. The lights of the buildings against the black of the sky will take on a totally different look, and maybe, just maybe, you ll come away with that once-in-a-lifetime cityscape. 560

5 46 Heintje Lee Right at dusk is one of the best times to photograph a city. Like in this image of Kuala Lumpur, the lights are on and bright, but there is still enough ambient light to give the sky interest as well. Five Practical, Take-Along Tips to Ensure Your Cityscapes are Postcard and Poster Worthy TIP #1: TIP #2: TIP #3: You have to pick the right lens for the job. A long zoom lens (something in the order of 28mm to 300mm) will give you a full range of options so you can cover the entire skyline or cut and crop it to isolate the bits you like best. If you don t have such a long zoom lens, take a short one (28mm to 70mm) and a longer one (70mm to 200 or 300mm) and use them at their shortest and longest settings. Use them at their widest settings for broad, sweeping views, and at their longest settings to close in on and capture even the smallest architectural details. Take your time, time to check out all the angles, not only of the buildings themselves, but of exactly how the light at any given time of day falls upon them. Watch out for the position of the sun. If it s in your photograph or just outside the frame, there s a danger of flare. Use a lens hood or shade the lens to prevent unwanted flare. (That doesn t mean you should always avoid flare. There are often times when a little flare can add drama to an image.) 561

6 TIP #4: Look for those Diagonal Lines, Leading Lines, S Curves and patterns interrupted. If you don t see them immediately, move a little to your right or left so that the streets or the buildings themselves create such lines. You ll find they can be used in this type of image to great advantage. 46 TIP #5: Watch for power lines and telephone poles. You would never guess how many otherwise beautiful landscape shots are spoiled by the intrusion of an overhead power or telephone cable. They are there, folks. You just don t SEE them. And this is especially true when you are photographing an urban cityscape. The whole city is powered by them; they are everywhere. But you can, and should, find a spot where you can eliminate them. If you can t eliminate them, try framing them out with a convenient overhanging branch, billboard, sign or shadow. City skylines offer a multitude of opportunities for great shots, especially in their architecture. The kinds of images you ll find will depend a lot on the personality of the city, and from where you view it. How to Turn Your Pictures into Postcards, Posters and Greeting Cards It s very easy to turn your photographs into postcards, boxed note cards, and even posters. You can do this at two levels, either a few at a time to test the waters or for your personal use, or on a larger commercial scale for sale at wholesale to stores or in your own retail operation. Let s take a look at the greeting card/postcard market first, beginning with small quantities There are a number of sources for inkjet printable card stock. Red River Paper in Dallas, TX ( is one example. They have a great assortment of papers made just for this purpose. They also provide online and phone support to answer questions about printer settings and printer to paper compatibility. You can even get envelopes and boxes to make boxed sets of cards. This isn t the cheapest way to go, but it certainly gives you an easy way to enter the market without a huge investment in inventory. You don t want to experiment with an order of 4000 pieces! Using a 5x7 greeting card as an example, cost per unit including ink is about $0.70 to $1.75. The higher prices would be for artistic watercolor papers. Postcards are considerably less. 562

7 46 Quick Tip I have produced boxed sets of my photographs of a local farm for sale at their farm store. Retail is about three times my cost and I give the farmer a commission of 30%. They re happy to have a quality product to sell featuring their 100 year old family farm and I m happy to get the publicity. Rich Wagner Cards can also be sold in units of 100 to individuals and organizations for use as thank yous for donors or general correspondence. If you want to produce larger quantities at a reduced cost, you need to go directly to an offset printer. Some of our readers have used Printing for Less online ( with good success. They have templates to walk you through the process. It s easy to upload your images and turnaround time is quick. They also sell envelopes for a one stop shop. In addition, you have a wide range of choices of surface, two sided printing, and more. The Printing for Less website does a good job of explaining all the options. Cost per unit using our 5x7 greeting card example ranges from $0.20 to over a dollar, again depending on the quantities and options you choose. Postcards range from $0.12 to around $0.30. Several of my local shots have been made into postcards by our town s Board of Tourism. This is not a big money maker, but again, publicity is cumulative and it s an ego boost. Rich Wagner Now how about going to the other extreme a nice big poster... Here there is a large difference between quantities of one or two and 100 or more. Let s start with the larger quantities first. Using Premium Printing Online ( you can get x36 four color posters for as little as $5.35 each. Up your quantity to 500 and your cost per unit drops to $1.32. If you do the math, you ll wind up spending not much more money for five times the inventory! Of course, you may be using the unsold stock to wallpaper your family room if you don t have an outlet to sell them. Remember, these are not photographic quality prints. They re more like a high quality movie poster. I ve produced quantities like this for a local booster club using a photograph of mine taken at the local high school. They used it as a premium for new members and also sold it at the games to raise funds for the team. 563

8 Once again, this brought me publicity. All this publicity has a cumulative effect and has brought me many opportunities far beyond the value of any of the individual jobs. Rich Wagner If you want photographic quality blown up to the same 24x36 size, expect to pay upwards of $38.00 each. You can go as large as 40x60 with American Frame ( Not really a bad price and the quality is outstanding. It s even possible to have your photo put on canvas and stretched on stretchers for over a hundred bucks. Absolutely worth it if you want to show off your creativity over the fireplace! These guys can also mat and frame your art at a very reasonable price. We re a bit off the subject, but this is the way to go if you have an opportunity to put your photography in a show or gallery. You don t want to display only the small prints anyone can make on an inkjet printer. You d be amazed how impressive a 40x60 photograph is as the centerpiece of a show. Act like a pro and you ll be perceived as one. What are you waiting for? With a small investment, you can test the waters and showcase your photography!