Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) of Versailles in HDR

The Hall of Mirrors or as the French call it Galerie des Glaces of Versailles castle in HDR.

A few weeks ago I returned to Versailles with the family who had flown in from abroad and of course Versailles is always on the list of things to see. So for the second time in 2011 I was back in what I jokingly call the summit of extravagance. This castle is amazing, it is amazing in a movie, in a fairy tale in a book and in real-life its all more so. The gilding from top to toe, the velvet, the marble just everything is in there.

Now that doesn’t make it a fantastic subject for photography for a few reasons, not the least of which is the massive amount of tourists. The other reason is that the castle is just so absolutely huge that it’s never easy to find an interesting angle that fills the shot. But that said, I had been there and shot the halls of Versailles earlier that year so I was prepared for those problems. This time I took a wider lens with me.

I wanted to shoot the hall of mirrors a few times before but never could get it right due to the hundreds of people that are normally standing around taking it all in. This time I decided I would get it, and so with a lot of patience (and a few evil looks) I managed to get this shot with not too many tourists in the picture.

I shot it in HDR but handheld since I don’t think they allow tripods (they don’t allow much and babies have to be carried), but recently most of my HDR photos have been without tripod so I figured I could make it work. The picture was retouched in Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz and then back to Lightroom and I’m quite happy with the results.

It is a very busy photo, but then again the decor, paintings, sculptures, gilding, chandeliers and all the rest make this a very busy sight. So its only as busy as the real thing. It feels a bit surreal, but that is how the place is – surreal. The picture is best enjoyed in highres so I’ve included a link to the highres hdr photo.

HDR Photography Tip for Versailles

1. Impose your presence, I know it sounds rude but the place has some 5 million visitors every year (that’s about 14,000 a day) so if you’re not making a stand for your spot and your picture you might as well just follow the crowd and get lots of head-shots (from the back).

2. Talk to the guards and ask them to help you on a shot, I borrowed the guards stool as a make-shift tripod for one picture and he was only too happy to help me out. But be polite with them, realize you’re one in 14 thousand and they’ll get paid even if you don’t get the shot. Never start with “Excuse me” but rather with “Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle” that’ll get you a long way.

3. Try to get other tourists to help you by standing still (and block the passage for the others) while you take your shot. And of course thank them for it.

4. Don’t worry too much about high ISOs, Versailles’ decoration is “noisy” so you can always fix it afterwards.

Sunrise in Chantilly, Christmas wishes from Martin Soler

Wishing all my friends, readers, stumblers and everyone else a very very Merry Christmas and the best new year ever.

While I haven’t been extremely busy as a photographer in 2012 both in quantity and quality it’s been a fantastic year. I became father to a most incredible son in March when Damon was born and while I dreaded the sleepless nights and all the hubbub that comes with a baby I can say I’ve been enjoying it. There is no feeling like the “thank you” from one’s baby after waking up at night to comfort him. The sigh of relief when he can go back to sleep is enough reward for me.

At wihphotel.com we’ve had an incredible year in a fantastic team and it’s only getting better. Helping independent hoteliers make 2011 a better year than the years before has been a blast. There’s nothing like going back to a customer and showing them the results to their investments and seeing how happy they get when they’ve bumped up their numbers above their expectancy.

As a photographer I’ve lagged a bit behind though, all those projects had a toll on my photography but OK something had to give and better that than the other two. Hoping to make a better year of that in 2012.

Speaking of photography I thought it would be fun to check out what are my most viewed photos of 2011, so I went to check some stats, results were surprising, not at all what I expected, but the stats are the stats and I’ll share those here:

1. Damon Benjamin Soler, born 29 March 2011
2. Street Photography in Paris near Pont Neuf
3. Paris Panorama in HDR
4. Water Drop Photography
5. Down Stairs of Montmartre
6. Heaven or Hell? HDR image in Mulhouse
7. HDR image of Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
8. Decrepit old room
9. Le Boheme a Montmartre – a street photo of Paris
10. Jazz photo by Notre Dame, Paris

