Six ways to shoot… Doors and doorways

1 Straight up

Where possible, use a longer focal length such as 70mm, and make sure you are holding the camera and lens absolutely straight. This will help you avoid converging verticals, which would need to be corrected in post-processing.

2 Set the frame

Older, weather-battered doors have obvious photographic appeal – but modern doors can also work well, with simple lines and shapes the order of the day. Opt for simple compositions, but give a little room around the door in your framing so that you have a good overall balance.

3 Human factor

If you are feeling brave and have found an interesting door, ask the owner of the house or shop the door belongs to if they wouldn’t mind posing within the frame of the door, to give it that extra human touch. An interesting project could involve photographing people who live in your streets, in the doorways of their homes.

4 Eye for detail

While shooting the whole door is a must, you can also take shots of interesting details on the door. Some doors have interesting letter boxes, knockers or locks. After zooming in on these different aspects of a door, you could then combine a selection of your shots into a triptych.

5 Enter a new world

The obvious shot to take is always going to be of the door from the front – but doors open onto things, of course, so look to take shots of doorways to frame the world as if you are walking into it. Doorways that open into gardens are always particularly good for this kind of approach.

6 Night doors

You’ll usually shoot doorways during the day, but keep an eye out for doors that look more interesting at night when they are illuminated by street light or have lighting built into them. Play with white balance to either neutralise or increase colour casts.