PPICs Technical Information

The problem.

Architectural photography throws up its own challenges for the photographer. The most common challenge is that of the phenomenon of converging verticals.

As you point the camera up to include a tall building, visually the top becomes narrower than the base. The building looks as though it is leaning backwards.

Solutions.

Whilst this leaning backwards effect can be corrected to some extent with software, the trade off is that the image loses around 25% of its quality and has to be cropped.

Another solution is to use specialist 'shift' lenses. These lenses allow the photographer to keep the sensor plane in the camera vertical and in line with the building being photographed. The lens is then shifted up as shown in the images below, and the verticals remain just that - vertical. There is no loss of image quality when using these lenses.

Lens unshifted		Lens shifted upwards

Below are a couple of before and after images showing the effect that using shift lenses can have.

The lens pointed upwards, and the building falls away from the viewer.		Lens shifted upwards - the building doesn't lean away from the viewer.