The best Canon cameras and lenses for architectural photography

Through his innovative inclusion of people in his architectural images, Canon Ambassador and world-renowned architectural photographer Fernando Guerra has become known for bringing spaces to life. "I push for living architecture. I'm not really interested in shooting a house without furniture or people. What I really like is to get to a house in the morning and shoot the kids getting ready for school – to see the normal rhythm of the house. Nobody was doing that extra layer of storytelling before I started. What drives me is the story of the people who live there," he says.

So what are the best Canon cameras and lenses for architecture photography? And when it comes to architectural photography lenses, how can having Canon tilt-shift lenses in your kitbag help when shooting buildings?

Here, Fernando shares the cameras and lenses essential to his work, while Mike Burnhill and John Maurice – Canon Europe Product Specialists and experts on lens technology – explain why Fernando's choices are suited to the architecture photography genre.

Focusing manually, Fernando works only with depth of field to create layered images, with everything in focus, rather than using small apertures and bokeh. Usually shooting at around f/8, he seeks complete sharpness from 1m to infinity. For his day-to-day shooting, he travels light, leaning on the Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L and Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II lenses, which are attached to a pair of Canon EOS R5 bodies via EF-EOS R Mount Adapters. He uses this setup for the majority of his work, gaining extra versatility from each through his use of in-camera crop modes.

Read on for the ideal Canon kit for architectural photography, from wide-angle lenses for capturing a broad field of view to the best lenses for capturing small details of a city and the people behind the buildings.

"The crop mode of the EOS R5 means that you get two lenses in one as well," Fernando continues. "So, when you have a 17mm lens attached, for example, you press a button and you have the view of a 28mm lens. And if you have a 24mm lens attached, you get a 38mm lens. So I don't need the camera's 45MP resolution to create 45MP images, I need it because it gives me the option to crop in-camera – and nobody has ever complained about the size of my files."

"The EOS R5 in particular is excellent in low light," adds John, "and it offers a high resolution when you need it, so it's a nice blended camera for architectural photography. If you compare it to the previous high-resolution model, the Canon EOS 5DS R, the dynamic range is improved. You've got those elements of usability that have improved as well, such as the vari-angle screen which the EOS 5DS R didn't have."

"The vari-angle screen meant that I could shoot from the hip and, as the touchscreen can also be used as a shutter, it was easy to put the camera in positions I wouldn't have been able to get in before, such as against a wall or on the other side of a fence. As someone who is shooting every day, a tilt screen really helps me. When you're constantly in airports, having small kit that you can take everywhere is amazing. The EOS R made my day-to-day life easier."

Mike agrees: "If you're shooting low angles, the vari-angle screen means you don't have to get on your knees. Or you can have the camera above your head and tilt the screen down, so you can shoot the building at different angles than eye level. These simple little things can make a big difference in how you interact with a camera and subject. By using the Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R on the Canon EOS R, you're also able to add filters behind the lens. You can put a neutral density or polarising filter with all your lenses and you can swap between lenses and have the filter in exactly the same position."

"The Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II is an everyday, high-performance TS-E lens," elaborates Mike. "It gives quite a wide angle, stunning quality and a wide range of movements so you can shift the lens upwards to avert parallax error, or you can tilt it to increase depth of field for architecture.

"These lenses have ultra-low dispersion (UD), high-performance glass to cut out chromatic aberration. That's important in architectural photography, as you often have hard edges of a building against the sky, which is where you're going to get this colour fringing showing up. The SWC coating is our maximum performance to prevent flare and ghosting affecting the image, and the large diameter glass moulded aspherical lens elements improve sharpness across the image."

"The only rule in architectural photography is that vertical lines need to remain straight. With a wide-angle lens, it's easy to change the proportions of a building. But if I consider myself a messenger, I cannot create a different building from the one I'm supposed to photograph. With TS-E lenses you can tilt and shift, and what I really need is to shift the lens up so it remains straight in relation to the building, and I can then fit the building inside the frame."

