From geometric patterns on skyscrapers to the ironwork on historical buildings, there are many opportunities to capture the beauty and complexity of architecture.
Tip: As we explored yesterday, color is a powerful element in photography. But let’s not forget black and white, or monochrome, which can be very dramatic! Black, white, gray, and shades in between interact in the frame in dynamic ways.
Train your eye to look for architectural elements that translate in black and white: sharp lines and patterns, defined shapes, large surface areas, and a mix of very light and very dark colors. Compare the color and monochrome versions of today’s shot:
Architectural lines do look much better in black and white which brings out the patterns and has a simplicity that doesn’t detract as colour does.
The best place I know to get some interesting lines is Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach on the Gold Coast where architectural diversity abounds. Ive put the original full building in colour then narrowed in further and further in black and white to see which looks better. This is a truly remarkable building to look at. What do you think?
Also I quite liked this photo of balconies which I cut down and angled just for an abstract pattern.
daysandmonths 
Hm, this is an intriguing building and an interesting experiment! The colour doesn’t do this photo justice, I prefer the middle picture, the medium detail. The two zoomed-in details are very good too, but I mostly like to be able to recognise what’s in the photo, which would be hard in the last two ones.
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Thanks for your input Mara, maybe I should have put the first picture in as well in B&W but I think the 2nd one also is better, the best of all worlds to put the building in some sort of context. Thanks again 🙂
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Anytime, classmate 😉
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This is amazing architecture! The shapes entrap me 🙂
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Thanks so much 🙂
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Stunning photos of an unusual but beautiful building 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Very interesting building. The grooves somehow reminds me of the internals of a jet turbine. I love the 2nd photo as well!
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Thank you, yes it is a bit like that isn’t it! 🙂
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I love that building, it is amazing Kaz.
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Thanks Leanne, it is. When Im driving up that way I cant help but look at it 🙂
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I love it when you have buildings like that.
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Oh… Come to India and visit the various Jantar Mantars
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I know they would be spectacular 🙂
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They are..one has disappeared, sadly
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Was that from fighting or just age? What weird and wonderful things they are. I had never heard of them before.
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There were supposed to be 5. I have seen 3. The fourth has gone.. They are large astronomical instruments constructed about 300 years. Fascinating, they are
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I think that I shall put up some B&W pics on my Flickr/Behance/500px pages
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That would be great 🙂
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I would love to have seen this being built. It is wonderful!
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Its stunning. The b&w looks well good for the details. Looking at buildings like this i always think id love to know how they were designed and built.
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Great! I like the 3rd photo (tightly cropped, B&W).
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I wonder if the architect was attempting to mimic the waves when designing this building? Nice building. The monochrome certainly suits it.
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Uuuh, I like this!!! Is this in Australia? What a wonderfully chaotic building 😀 !!!
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