Photography News

  If used correctly, the empty space you leave in your shots (negative space) can make your photograph more interesting and easier to focus on rather than trying to fill every inch of the frame with interest. Negative space can play several important compositional roles so here are a few tips to help you think more about making the most of what's not in your scene:  

 

1. Reinforce What's Important

The obvious role of negative space is to show the viewer of your image what is and what isn't important in your shot. If there's nothing else fighting for focus, their eyes will be able to settle on your main subject without searching the rest of the shot first.

2. Balance Your Shot

Negative space can make a shot appear more balanced and as a general rule, you need twice as much negative space to the area taken up by your subject. For example, if you shot a close-up portrait and your subject fills the right third of the frame, you'd want the two thirds to the left to be negative space.
 

3. Give Your Shot Context

Of course, there are times, such as when you're shooting environmental portraits where you want to make the most of the size of the place you're taking photos in, when the above rule won't apply.

With environmental portraits, it's often what's around your subject that gives the shot more interest so filling your frame with your subject would mean the context would be lost.

 

 

4. Space For Your Subject

If you do place your subject to one side of your frame make sure they're looking towards the area of negative space. The same goes for action shots where they're running through the frame as generally, your shot will be more compositionally pleasing if they have space to move into. Of course, if you're wanting them to increase the sense of speed or want to make people wonder what they're looking at, position the negative space behind them, almost pushing them out of the frame.

5. Negative Space Doesn't Have To Be 'Empty'

By using one colour in your background when shooting indoors or by throwing it out of focus if you're shooting outdoors, it won't become a point of focus for your viewer so all attention will fall on your main subject. However, sometimes adding blur to your backgrounds will leave your shot with less impact. For example, if you're out shooting portraits and behind your subject is a mountain scene, shooting with a smaller aperture so you get front to back sharpness will exaggerate the amount of negative space around them, giving the shot more meaning and impact as a result.

6. Exaggerate The Negative Space

Take the idea one step further and strip all the colour out of your shot, leaving just the shapes and space around them to tell your story. You could also remove all the textures from the shot by shooting silhouettes.

 

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The Excire Foto 2027 interface is dominated by the central area to show off your images in Gallery view shown here. There is also a new feature called Survey view which shows selected images in an uncluttered environment.

 

It doesn’t matter if you're a photo enthusiast or a working professional, your photographs are invaluable and you should take care of them. Part and parcel of this process is rating, filing and culling your output and any software that helps you do this with greater efficiency and minimal stress is worth knowing.

We tested the award-winning Excire Foto 2025 recently and were impressed by its skills. Uniquely, it uses AI technology to analyze, rate and automatically keyword images and boasts a host of powerful search tools. Check out that review here. It’s a standalone app and for those using Adobe’s Lightroom Classic there is the option of Excire Search 2026 which works as a plug-in. 

The big news is the arrival of Excire’s Foto 2027, a software available for Mac and Windows that includes the core capabilities of Excire Foto 2025 but has added even more ways of searching for images and gives an even better user experience.

Excire Foto 2027 is available at a special launch price of £199 / $219 with the standard price being £229 / $249.

 

Quick Verdict

Excire Foto 2027 is an impressive software that is definitely several steps on from its predecessor, Excire Foto 2025. Survey view, Map view and AI text search are more than useful new features while the core search tools such as Find by Text Prompt, Find Faces and Find by Keyword remain central to the core proposition of Excire Foto 2027. For busy image creators, it’s a software that deserves a serious look.

 

+ Pros

• Works quickly even with massive image collections
• The uncluttered Survey view is excellent
• Map view will appeal to travel and landscape photographers
• Excire Foto 2027 runs locally so your data remains safe
• Excire Foto 2027 is a one-off purchase
• Suits stills and video
• Powerful search tools – text prompt, keyword, GPS, faces, people, similarity, duplicate
• Find by Text is a new search tool that works well
• Auto keywording saves time
• AI-assisted culling
• Aesthetic ratings can save time
• Video playback within the app

 

- Cons

• Excire Foto 2027 is a significant investment 
• Initialising large photo collections takes time but it’s a once only job
• Auto keywording works well with people shots but less well with general shots and scenics
• Aesthetic ratings won’t appeal to everyone

 

 

 

 

Excire Foto 2027 is the new kid on the block but that doesn’t mean Foto 2025 has gone. It remains available at the lower price of £159 for an outright purchase which is good value. So, for example, if you don’t need Map view or text search in Foto 2027 you could save yourself money by buying the older software which we know to be a very capable program that works quickly and has excellent search skills.

