C & C A few from Paris

achtungbarry

Hello,

A few weeks ago, I spent 4 days photographing Paris. As well as the chance to photograph my favourite city in the world, it allowed to properly put my new 'perspective' on photography in to practice for the first time in a major way.

Basically, I got up before sunrise every day (around 5am) to photograph a location in the pre-dawn before usually changing location for the morning golden hour. Then it was back to the hotel to rest and lunch. In the evening, I did the whole thing again with the golden and blue hours. It was really tough going actually and I had less time than I expected at each location to bag the shots. any way, here are the first shots from the trip.

Ile de la Cite and Pont des Arts - Evening



Ile de la Cite and Pont des Arts - Evening - Black and White Version




Pont des Arts and Institut de France - Evening




Pont des Arts and Institut de France - Evening - Black and White Version




Place de la Concorde - Evening




Louvre Pyramid - Evening




Arc de Triomphe - Morning




Notre Dame - Morning



Ile Saint Louis and Notre Dame - Morning



Eiffel Tower - Morning



I'll put up some more as I process them. All in all, I am quite happy with my haul of images from the trip.

dazftw

Notre Dame shot is lovely, composition is simple yet effective. Its amazing how much I like your work when its not HDR.

Im going edit this several days late.. I meant the Arc de Triomphe shot

Misa-san

lovely. Getting up at dawn totally paid off. The light and the colour is fantastic

Borderfox

4,5,6,7 and the last one of the Eiffel Tower are really good

Antomus Prime

They look great!!! Fair play to you for getting up that early! It really paid off!!! Looking forward to seeing the rest!

ozymandius

Evening shots seem better. Place de la Concorde and Louvre Pyramid are simply fantastic. I don't think the BW versions work. You lost the lovely light you were striving to capture.

kelly1

Great shots Barry. Did you use an HDR/fusion in any of them?

duffman85

great shot Barry, love the Arc de Triomphe photo.

velopeloton

Great work. Love them all!

achtungbarry

Thanks for all the feedback so far. It is much appreciated. This was the first time I really specifically went to photograph a location over a number of days. I have to say I really enjoyed it.

One little negative is that in a story that is becoming all to familiar on the forum, one of the photos, 'Pont des Arts and Institut de France' has been stolen and used on a commercial website. Needless to say, they have been invoiced (We all know the drill at this stage). I have so far got the usual 'we are so sorry, we didn't realise, we can give you credit BS. I replied saying that I expect the invoice to be paid in full. Sigh.

This seems to be happening all too often.

jaansu

Great pictures. Love the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde shots.

How I'd love to take a few days to go shooting some place like Paris. I'm very jealous.

sgarvan

duffman85 wrote: »

great shot Barry, love the Arc de Triomphe photo.

Love this shot aswell, Place de la Concorde and the Louvre Pyramid

maddog

Pics 3 and 4 are my personal favs Barry, all good shots by the way:) Are you happy with them really or do you now look at them and don't like something about each pic?


Bren:)

achtungbarry

maddog wrote: »

Pics 3 and 4 are my personal favs Barry, all good shots by the way:) Are you happy with them really or do you now look at them and don't like something about each pic?


Bren:)

Well Bren,

I am genuinely happy with them. I am very happy with my new approach to my photography and the results it is producing. I feel these are decent shots that stand on their own without the need for gimmicks to make them look interesting. There is actually very little processing done. I was concentrating on locations, light and composition to provide the interest.

kelly1 wrote: »

Great shots Barry. Did you use an HDR/fusion in any of them?

No HDR nor exposure fusion used in any of these ones. There was no need. I paid really close attention to my histograms and most shots only required a single exposure to capture all the information. There are a few I may need to blend 2 exposures or use exposure fusion on due to the differences in exposure between the sky and foreground.

just-joe

These photos are so amazing, they remind me of how amazing Paris is! Its been too long since I've been.

If I may, (and this is a complete newbie's opinion so freely free to ignore), but the water in the shots of pont des arts looks too still? No.3 is still probably still my favorite though, I'd love to be there again with some wine and company!

AnCatDubh

I think you should have extreme HDR'd the whole flippin lot of them - gah, soooooo disappointed

On a serious note: 95% good for me. Colour looks slightly overcooked in some for my articular taste. Perhaps that was how the environments presented themselves to you but yeah, it just looks a little on the surreal side of things in terms of the colour rendition (pinks to orange gradients) - that is at least on the non calibrated screen i'm looking at.

nice though.

jonniebgood1

Great photos.