"The Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L has the widest field of view of any tilt-shift lens on the market, making it ideal for interiors or large buildings where it can be difficult to fit everything in," adds Mike. "It also has very little distortion for such a wide lens. Architectural photography has to be beautiful and interesting but at the same time totally accurate – you don't want buildings that bow or to change the architect's geometrics just because the lens gives it a nicer look. With many wide-angle lenses, you'll get some curvature and the effect of getting more space. This is an important lens as, when used by professionals, it shows the building the way the architect wanted it to look."

Mike says: "One of our newer lenses, the Canon TS-E 50mm f/2.8L MACRO has a much wider range of movement than wide-angles along the focal length. The great thing about Canon tilt-shift lenses is that they feature rotation, so you can change how you use the lens much more easily. If you want to shoot a tall building but you've also got a path leading into it, this lens will enable you to increase your depth of field by tilting it, therefore maximising the sharpness, but also shifting it, so you can get all of the building in. With other tilt-shift lenses on the market you can only do one of these movements.

"The smaller you stop the aperture down, the softer your image gets as you increase depth of field. The advantage of a TS-E lens is you can tilt the optics to an angle to give you more sharpness across the image, front to back, by moving the optics at a similar angle to the land in front of you. Therefore, you don't have to stop the lens down to the smallest aperture to get everything sharp. The best optic sharpness is in the aperture range in the middle of the lens, so you can actually use the sharpest aperture and still get maximum depth of field, and in doing so, you're increasing the resolution of your image."

"A 50mm f/1.8 lens is often the first creative prime lens that people discover," adds John. "The EF version is very affordable, and the f/1.8 maximum aperture is creatively very interesting, as it's good for blurring backgrounds and good in low light. The Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM continues that legacy, but with better quality and a compact size. It's very convenient and it doesn't take up much space, but it's a very powerful tool."

Best options for photographing buildings on a budget

While the TS-E lenses are the best for architectural photography, there are some wide and ultra-wide lenses in the RF range that will enable you to capture interiors and city scenes for more modest money. "Take the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM, for example," says John. "It's a small, lightweight option for people who like the look that a 24mm focal length produces. It's interesting to have macro on a wide-angle lens, which allows you to get close to a subject or detail and show it in context. So now you can buy a bag of RF prime lenses in classic focal lengths – 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm – that are all a similar size and weight and come with IS and macro functionality, as well as offering higher quality than their EF counterparts.

"Many photographers like ultra-wide angle zooms because it gives them the flexibility to capture architecture, interiors and events, and the Canon RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM is an advanced and affordable option of this type of lens. It may be a little bit dark in terms of maximum aperture, but architecture and landscapes are often taken at f/8. If you were using an f/4 or f/2.8 lens, then you wouldn't be using the full capability a lot of the time.

"If you did want a brighter ultra-wide lens, there's the compact Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM," continues John. "This focal length is a bit divisive, as some people say it starts to get too weird under 24mm, but that's a question of taste."

Another lens that Fernando uses frequently is the versatile Canon RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM. "It's an amateur zoom lens, but I love it for shooting building details or a distant scene," he says.

Finally, Fernando recommends his favourite lens for street photography, which he's been doing since he was 16. "I'm known for including the street, and not only the building, to give some life and meaning to what I'm shooting. Putting people into architecture also gave me something new in the architectural field. When I'm on the street I don't want to be the focus of attention. The Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM is super nice because it's a small lens that you can put on a body and go out at night. You can make street photography, but also focus on showing the buildings."

"The Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM has stunning image quality for one of our entry-level lenses for the EOS R System," agrees Mike. "It does macro, has a fast aperture and stabiliser and all that in a package that is smaller than the same sort of DSLR lenses. It's very compact and lightweight, so is a discreet lens to carry around almost as a notebook, to record little bits of detail. You can work silently as well, if you want to have subjects in the frame and not disturb them as they interact with the buildings and architecture."

Canon EOS R System cameras give architecture photographers the freedom to capture the design and structure of buildings in creative new ways. From a high-resolution sensor and in-camera cropping options to IBIS and vari-angle touchscreen, there are significant practical benefits to switching up to a camera such as the Canon EOS R5.

And then there's the flexibility offered by the RF mount and mount adapters. "Although we don't have RF tilt-shift lenses, wide-angle has become stronger in the RF range," adds John. "The design of the RF mount makes it easier to make high-quality wide and ultra-wide lenses, and there are more options for people to choose from when it comes to architecture photography."