However, if Excire Foto 2027 appeals, try it before buying; it’s available on a free 14-day trial.

 

The interface’s top section has a new look in Excire Foto 2027. There’s a content search bar with the options of searching by text in photos, content or metadata. There’s also a timeline graph – the blue columns here.

  Excire Foto 2027 Getting started 

Open Excire Foto 2027 and you are greeted with an interface dominated by a large central area to view images or the map in Map view. This is surrounded by tools and icons but the interface is not as daunting as it is in some apps, probably because Excire has no image editing skills so there’s less to fit in.

You can’t enjoy the benefits of Excire Foto 2027 until your images are initialised which means images are analyzed by AI and keywords and aesthetic ratings are applied.

With Excire Foto 2027 open, go to File>Add folders or use the + symbol in the top left of the interface and that brings up the Add Folder dialogue box with options including Analyze photos and Include Subfolders. 

With a big collection of images, the initialisation process takes time and Excire suggests running the process overnight. That is advice worth heeding especially as you can’t do much in the software while images are being processed. You could of course have initialisation running in the background while you’re working in other apps. 

With the amount of time needed to initialise images I did it in stages. In one session, 127,614 photos took 31 seconds shy of 12 hours. This is a once-only process so once you have initialised your archive adding new images is much quicker. For example, a day’s shoot of 3884 images took just under 16 minutes.

One thing you need to do at the beginning is select a hard drive for Excire’s database. The options come up under File>Open database>Create Folder for new database. The database will grow as images are added so you need a decent amount of hard drive capacity. During this test my database grew to 439,357 images and that took up 108GB. 

You can have more than one database. For example, have one for personal images and another for commissioned work. In my test, I had one big database, and the software was always quick at producing previews with no time lost waiting for previews to sharpen up or even appear, which happens with large Lightroom Classic catalogues.

In my workflow, I store catalogues on an external 2TB NVMe SSD drive in a fan-cooled enclosure connected to the computer’s Thunderbolt 4 port. For this test, I used a M2 Max Mac Studio 32GB RAM running Tahoe 26.2.

 

Survey view can show from a single or several frames to many images. I selected 150 images and I got a view of 103 thumbnails on my 32in screen (right) with the remainder in a queue. If you have several images on show, the remaining previews grow larger as images are rejected.

 

Excire Foto 2027 Key Features

• One-off purchase, no subscription option
• Selection of search tools: Text in photos, text prompt, duplicate, GPS, people, faces, keyword, similar
• Survey view shows selected images against a plain black backdrop
• Organising tools: AI keywording, duplicate search, face-tagging
• Timeline viewing which goes down to days 
• AI-assisted culling 
• Focus peaking feature
• Map view for images with GPS co-ordinates
• Face-sharpness detection
• AI Aesthetic scores
• Ratings, keywords and aesthetic ratings can taken into Lightroom Classic 
• Fast preview rendering
• Raw, PSD, JPEG, TIFF files compatible with Excire Foto 2027 including large files
• Available for Mac and Windows

 

At a glance: Main updates in Excire Foto 2027 compared with Excire Foto 2025

• Text in photos search tool
• Map view
• Survey view for viewing images without distractions
• New Smart filter bar and Timeline Graph
• Focus peaking feature 
• Improved prompt search capabilities

 

New in Excire Foto 2027 is the ability to check critical using focus peaking which has an adjustable threshold. 

 

Excire Foto 2027 Map view

During initialisation, Excire Foto 2027 takes the GPS data from your images and places them on a map so you can see where you took pictures, how many you shot and clicking on the map point shows what you took at that spot. It’s a cool feature.

However, for this test I was stuck because only my iPhone snaps have GPS data, and I had no camera Raws with GPS co-ordinates. I downloaded the Sony Creator app to my iPhone, linked it with the camera by Bluetooth and went out and shot pictures.