Is there a star effect lens used in 3 & 4?
The B&W ones have more feeling in them.

Mountainsandh

I like Place de la Concorde, like them all really, except the black and white, they do nothing for me, but I'm not a huge b&w person.

The 2 Notre-Dame are my favourites, but I probably have a different approach to others on here, in that I'm French, and the light on the buildings stirs something in me... it so reminds me of my hometown (Lyon) on an early summer/sunny day morning... the sound of the swallows... sigh... I love Ireland, but God, I do miss Lyon sometimes. You're making me maudlin' now

You have any Lyon photos ?



or maybe it's the Kronenbourg ...

alb

Thanks for sharing, these are great! the only one I think I'd leave out is the Ile de la Cite and Pont des Arts - Evening - Black and White Version, it does work as well as in colour, and even then is probably the weakest of the set, but it's a great set.

achtungbarry

Thanks all again for the feedback. I was really interested in what you had to say as these are my first major set that are not hdr.

AnCatDubh wrote: »

I think you should have extreme HDR'd the whole flippin lot of them - gah, soooooo disappointed

On a serious note: 95% good for me. Colour looks slightly overcooked in some for my articular taste. Perhaps that was how the environments presented themselves to you but yeah, it just looks a little on the surreal side of things in terms of the colour rendition (pinks to orange gradients) - that is at least on the non calibrated screen i'm looking at.

nice though.

You're just hoping I fall off the wagon aren't you ? I know what you are saying about the colour. I find my photos look a lot more saturated and warm on other screens compared to my own so maybe that is something I need to adjust. I do tend to desaturate a little before printing.

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Great photos.

Is there a star effect lens used in 3 & 4?
The B&W ones have more feeling in them.

I think it is just the narrow aperture (probably around f16) that gives the star effect.

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I like Place de la Concorde, like them all really, except the black and white, they do nothing for me, but I'm not a huge b&w person.

The 2 Notre-Dame are my favourites, but I probably have a different approach to others on here, in that I'm French, and the light on the buildings stirs something in me... it so reminds me of my hometown (Lyon) on an early summer/sunny day morning... the sound of the swallows... sigh... I love Ireland, but God, I do miss Lyon sometimes. You're making me maudlin' now

You have any Lyon photos ?



or maybe it's the Kronenbourg ...

Thanks Mountainsandh. I know what you mean, I love the Notre Dame ones too. The twilight and dawn light shots tend to get more attention but I love the Notre Dame locations. They were taken in the morning from Ile Saint Louis and it was so peaceful and quiet. Notre Dame seemed to be glowing in the morning light. It was so beautiful. I love wandering around 'old Paris' in the morning. There is so much history. Although I am Irish , I too miss France a lot. I felt so at home when I lived there. The food, the cafes, the landscape, the way of life........ just wonderful.

I have not yet visited Lyon Mountainsandh but it is definitely on my list. I have just read a magazine article about the city. The Old Town looks so beautiful. Maybe, you can give me some tips. My own favourite area is Correze (My wife is from Brive la Gaillarde). There are some stunning little rustic villages and the green hilly landscapes are stunning.

alb wrote: »

Thanks for sharing, these are great! the only one I think I'd leave out is the Ile de la Cite and Pont des Arts - Evening - Black and White Version, it does work as well as in colour, and even then is probably the weakest of the set, but it's a great set.

I tend to prefer the colour shots myself to be honest. I think black and white is great for portrait, street and candid etc but I like my landscapes and cityscapes to be in full colour. I do a few black and whte as I think some of the night city shots work well in mono and there seems to be a market for the black and white city shots.

BlastedGlute

All lovely shots, Im not a landscape fan at all but the colours and composition here are outstanding. great work

richieg

Barry
These are really wonderful especially the Arc de Triomphe

Could you elaborate more on your new approach to photography, what you are doing differently and why. I am interested to hear people explain how they approach their craft and the thought process they go through.

did you use any filters, lighting, special lenses etc to create these?

TheVoodoo

Barry, as always I find your photos captivating. Paris is one of my favorite places, and you generally capture the essence of why I love it there. Many many days and nights spent sitting in those places that you have photographed, brings back some great memories! Unfortunately, all the times i was there i either hadn't gotten into photography, or didn't have my camera with me. Either way, great photos.