How to avoid common mistakes in urban landscape photography?

Urban landscape photography has become more and more popular in recent years, because urban renewal and walking ability have been given priority by the municipal government. Human beings are essentially attracted by the patterns, lines and vividness of urban landscape images. In addition, shooting the city scenery only requires a moderate investment in camera equipment, and a solid tripod and a decent zoom lens are the most critical. In the past five years, I have been living near the bustling city center, and I like taking pictures of urban landscapes. Research and trial and error are my teachers. In this article, I will share some common mistakes made by urban landscape photographers, including some skills on how to take better urban landscape photos by myself.

1) underexposed

Problem: Modern cameras are good at automatically exposing scenes during the day, but they are often difficult to balance bright artificial light and dark scenes at night. Therefore, many urban landscape images taken after sunset are ultimately underexposed.

Solution: It is important to check the histogram of the camera instead of relying on automatic mode or meter reading. If the left side of the histogram is heavy, then you should increase the exposure compensation.

2) The night is empty

Problem: Total darkness is usually not the best time to shoot city scenery. Compared with the artificial lighting in the city, there is almost no light in the black sky. Therefore, under these conditions, there will be many small highlights in the urban scene, but there are few details of the actual building.

Solution: If you want to capture the night scene, then I suggest you arrive at your destination at sunset and wait until dusk arrival. "Blue hour" means that the sky turns dark blue after sunset for about 30-45 minutes, which is in perfect balance with artificial light.

3) Improper white balance

Problem: Just as the automatic exposure of your camera has the problem of artificial lighting, so does the automatic white balance. When artificial light reaches the same intensity as natural light, it will be difficult for your camera to determine which light source to balance.

Solution: If it is RAW shooting (I strongly recommend it), you can adjust WB with image editing software. Either way, it is best to set WB manually. The cloud white balance on Nikon camera seems to keep the natural color best. In addition, please note that foreground objects and buildings in the background may be illuminated by lights with different color temperatures.

4) Fusion line

Problem: Linear convergence (trapezoid) caused by perspective deformation of skyscrapers is a good way to destroy the skyline. The most common distortion of wide-angle lens is perspective distortion.

Solution: My suggestion is to keep the lens level to avoid the obvious part of the image becoming trapezoidal distortion when the lens is up or down.

5) Low visibility and bad weather

Problem: Many cities are built near water sources. Water is an important asset of urban landscape, but it may also be a burden. Fog, haze and cloudy days may destroy other good urban landscapes.

Solution: It is very important to check the weather before Shoot. If visibility is poor, you may encounter fog or fog. Polarizing filters will help to transmit smoke.

Urban landscapes are one of the most accessible types of photography, because they can be photographed on foot with cheap equipment. As an urban landscape photographer, one way to make yourself different is to avoid obvious misunderstandings.