Many places around the world feature spaces that offer great panoramic views to photograph cities from above One of the most classic examples is the top of the Empire State Building in New York, or the Rockefeller Center, in the same city. States are observation decks from Chicago to Willis Tower and Hanckock Building. In Europe, on the other hand, a classic place is the Montparnasse Tower. You can also photograph London from the top of St Paul’s Cathedral or from the top of the Shard (the tallest building in the British capital).
The list is long, even on the Brésil. La terrace of La Itelia, for example, it offers a magnificent panoramic view of Sao Paulo.
- But photographing a city from above presents many challenges and often you can’t use the tripod.
- Other times you will have to shoot through the glass.
- And when is the perfect time to take these kinds of photographs ?.
- What settings should you use?.
In this text, we’ll explore some of these topics so you can get great images of cities from above.
In some buildings, the use of a tripod is prohibited, especially in highly visited buildings, for safety reasons. If you don’t know this rule and keep a tripod in your bag, remember that you may not be able to use it. Be prepared for this situation when photographing cities from above.
If you’re shooting during the day, don’t worry too much, you’ll have plenty of light at your fingertips to withstand high shutter speed and a camera in your hand, but if you plan to shoot in low light conditions, or at night, your camera will need stability to generate sharp images.
In most cases, you’ll find something to support you when photographing cities from above. If the top of the building is completely wrapped in glass, you can use the floor to hold your equipment. Parapeting may also be another option to stabilize the camera when photographing cities from above.
Some views and buildings have a glass-enclosed structure and to photograph cities from above you will have to photograph through, which means that reflection will be a problem.
Although finding a solution to this problem is a great photographer’s dream, there is no magic formula for it, the idea is to find the most suitable position, lighting and settings to minimize video reflection when photographing cities from above.
Your exposure settings will depend on how much light you have, so we can’t give you the exact information, but we can give you an idea to maximize lighting to promote the best exposure.
First of all, and most importantly, remember that you don’t need a small aperture for these photos because you don’t need a great depth of field, your focus will adjust infinitely because nothing in your image will be close to you and your camera.
Also, if you need more light to create your exposure, increasing aperture is a good way to get started.
Choosing the time to photograph cities from above will have an impact on the look of your photo more than anything you do.
Avoid going in the middle of the day. This is the worst time to take this type of image, however, you may have problems with this, especially if you are filming from public points of view, which have limited hours and do not usually open very early, which would be ideal. hour.
However, most of these places are open until the afternoon, so you can enjoy the sunset, which has a lighting as good as the sunrise for the photographs.