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7 Top Tips on Photographing the Beautiful City of Bath

A picturesque city like Bath is bound to attract thousands of people to the city centre every single day, which can often make photography a struggle. Whether you see busy shoppers, locals and tourists as a help or hinderance to your photos, it’s true that they certainly don’t make it easier for us. But it doesn’t have to be frustrating – learn to embrace the city life in your photos! Here are our top tips on photographing the busy city of Bath.

1. Take advantage of the busy city life. As either an experienced or amateur photographer, you might see people as an annoyance – but this doesn’t have to be the case. If your focus is a certain person, object or building, then people can often add interest to the background of your photos, giving it a quick pace and busy feel. People are always walking up and down the streets of Bath, so give it a try and take as long as you need!

2. Suss out the quiet times. If you’re desperate for that perfect image of Royal Crescent without a soul in sight, then it’s probably best you suss out when Bath is relatively quiet. Try mid-morning on a Monday once everyone has gone to work, or perhaps a weekday evening in the summer. Photography is all about experimenting, so try out different times of day/week and see what works for you.

3. Delve into the little side streets, away from the main hustle and bustle. Although the main landmarks and points of interest in Bath lie central to the city, there are some hidden gems down the little side streets too which often go amiss. Step away from the obvious shot and see what you can find in the depths of the city – it will most likely be much quieter and will give you endless opportunities to achieve your ideal shot!

4. Try out night time photography. Amateur photographers often struggle with night time photography at first, but once you find a setting that works for you, it can be really good fun. If you have Digital SLR camera, try focussing on long exposures of light – whether this be car light trails or general city lights. Bath is an incredibly vibrant city, so there are plenty of opportunities and although it might take some practice, when you get it right, you’ll see excellent results!

5. Look up! One place you’re certainly safe from dodging people is by pointing your camera upwards – and it’s luckily also where most of the interesting architecture lies. When photographing buildings like Bath Abbey, long shots are great for capturing an overall feel for the building, but get that telephoto lens out too. The architecture in Bath has an impressive amount of intricacy, so it’s definitely worth getting stuck right in and focusing on the incredible stonework.

6. Experiment with angles. If a certain shot isn’t working out for you because of the business of the city, change up the angle. Whether that means getting on your hands and knees to get the ultimate, wide angle image to emphasise an entire scene or keeping it nice and narrow to centralise a certain feature accurately. If you want to make the city feel overwhelmingly big, try and take the shot from as low as you can.

7. Don’t fuss over small details. There are always going to be minor details of a photo you’d rather missed the shot, but when photographing a city, it’s not always possible. Instead, improvise by changing the camera angle so your main focus blocks that unwanted detail, or take your photo from a different location. If this isn’t even possible, ensure that the unwanted feature of the photo is out of focus so when you come to edit the shot, there might be a way you can blur it out even more so it doesn’t catch the eye.