Clicking on the Map view icon, which sits at the bottom left of the interface. Zooming in, I could see I had been photographing in London and the number in the single black dot showed I’d shot 491 photos. I had taken many more but for some technical reason (or user error!) the GPS data had not been recorded. This is not an Excire issue and it shows you need to get the technology set up correctly for reliable results. GPS data can be added in Excire Foto 2027’s metadata editor, which is easy to do in bulk although you won’t get street-level detail.

Zooming in much further into street view and the single black blob became many more and I could see how many shots I had taken and where. Location accuracy seemed pretty good although there were some inaccuracies due to GPS issues, but it was more than good enough for general location details.

 

I did a photo walk around London’s Covent Garden. Clicking on each map point, which shows how many were pictures were taken at that spot, changes it from black to blue and the images are shown along the bottom of the interface.

 

This is the maximum magnification of Excire’s map. Accuracy is pretty good but that of course depends on the GPS recording device rather than Excire.

 

Excire Foto 2027 Find by Text in Photos

A big new feature in Excire Foto 2027 is the ability to search by Text in Photos. If, for example, you were searching for a location you may find it, but you could be looking for a shop name, an event or a sponsor’s logo.

I went to Hong Kong last year and I know where the images are but as part of the test I tried a Text in Photos search looking for the words ‘Hong Kong’. Where text is found Excire places a yellow box over the word/s and hitting the space bar hides the yellow box. This search took a few seconds and Excire Foto 2027 found 277 images with the words ‘Hong Kong’, some were large and obvious, but many were small in the frame or even very faint thanks to poor exposure.

More randomly I tried the word ‘toilet’ and this occasion I got 26 images including the one shown below (which just happened to be in Hong Kong) and Excire Foto 2027 found it even though it was small and dark in the frame.

Searching by visible text showed itself to be a welcome addition to Excire Foto 2027’s search armoury with plenty of potential.

 

Searching for the words ‘Hong Kong’, Excire Foto 2027’s Text in Photos found them even when they are overexposed in the image. The inset shows how faint the original word was.

 

Showing what Text in Photos is capable of, a search for the word ‘toilet’ found it in this image even though it was tiny and in the shadows. The inset shows how small the original word was.

 

Excire Foto 2025 Find tools and the Timeline Graph

Excire Foto 2027 sees the arrival of the Timeline Graph. Checking out what you shot by date is possible with the Timeline/People icon on the left of the interface and this works down to days. The other option is to click on the Timeline Graph button in the top bar and zooming into the graph again means you can view what you shot by month, week and day.

The Find by text prompt we tested in Foto 2025 but for those who didn’t read that review (click here to see it) it’s worth a recap. Basically, when using Find by text prompt just type what you are looking for and Excire searches your database for images conforming to what you asked for. The search can be narrowed or broadened, and you can choose to limit the number of images to view.

You might search for a specific subject such as bridges, black cabs or airplanes but you can also search for photos that depict an emotion and a mood you want photos to illustrate. 

In another search, I needed some photos that showed creative use of depth-of-field, so I searched for ‘images that show the use of depth-of-field’ and in my database Excire Foto 2027 found 19,930 images in around 30 seconds, mostly showing selective focusing at wide lens apertures. You can see a sample of what was found in the screenshot below.

As with all the searches in Excire Foto 2027, the results can be rated or flagged, and searches are saved as collections that you can revisit later.

 

Using Text in photos, I searched for ‘images that show the use of depth-of-field’ and got 19,930, mostly viable, candidates.

 

 

Two examples of Excire Foto 2027’s automatic keywording and Aesthetic rating capabilities. It’s interesting that Excire gave the portrait of the blond model Dolly the keywords of Bride and Wedding. Incorrect in both cases but you can appreciate why those keywords were added. With Big Ben it was correctly identified.

  Excire Foto 2027 Keywording and more

During the initialisation process, Excire Foto 2027 gives your shots an Aesthetic rating and adds keywords. Hit the Excire icon on the right side of the interface and you can view ratings and keywords for each image.

