Everything You Need To Know About Cityscape Photography

Everyone loves the feeling of heading into nature with their favourite camera and lens kit for a peaceful exploration of the landscape through photography. But what if our surroundings are bustling city streets or concrete jungles? Can we put our landscape photography skills to good use in these vastly different surroundings? If you are contemplating this, we urge you to read on and discover what cityscape photography is. Let's find out exactly what this type of photography entails.

Cityscape photography is a type of landscape photography that captures the urban environment, focusing on buildings, streets, and other cityscape elements.  The goal is often to capture the essence and character of a particular city, from the towering skyscrapers of New York to the street art-laden laneways and countless coffee shops of our own Melbourne.

If you are thinking that due to the subject matter and location of cityscape photography, it is more than just a little bit related to street photography, you are correct. There is a clear crossover and many photographers will dabble with both if they are interested in exploring urban environments.

How do they differ? Street photography often relies on chance and timing, with photographers employing a great deal of patience and timing to help capture what is known as the decisive moment. When it comes to Cityscape photography, photographers generally spend a great deal of time on framing and composition; in this regard, it is more closely related to landscape photography.

Whether a big city stop is planned on your next travel venture or you plan on getting to know the city you love and know the most, in a different light, here is a collection of our favourite Cityscape photography tips.

Use these Cityscape photography settings:

While the fast-paced, candid nature of street photography often requires high ISOs and fast apertures to capture the action quickly, in a handheld nature, when it comes to cityscapes, you can afford to slow down a bit and use appropriate settings.

Aperture: As with landscapes, you want much of your images to be in focus for a high-quality cityscape. Use an aperture of f8 or smaller to help you achieve this greater depth of field.

Shutter Speed: Your shutter speed will depend on your personal preference, as many cityscape photographers will want to introduce motion blur into their work, to show that the city and its occupants are always on the move. To emphasise movement, use a slow shutter speed to blur people and vehicles. If you want everything sharp and frozen, use a shutter speed or around 1/125th of a second or faster.

ISO: As you will generally be using a tripod for your cityscapes, you can get away with using a lower ISO; the benefit of this is your images will have less image noise and greater detail. As always, you will have the raise the ISO if the current lighting conditions make it necessary.

Use Creative composition and framing:

With your camera mounted on a tripod for stability, you have plenty of time to practice your compositional techniques. City streets and buildings are a great way to introduce leading lines into your work, which is the perfect way to direct attention to the elements of your work that you are attempting to emphasise.

Some other important compositional tools that you can investigate and perfect are the rule of thirds and negative space photography.

Top Tip: Negative space photography involves leaving space around your subject to help create a more balanced image. Regarding cityscapes, the sky or even a row of trees is a good negative space.

Pay some mind to the lighting and the weather:

Weather and lighting dramatically impact the mood of your cityscape photos. Sunny days highlight clean lines and cast sharp shadows, while cloudy skies create a moody atmosphere. Rain adds drama and movement, and fog injects a sense of mystery. Even the golden light of sunrise and sunset paints the city in warm hues, imbuing it with a sense of peace and tranquillity.

Decipher what look best matches the spirit of your city, check the weather forecast and go from there. Often this matter will be beyond your control, but you can certainly plan your shoot for a certain time of day for greater success.

Cityscape Photographers: Prepare to Overcome These Challenges

There are a few specific issues that street photographers encounter when they get to work. Knowing about them beforehand can help you to prepare ways to counteract, so you can produce your best possible images.

Light Pollution: The various artificial light sources in a city can lead to light pollution, which means unwanted colour casts and generally hazy images. To counteract this, use an ND filter to limit the light hitting your sensor, and always shoot in RAW so you can fix any issues in post-production.

Clutter: The city streets are not known for being particularly clean and serene. Still, an overwhelming amount of overflowing bins can make your photographs trickier for viewers to get into. How can we address this? Some things to try include using telephoto lenses to cut out foreground details, choosing different vantage points, and choosing to shoot at a different time of day, when there is less foot traffic.

Tripod restrictions: Sometimes the city streets will provide you with no space to set up a tripod to capture the photograph you really want to. While a tripod is an extremely handy accessory, here are a few ways to overcome it. 

• Use a monopod instead, which will provide some stability for handheld shots, with a smaller footprint. 
• Raise your ISO - your modern digital camera can generally handle this!

Focus on the unique details:

How can we tell one city apart from another? Your role as a cityscape photographer is to pinpoint these potential elements and highlight them in your images. If the city you are exploring has unique or modern architecture, your images should include these elements, while if you are working in the fashion capital, don't be afraid to include a human presence in your photographs, as a hint to your viewers.

Wondering what camera gear you can bring along with you to capture the best cityscape photography? Here is a basic selection of what we think is the best cityscape photography gear.

Mirrorless Camera: Smaller and lighter than a DSLR, a mirrorless camera allows you to easily navigate bustling city streets while maintaining excellent image quality.

Wide-Angle Lens: Capture the vastness of a city skyline or include interesting foreground elements with a wide-angle lens, perfect for showcasing the urban environment.

Tripod: Ensure sharp and stable images, especially during long exposures at night or when using narrow apertures, with a sturdy tripod for cityscape photography.

There’s nothing quite like capturing the soul of a city in a single frame. From iconic skylines to bustling street scenes, cityscape photography offers endless opportunities for creativity. Follow Ted’s photography blog for gear advice, photography hints and tips, and inspiration to elevate your urban shots.