 Some people say you can judge a civilization by its buildings. That may be an oversimplification, but there's no doubting the appeal of photographing buildings whether you're an amateur on vacation or a professional on assignment. Like interiors, photographing architecture typically (but not always) involves the use of wide-angle lenses. No one lens will always be the right one -- depending on the size and/or height of the building, and how far you are from it, an ultra-wide angle 20mm lens might be right for one shot, and a 35mm moderate wide-angle lens just the ticket for your next shot. That's one reason a wide-angle zoom lens is such a great traveling companion. With a lens like the 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, or the exquisite new professional L-series 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, you have a multitude of lenses in one versatile package. Like any zoom lens, they're particularly well-suited for shooting quickly when you're on the run.
Sometimes, though, slowing down produces the best results. A fixed focal-length wide-angle lens, while not immediately as versatile as a zoom, has its advantages for the critical photographer. One of the most important for shooting buildings is its relative freedom from linear distortion -- the tendency for straight horizontal or vertical lines to curve slightly toward or away from the center of the image. Lenses like the 24mm f/2.8, the superb high-speed 24mm f/1.4L USM, and ultra-wide 20mm f/2.8 USM are popular with serious amateur and professional photographers in part for this reason. Of course, there are fixed focal-length wide-angle Canon EF lenses spanning the range of 14mm to 35mm.
For the professional shooting architecture, another issue often has to be dealt with -- the "pyramid" effect often seen when the camera is tilted upward to include an entire building in the picture. This perspective distortion (not the same thing as linear distortion mentioned earlier) becomes more and more apparent as wide-angle lenses are tilted upward. The answer that pros have relied upon for years is a "shift lens". Canon once again offers a solution unique in the entire 35mm SLR industry -- the ultra-wide TS-E 24mm f/3.5L tilt-shift lens. This lens allows shifting the entire image upward, downward, or side-to-side, minimizing the need for tilting the camera upwards to include an entire building in the frame. Furthermore, the front section of the lens can be tilted to change the plane of focus, to extend or minimize the area that appears in sharp focus. No other camera company offers a lens even close to 24mm with these combined capabilities.
Finally, don't lose sight of using the power and qualities of telephoto lenses to isolate details of buildings, or to visually "compress" distant subjects and make them appear to be stacked immediately next to each other. This can be as effective a method of showing the character of a building or a city as an ultra-wide vista. One lens that combines these virtues in a single package is the 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM. Whatever lens you decide will produce the effects you're after, it's likely you'll find it in the Canon EF lens system.
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