16 December 2009
If Paris is called the city of lights, it becomes particularly true during the Christmas season when all the glitters come out! This year, the official Holiday Season kick off happened on November 23 and the festive lights on the Champs Elysées will stay on until January 10, 2010. Seeing the famous avenue illuminated is always a treat and taking pictures of it pretty easy.
I find that Place de la Concorde makes a good location to take pictures of the Season's lights on the Champs Elysées. Standing by the Obelisk is safe from traffic and it is easy to set up a tripod. It has the added bonus of being a good place to take pictures of the Ferris Wheel facing the jardin des Tuileries. I have also stood in the middle of the large avenue, in between the cars, but that can be a bit unnerving at times, especially with tripod legs sticking out...
For night photography, it is a good idea to look at the white balance settings. For this particular picture I chose the incandescent mode to enhance the warmth of the lights on the Arc de Triomphe and the lamp post glow in the tree. I also made sure my ISO was low enough to avoid any unnecessary noise caused by long exposures. Here the ISO was set at 250. Once I knew how I wanted to frame the image, I set up the camera on the tripod and installed the cable release. A good alternative would be to use the camera's self timer to avoid any vibration of the camera and to make sure the image is sharp.
Next, I measured the light to properly expose the image. Because there is so much light pollution, I usually slightly underexpose my night pictures in Paris to achieve a cleaner sky. This can be done by underexposing by 2/3 of a stop in the manual mode, or by using the exposure compensation option (you know, the little + and - button...) in semi manual modes. Most compact cameras also have this option, so it is good to know where to find it in the menu options.
Once I am ready to take my pictures, l usually bracket slightly my exposures, which means I take two more pictures - one slightly over-exposed, the other slightly under- exposed. Most cameras have a bracketing option which means that once set, the camera will automatically take the extra shots. This can also be achieved by using the compensation button or adjusting your settings yourself in manual mode. I bracket my exposures when the light is a bit tricky and I want to have the best choice of pictures at editing time.
Night photography can be a lot of fun and it is easy to create some spectacular images. What do you do to take your night photo shots? Any good stories about taking night pictures along the Champs Elysées?
