Capturing cityscapes

IF you take the time to look at the city you live in or the ones you’re visiting from a photographer’s viewpoint, you’ll be surprised at the images you can capture. The most important thing when capturing a cityscape is location. Actually, you need to look beyond what others see.

Train your eyes and try to look from different perspectives, such as from an elevated point, a rooftop, tower, low angle street level, etc.

It is good to have a wide-angle lens or a fisheye lens to shoot that unique perspective.As cities are naturally more beautiful and outstanding at night, be sure to use a tripod when shooting after dark. This is to ensure that your pictures will not turn out blurry.

As for camera settings, if you shoot in broad daylight, use lower ISOs like 100 or 200 and set the aperture to F/5.6 and above in both manual or aperture priority modes.

For night shots, it’s advisable to use manual mode so that you can adjust the shutter speed, ISO, as well as aperture accordingly.

Here are some samples of cityscape pictures and how to shoot them.

A fisheye lens was used to take this photo from a nearby building facing KLCC. Camera is mounted on a tripod. Camera setting — ISO 100, F/16, 10 seconds exposure.

A majestic view taken from The Peak area. Camera is mounted on a tripod. Camera setting — ISO 160, F/14, 13 seconds exposure.

A low fisheye view of the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo. Camera is mounted on a tripod. Camera setting — ISO 100, F/16, 3 seconds exposure.

This top-down view of skyscrapers in New York was taken from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Camera is handheld. Camera setting — ISO 200, F/6, 1/600 seconds exposure.

Dramatic sun rays fall on the dense Tokyo metropolitan area during sunset. The photo is taken from the observation deck of Tokyo Skytree. Camera is mounted on a tripod. Camera setting — ISO 500, F/11, 1/320 seconds exposure.