How deep Excire’s keywording goes depends on the subject. Often, with people shots there is much more detail with keywords so for a portrait of a woman you might get eyes open, face, female, smiling and hair colour and more. The keywords applied to an architecture shot can also be useful and might include window, skyscraper and city. You’ll probably get fewer keywords with scenic, nature and location shots although it‘s the case that famous sites and birds such as kingfishers are recognised and keyworded accurately. For example, for photos of Big Ben it was correctly keyworded and additional keywords include clock, travel, tower, sight, city and building.

 

Excire Foto 2027 Verdict

Excire Foto 2027 is an excellent image management program and its new headline features – Map view, Survey view and Text in photos search tool – work well and add even more functionality to what was already an awesome package. 

How you would work with Excire Foto 2027 is obviously your call but having one huge database with powerful search tools is a seriously big benefit that could save you a lot of time. The same applies to Excire’s ability to efficiently rate and cull shoots before taking the ‘keepers’ into Lightroom or any other post-processing program for editing. 

For busy image creators, Excire Foto 2027 is definitely worth serious consideration.

 

Excire Foto 2027 Pros

• Works quickly even with massive image collections
• The uncluttered Survey view is excellent
• Map view will appeal to travel and landscape photographers
• Excire Foto 2027 runs locally so your data remains safe
• Excire Foto 2027 is a one-off purchase
• Suits stills and video
• Powerful search tools – text prompt, keyword, GPS, faces, people, similarity, duplicate
• Find visible text in photos is a new search tool that works well
• Auto keywording saves time
• AI-assisted culling
• Aesthetic ratings can save time
• Video playback within the app

 

Excire Foto 2027 Cons

• Excire Foto 2027 is a significant investment 
• Initialising large photo collections takes time but it’s a once-only job
• Auto keywording works well with people shots but less well with general shots and scenics
• Aesthetic ratings won’t appeal to everyone

 

 

 

[REVIEW_FOOTER]R_features=4.5|R_handling=4.5|R_performance=4.5|R_value=4.5|R_overall=4.5|A_level=4.5|A_text=Fast, easy to use and offering plenty of search methods, Excire Foto 2027 is a powerful workflow software with much to recommend it.|E_id=8016[/REVIEW_FOOTER]

Canon has been busy lately, producing a variety of cameras aimed at satisfying a wide array of users. But which one is right for you? 

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The microphone you already trust is almost never the problem on a small shoot. The cable running out of it usually is. A shotgun on a boom, a reporter's handheld, a hypercardioid on a stand in a conference room: each one works beautifully until you have to get its signal back to the camera, and then you are taping XLR down a hallway and hoping nobody walks through it. Saramonic's K9 XTX is a plug-on transmitter built for exactly that gap. It screws onto the bottom of an XLR microphone and sends the signal digitally over UHF, so the microphone stays the same and the cable disappears.

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The most influential environmental photograph ever taken was not on anyone's shot list. It happened because a rolling spacecraft swung a blue planet into view over a gray horizon, and Bill Anders had about a minute to find color film before the moment was gone. When he first raised the camera, his commander told him to stop.

 

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Return to a place you have shot hundreds of times and you can still walk away with a frame you have never made before. Iconic coastal spots reward patience and observation far more than they reward familiarity, and that gap is where most photographers get stuck.

 

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Interesting skies can pop up at any time of the day, at any point during the year so really it's just about keeping an eye out on the weather forecast and sticking your head out of the window to see what's happening. If you're out and find one spot you particularly like it might be worth setting up for the day to just see what happens. You never know you could end up with a series of shots that feature a brilliant sunrise and interesting cloud formations all from the same place.

 

1. What Gear Do I Need?

A wide-angle lens will help you make the most of big, interesting skies. Just keep an eye on what's creeping in at the edges of the shots as the wide view can mean less interesting parts of the sky end up in the frame. Pack tripod in the car and pocket an ND Grad to help you capture a more balanced exposure and a solid ND filter for when you're just shooting the sky.

2. Look At The Sky Before You Take Your Shot

If the sky's boring and flat don't let it dominate the scene. Instead, move the horizon up slightly so you have more foreground interest. For times when the sky really does sing do the opposite and move the horizon down, cutting more of the foreground out so all attention falls on the clouds, sunset colours or whatever other feature makes the sky stand out.

