Advice on shooting Archetectual outdoor

[somaholidays]

Looking for any advice on shooting a building structure. In the past I've hired a respected photographer friend of mine for such projects, but my client would like me to shoot their facility myself to help save on budget, etc. And though they (claim to...) understand my limitations, they always seem impressed and happy with the photographic work I deliver for them. So then it becomes even more difficult to talk my way out of the project.

That said, I've had positive experience when shooting still outdoor objects; with locking off & shooting multiple exposures throughout an hour duration of time or so. Then going back & masking the images together to create the right image, supporting good details in the darks & lights, and also the flexibility of photoshoping the various colors of the sun setting sky together. etc. And I think I've also picked up-on (or at least understand...) other techniques that my buddy uses.

What I am unsure of...
what is really the best way to shoot this with the gear I have. Or what gear should I invest in (or rent) for the shot.

I'm using a Digital EOS Rebel xt (I know it's not the best, but...)
I have the EFS 17 - 85 & just ordered an EFS 10 - 22.
Is the 10-22 going to get me wide enough?
Or wide enough without too much distortion / bending...

The structure is pretty huge... it's a casino & hotel, but not built on each other, the 3 story Casino is left of the huge 10 story hotel.

I'm thinking of getting kind of high for the shot, maybe 10 - 15 feet or so.
Ultimately I won't really know until I get there to see whats working...

Planning on shooting between the 4 - 6pm time frame to get the nice lush sky & cloud colors. Probably at a 100 ISO or so.

Am I on the right track? Can anyone offer any tips with the info I've given so far. Any feedback or advice would so very much appreciated.

thanks - soma

[chtgrubbs]

Sounds like a good plan. It would be better to use a full-frame sensor like a 5D or 1Ds and use prime wide angles. Maybe the client would pay to rent them for a day or two. The 10-22 is sharp enough, but you are going to have to do some distortion correction to get the lines straight. But the biggest considerations in architectural photography are viewpoint, light and contrast, and you seem to have a good grasp on them.

[Wilt]

Without perspective control lenses to shoot with, getting that high camera angle to avoid converging lines and keep the camera level (in all directions) will certainly help. Do not rely upon Photoshop perspective control too much, as it simply uses pixel interpolation and can result in very obvious image degredation where the pixels are extrapolated in the scene. (There is hard evidence of this posted on POTN in some thread.) I would not zoom too much wider than 15mm on APS-C camera (24mm on FF camera) unless you deliberately want some 'drama' in some shots like in wide open spaces. Spatial distortion caused by near objects looming in the photo while farther objects recede to tiny proportions in the distance happens very easily with wider FOV.

Split lighting is often useful...long exposure for the sky, flash distributed around to illuminate the building.

[somaholidays]

thanks for the feedback. Yeah, it's just hard to tell sometimes... If I actually kinda know what I'm doing, or If I'm a total crazy person thinking I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the support.