The Cityscape Guide - Just a Start

I have thought about writing something like this and have in several variations before but never a well thought complete guide to shooting a cityscape.  This will not be a step-to-step guide, it will be my ideas and thoughts on the matter.  I am not an expert and there is no right way to do any of this!   I will add to this with my thought on post processing techniques later, but to start off with it is composition and where to shoot from.  This can be very difficult.  If you searched through sites like Flickr, 500px, and just google search you can see every popular spot in a city. 

So how do you stand out?  Or how do you make it your own?

First thing is first, with cityscapes, personally the higher you get or the lower you get can dramatically change your photograph and give a perspective that keep people looking and thinking.   This is true with landscape photographs as well, get low and change the perspective of the objects.  Get high and give a view never seen before. 

I love taking shots from up high, yeah John Hancock is great for this, but I actually prefer up high but not above all the buildings.  This makes the viewer feel more in photograph, and most importantly like they are in the city.  Your not overlooking everything, you are in it!  Mind you this is just my opinion.  (BTW if anyone has any unique spots, rooftops, balconies that they have access to let me know, I am always looking for new vantage points, we can work out something).   

Don't google "good photography spots in Chicago?"  Research and get to know the city, what brings it to life.  I love skyline views of cities like the next person from those great spots, and bean shots are a staple of Chicago, but have you noticed how many others are standing next to you when you take them.  I know it is hard and I have and will post photos from spots many of us have been to but I am always trying to find that spot that makes people go wow, where was that from?!

The other things to think of is framing, now I love the view in the photo above.  But it was just a basic city shot just from 30 floors up, so I thought if I add the two buildings I was shooting in between to (1) frame the city and (2) and a sense of height that it would be a better photograph.  For those of you who have been following my work, the building on the left is the same building that I used to photograph being constructed, which you can see here, here, and here! 

Stay tuned for more on this matter as it comes to me, and I will add my post processing thoughts and what I use now to process these images!