 

3. Get The Exposure Right

Getting the exposure right can be a little tricky due to the differences in contrast between the sky and ground. It could even be the ground that's a lot lighter than the ground, rather than the usual bright sky syndrome many people usually have to face. This will happen when there's a storm brewing or just after the rain's stopped falling.

When it comes to metering, most of the time you just need to focus on the highlighted areas of the image (which is usually the sky) and the darker areas will sort themselves out. However, if you find the foreground ends up too dark use exposure compensation to increase the exposure by one stop.

 

 

4. Tips On Using Filters

If you find the sky's still a little too bright fit a Graduated Neutral Density filter to even out the exposure. If it's the ground that's too light try rotating the filter so the dark part of the graduation sits over the ground.

 

5. Use Clouds In Your Shots

If you have a sky full of interesting cloud formations the key is to make sure the clouds aren't too bright. Check your histogram if you're unsure. Make sure you're ready to shoot an interesting formation as soon as you see it as they change shape quickly and if the clouds are rather breath-taking remember to lose some of the ground to make the sky your focus.

Blurring the movement of the clouds is an interesting effect that can also help create leading lines to guide the eye through the photograph. If you're shooting on a bright-ish day you'll need to fit an ND filter so you can use the slower shutter speeds without too much light reaching the sensor.

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

Harsh midday light is supposed to be the worst time to shoot landscapes, but there's a case to be made that it produces some of the strongest images you'll ever pull off. New Zealand's South Island, with Mount Cook towering behind winding rivers and glacier valleys, turns out to be the perfect place to test that idea.

 

[Read More]

Two years with a lens and never a word about it, until now. The Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 rarely earns a spotlight, and that silence says more about camera culture than it does about the lens.

 

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This week, a moody image of Snowdon takes the Photo of the Week accolade.

Captured by member TomBuidhe, 'Snowdon in late Autumn' shows the peak wrapped in just enough cloud to give the landscape an Alpine feel.

Bright sunlight cuts through the heavy cloud, lighting up one side of the mountain while the rest stays in shadow. The cloud drifting around the summit gives the peak a remote and quiet mood.

Further down, the warm autumn colors on the right slope offer nice balance and add a splash of natural color.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2027, we'll crown our 2026 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards! 

Want to be our next POTW winner? Just upload an image to our gallery where you'll also find all of our past POTW winners.

After more than three decades behind a camera, one photographer still stands in the field asking whether he can make an image any better. Knowing when to stop is one of the least discussed parts of the craft, and it separates people who finish a photograph from people who wander away from it.

 

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Once you have your tourist, postcard style shots, spend a few hours of your vacation time thinking about how you can do things a little bit differently. (Yes, we know we are talking about not doing this but the reason everyone takes these shots is that they do actually look good, most of the time. Just remember to get up early or stay out late to miss the rush of tourists so you stand a better chance of capturing people-free shots.)
 

1. Use It As A Secondary Point Of Interest

Instead of making the landmark your main point of focus, place another object in the foreground and use the landmark as background detail for your shot. You could use a larger aperture to throw it slightly out of focus but don't go too wide as you still want the landmark to be recognisable. For shots with plenty of depth of field, think like a landscape photographer, standing further back from your landmark so you can add interest in the foreground as well as the middle and background of the shot.

 

2. Find A New Angle

This is an obvious point that's also easier said than done sometimes but even the smallest change in composition can make a big difference to the shot. Try blurring foliage into an out of focus frame, shoot through a window or arch or look for objects your landmark can be reflected in. Shooting down into a puddle of water, particularly on a moody, wet day will give any landmark photo an interesting twist while switching from a wide lens to telephoto so you can crop in will give you a shot that's ever so subtly different but yet, still recognisable to those back home.

Watch for where the crowds go and head off in a different direction, looking for new vantage points to shoot from. This could mean climbing to get above it or trying to get lower to shoot from nearer the ground. We can't guarantee you won't get any funny looks but you should walk away with a set of unique shots. 

 

 

3. Get In Close

As landmarks are well known you don't have to get the whole structure in the frame for people to know what it is. The blue/green shade of the Statue of Liberty will be recognisable no matter how close you zoom in. In fact, the shapes created to form drapes in the statue's clothing could create an interesting abstract shot if you have a lens that can get you close enough.

