Photographer Vs Camera Owner

This article could be called many different things. It could also be architectural photography Vs estate agent photography. And for the record, neither is right or wrong; both have their place, but there are important distinctions.

For about £700, anyone can go buy an old, but very good quality camera and lens (Canon 6D is a great one for my money - my first full frame years ago). The temptation, which follows the estate agent aesthetics is to get a 17mm lens which shows lots of the space, making it look 'spacious', and more space = more money = more value(?). We all know that; we've all visited spaces and been surprised by how small it feels compared to what we've seen in a photo. Architectural photographers also cringe while looking at a super wide photo, as backs of sofas dominate, or light fittings turn from circles into wide flying saucers at the edge of the image.

A few weeks ago I went on a shoot for Maz Mahmoudi and 3equals1 Design to a space that had already been shot. It just mostly was shot estate agent style. All at 17mm (very wide view), quite weirdly saturated images, and (seemingly) not much thought into some of the views as far as aesthetics and what it's showing.

As soon as we started the shoot, it was really nice to hear that that's what she was after; people, a bit of atmosphere, some angles, and importantly, some zooming in - starting at 24mm, and going beyond 70mm for some shots (about "3x zoom" on your phone). The specialised 'tilt-shift' lens also coming into play, to allow placement of camera, but shifting the frame over to capture an area from a specific view, while keeping verticals/horizontals.

The previous photographer may well be great at their job. Past clients may love their work and swear by it. But it's vitally important to recognise photo styles, lens variation (if any), and feelings emoted from a photographers past shoots when picking someone to show your work. My work won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I try to bring a mix of approaches, adaptability, humanity, and design focussed views to all my shoots.

If this hasn't been too rambling or technical, or you have thoughts, feel free to get in touch for a chat, or share my post with your network!