Plan a Photo Walk Before You Land

Where to stand, when to stand there, and how to get between the standing places.

Landing somewhere with a camera and no plan usually produces the same photographs everyone else takes, from the spot the coaches stop at, in whatever light happens to be available. A little scouting beforehand changes the entire trip, and almost none of it requires being there.

The three questions worth answering in advance are where to stand, when to stand there, and how to get between the standing places.

Which way does the light come from

The one thing a map answers better than any guide.

Look at the landmark from above and note which way its main face points. That face is lit in the morning if it faces east and in the evening if it faces west, and there is no negotiating with it. Half of all disappointing landmark photographs are simply someone standing in front of a shadowed façade at the wrong hour.

The terrain view adds the other half. A valley, a canyon or a narrow street loses direct light long before sunset, and gets it late in the morning. In mountains this is the difference between two hours of usable light and eight.

Find the angle before you find the subject

Everyone photographs a landmark from the front. The better positions are usually somewhere else, and you can find them without walking.

Fly the area in 3D and rotate the whole way around the subject. You are looking for three things: a clear line of sight, some elevation, and something in the foreground worth including.

Then check the candidate spot at street level. That is where you find out that the perfect angle is behind a fence, above a private terrace, or in the middle of four lanes of traffic.

Build a route, not a list

A list of ten places is how people end up spending a day in traffic. A route is how they end up with photographs.

Put the locations on the map and look at the shape they make. Then order them by light rather than by proximity: east-facing subjects early, west-facing subjects late, and the enclosed or shaded ones in the middle of the day when the sun is high enough to reach into them.

Check the walking distance at street level between consecutive stops. What looks like four hundred metres on a map can be a bridge crossing away, or a climb.

Two or three locations done properly beats ten done from a coach window, and the map is what makes the difference visible before you commit.

Elevation is the cheapest improvement

Getting slightly above a subject changes a photograph more than almost any other single decision, and the map is how you find the height without walking up anything twice.

Look at the terrain around your target and find the nearest high ground. In a city that usually means a bridge, a car park roof, a station footbridge, a hill in a park, or a street that climbs away from the centre. In landscape it is whichever side of the valley you are not on.

Then check the altitude reading at both points. Thirty metres of difference is enough to lift a subject clear of the traffic and the crowd; a hundred changes the composition entirely.

The one to look for specifically in cities: a road bridge over a river or a railway. They are public, they are usually accessible at any hour, and they give you height plus a clean foreground. Most cities have several and almost nobody photographs from them.

What the imagery will and will not tell you

Street-level and satellite pictures were captured on particular days in the past. They do not update in real time.

Trust them for: where things are, which way they face, elevation, sight lines, what the ground is like, whether there is a barrier.

Do not trust them for: whether scaffolding is still up, whether an area is currently closed, opening hours, or how busy it will be.

Scaffolding is the one that catches photographers most often. If the imagery shows work on a building, treat it as unknown and check a recent source before building a morning around it.

Questions people ask

Can I work out sunrise and sunset direction from the map?

You can work out which way a subject faces, which is the hard part. Pair that with any sun-times app for the specific date and you have what you need.

Is this useful for cities I know well?

Often more so, because it shows you the angles you have never walked to. Familiarity tends to narrow people to the same three viewpoints.

What about places with no street coverage?

Terrain and satellite still work, and for landscape subjects those are the more useful views anyway. Street-level coverage matters most in cities.

Does scouting spoil the surprise?

Some people find it does. If that is you, scout the light and the route and deliberately do not look at the view itself.

Rotate all the way around the subject before you decide where to stand. The front is rarely the answer.