Night At Paris

It’s not easy to photograph the world-famous buildings of Paris that have been shot to death, but why not take out the camera when the sun is down?

Paris is called “the City of Lights” with good reason — one look at the city’s glittering skyline at night, and it is easy to see why.

The many famous buildings that make up its nightscape are bathed in a flattering glow of hundreds of subtle spotlights. Clever positioning of these spotlights gives each of these architectural and historical icons a flattering, almost otherworldly look.

The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe — all are well-recognised Parisian icons that are visited by millions every year. They are unashamedly big, bold and shout character. All are grand testaments to religious, nationalistic and historical prowess.

But sadly, most visitors only bother to see these timeless edifices on day tours when they form a massive and hectic scrum with thousands of other like-minded tourists who are there to get a quick, happy snap of themselves in front of “whatever-it-is” before moving on as part of the tourist tsunami that ebbs and flows across Paris’s main attractions daily.
But night time, when the tour groups are busy plowing through the hotel buffet, is when these icons begin to glow peacefully. And this is really the best time to see and feel them. With so few others around, you get a much more personal experience unencumbered by the teeming masses.
And if you are into photography and have a tripod, this is better than heaven . . .

The Louvre — home of the Mona Lisa, amongst many other splendid displays — is the museum of antiquities and arts, and is almost as fantastic on the outside as on the inside. Nearly 20 years ago, the famous architect I. M. Pei designed a glass-and-metal pyramid to express modernism in a classical form.

The pyramid, while impressive by day, becomes magical at night when it is lit from within. Geometric pool of water reflect and allow for symmetry.
I tend to shoot architecture at an angle (sometimes refered to as a “Dutch Angle”. Long story. Don’t ask). This breaks away from the innate symmetry of most buildings and forces the viewer to follow different lines wherever the eye may take them.

First, adjust your camera on the tripod for composition. Next, if your camera has a manual setting, switch to that.

Now, find out what the correct exposure for this night scene is. And finally, overexpose by 1 or 2 stops to record the subtly reflected light in the clouds. Don’t forget to set the shutter release on self-timer. This way, you won’t shake the camera when you press the button.

This is all a bit hit and miss — more art than science — so take plenty of shots and experiment. I positioned my travelling partner in an odd silhouetted pose in order to add a bit of mystery.

The Notre Dame is one of the oldest and, to my mind, the grandest of Parisian landmarks. I went there during the day and there were at least 3,000 other people packed in front of it, completely obscuring the beautiful cobblestone plaza. But at 7pm, just after nightfall, there were just a handful of locals milling about.
That’s me in the foreground. I opened the shutter for 20 seconds (once again, slightly over-exposing using manual control), moved in front of the camera and stood still. This way, all the other moving passers-by disappeared as they moved through the frame, and I had Notre Dame all to myself!

Also, having someone in the shot helps to give a sense of size and perspective. By setting the White Balance on Auto, and overexposing a bit, you get a fairly desaturated shot which is halfway to being a black-and-white shot — perfect for showing off architecture against a surreal night sky . . .

The Arc de Triomphe is a massive arch that sits in the middle of the busiest — and craziest — roundabout in the world. In this photo, I wanted to show the frantic, swirling traffic around this timeless, patient, sombre war
memorial.

Once again, by using the Dutch Angle technique, the Arc looks like it is leaning backward against the on-rush of traffic, somewhat taken aback by its randomness.

The trick here is to shoot at varying speeds, from a 1/4 second up to 10 seconds or more.

Each shutter speed will blur the passing traffic differently. Take your time and remember to adjust your aperture to match your shutter speed. Can’t slow it down or speed it up enough using the shutter and aperture controls? Adjust your ASA “film” speed.

Ahh, Le Grande Dame of the Parisian skyline — the Eiffel Tower, possibly the most well-recognised architectural icon in the world. The idea of night photography is not only to see these awesome sights in a different, less cliched setting. The challenge for us photographers — day or night — is to find a fresh angle to make a building photographed millions of times each year look fresh and eye-catching again.

To do this, it helps to first scout around all sides of the tower to see if there are any props that you can use to enhance the shot, whether by framing it or by setting a mood somehow.

By day, the Eiffel Tower is asleep. No lights, no energy, nothing but steel girders. But at night, around 7pm in the autumn and winter, the Eiffel Tower comes to life, bathed in a royal blue light. And here’s the kicker: every hour for just 5 minutes, the tower sparkles with thousands of white flashing lights that simulate fireworks!

In this shot, I wanted to have the medium blue of the not-quite-night sky complement the blue of the tower lights. And the sparkling white lights, of course. But because the Eiffel Tower is so tall and vertical, even with all the lights on, it would have looked odd against a featureless sky. So the trick was to find something interesting to frame it. I found this old-fashioned merry-go-round and a hotdog stand across the street.
I set up the camera to shoot at a slightly slow shutter speed to record the movement of the merry-go-round, it’s warm lights juxtaposed with the cool blues of the tower and sky.

And voila!