 

4. Head Out When Other's Don't

A cloudy, rainy day will put most sight-seers off and you should take advantage of this. They'll be less bad weather shots than there are scenes with blue sky and sun. Rainy days also mean you can shoot reflections (as mentioned above). Just remember to protect your equipment as unless it's waterproof, it won't like the rain.

 

 

5. Human Interest

We said above to head out early/late to avoid crowds but including one or two people can give your landmark shot a new angle. By adding people, street vendors setting up near the landmark or people sweeping away rubbish, you add a new level of interest to what would be 'just another tourist shot'. As people have a habit of stopping what they're doing and either grinning or frowning when they see a camera pointed at them you may need to work more like a street photographer to get shots where your subject isn't posed. 

   

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to snursey (Day 24 - 'Portrait Landscape').

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 16

Interesting Angles

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Day 17

Waterfall Close-Ups

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Day 18

Close-Up Faces

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Day 19

Stone Circles

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  Day 20

Repetitive Patterns

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Day 22

Carnival Photography

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Day 23

Sunsets By The Sea

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You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying out the Nikon 28-135mm PZ lens to see how it might fit into my workflow. Here’s what I found. 

First, as always, we’ll set the table. I am a Los Angeles-based director/DP and shoot both narrative films and commercials. I don’t usually shoot events or weddings, more on that later, but I am a big fan of efficiency and like to build out my kit with speed in mind.  

[Read More]

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to Arkwright (Day 1 - 'Creative Portraiture').

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 2

Coastal Landscapes

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Day 3

The Night Sky

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Day 4

Zoom Burst

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Day 5

Fancy Dress

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  Day 6

Birds Of Prey

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Day 7

Festivals

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Day 8

Speed

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You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

 

Historical ruins such as churches, castles and abbeys decorate our countryside and seaside towns but you'll also find a few smaller, but still impressive ruins closer to home. Walls, arches and columns are still dotted around a few towns and villages which are still photogenic even if there's not much of the structure left to photograph. If you're off on your travels, have a look online and at local tourism centres to find out what ruins are near to where you're staying.

 

1. What Gear Do I Need? 

For general shots of the building and the surroundings you'll need a wide-angle lens but take your longer zoom along too for getting in close to interesting architectural detail. A tripod's handy but if you want to travel light, try taking something smaller such as a tabletop tripod and use a wall to help you steady your shot. If there are any windows left in your building of choice a polarizer will reduce reflections and the blue of the sky will be enhanced giving your image more contrast.

 

2. Do Your Homework

Many of our abbeys and other ruins are now looked after by the National Trust or English Heritage so you could be charged to walk around them, they'll have specific opening times and there may be restrictions if you want to use your images commercially so it's worth a quick look on the internet or a chat on the phone to find out everything you need to know. That way you won't waste your petrol money.

 

 

3. Take A Walk

The first thing you should do when you arrive is stretch your legs on a walk around the ruin. This will give you the chance to scout for interesting detail and look for the best angle. Don't just stand and photograph the first pile of rubble you see as this won't give your viewer any clue into what the building is or what it was used for. Look for areas that have a more definite shape and if you can, parts where nature hasn't completely taken over. Of course, some walls look great with roots growing through them and it can really emphasise how ruined the building is, so keep that in mind.

 

4. Look Closer

Look for unique parts that make the building stand out from any other and if the outside isn't very interesting you could always take a peek inside to see if the hidden details give more of an idea of what the function of the building was. If the building still has an inside watch your exposures and check your histogram before you move on to make sure it's OK. Try shooting inside out through a broken window or use a long corridor to lead the viewer's eye through the image.

Signs are a direct way to explain more about the building you're photographing and they can often be quite interesting in their own right with features such as peeling paint and rusty bolts worthy of a quick photograph.

 

5. Tall And Wide

If you're working with a particularly tall building converging verticals may be a problem but by shooting from a height this can easily be rectified. Steps, hills or shooting from another building are all ways you can correct the distortion or you could try stepping further back which gives you the opportunity to use the surroundings to give the building context.

If the grounds really do add to your image try shooting a panorama. Some cameras come with this function built-in but if yours doesn't just shoot several images moving from right to left or left to right and stitch them together with specifically designed software when you get back to your computer.
 

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