Well if you ask my my top ten photos should have been the following taken from the oldest to the newest and not in sequence of how much I like them:

1. La route pour Versailles
2. London City Hall and Tower Bridge
3. Arc de Triomphe a Parisian photography classic
4. Fireworks and the Eiffel Tower, Paris HDR
5. Jazz photo by Notre Dame, Paris
6. Heaven or Hell? HDR image in Mulhouse
7. An HDR photo from Branitz Parc in Cottbus Germany
8. Turn to the Tree
9. HDR image of Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
10. The Lights of Paris

But as they say in France “Des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas.” which would translate into English with something like “One doesn’t discuss taste and colors” and that’s something any artist needs to live with, what they think is great may not seem great for someone else.

Well to round off the year I really want to thank all the people that have stopped by my site, all the people I’ve had a chance to connect with through the comments, through the many different social media and all those great people I was lucky to meet in person. You’ve made 2011 a great year and I’m looking forward to meeting you all again in 2012.

Finally got out to take some pictures again. Lately I must be starting all my posts like that. Well after complaining to myself this weekend that I’m not taking enough photos, I got my act together and went out to look (because there’s always a great photo if one looks enough).

The street lights of Paris are something to behold. I’m always impressed by their beauty, Paris is often referred to as the city of light, for many reasons but one of which is that it was an early adopter of the street light. By coincidence the first street lights adopted in Paris were not far from where I shot this photo (around the Louvre area).

After a day of walking around and being a tour guide for family we arrived at Place de la Concorde and the sky was slowly clearing up as the sun was setting. Got this shot of the lights with the sun behind the lights shining through the matte glass but not enough to burn out the image.

Moments like these one enjoys HDR most, thanks to HDR I could get the sky, the lamps and the background without too much over exposure nor under exposure. I try to take it easy on the HDR as I don’t like the bizarre look it gives which I find all too frequent out there. But we all start like that and that’s OK.

I took another photo from Place de la Concorde which is also HDR, this one is of the Obelisk in the center of the square, I find it less interesting so for the moment I have only posted it on Google+ you can find it here and while you’re there, you might as well follow connect up.

Photography Tip of the day:

Think of HDR as a means to an end, not as a style of it’s own. I shoot almost everything with bracketing these days even when I’m going hand held (aside from portraits) just because I know I can then go back and with HDR techniques I can get all the levels and make a decent shot. That doesn’t mean I’m going to make an over-saturated image.

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Sunrise in the mist of Chantilly Forest

Chantilly is a few kilometers north of Paris, it’s got a large forest and plenty of nature. In addition to a few luxury hotels and resorts. Last weekend I took my wife and son to the Hotel Mont Royal, a castle in the middle of the forest that has been turned into an amazing hotel. We got lucky on the weather (like most Europeans) and had an amazing time all together. My son went for his first swim in a pool and we celebrated his 6th month.

As I haven’t been shooting for a while I thought it’s time to get out there again and use this relaxing weekend to get out and shoot. I thought the hotel/castle would be a great subject to shoot but it turned out not. I just couldn’t get the lights, sunset and cars to align so I skipped that.

This morning as we woke up my wife pointed out the window to show me the mist between the trees which looked spectacular. So I grabbed the camera and tripod and went to the roof terrace of the chateau to find a good angle. As the hotel is built on a small hill the view over the forest is spectacular, it’s quite different to look at a forest from the top and not from the bottom.

So I managed to capture this great sunrise over the forest of Chantilly. The photo here is not HDR, I shot it in HDR but I prefer this version as it’s more natural on the sun. But the HDR version is slightly warmer. I posted the HDR one here: Sunrise in Chantilly HDR and I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The photo isn’t exactly straight out of the box, I changed the white balance to give it the blueish look which I like. Otherwise it looks as if I had put a yellow filter on the whole thing and I’m not a big fan of that. In my mind a sunrise in the forest is chilly and so I feel like a blue tint is right. And you’re welcome to disagree with me on that as this is totally subjective.

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Waiting for the metro

Sleeping in the Metro, a Paris street photo I took some time ago. This gentleman was waiting for his metro, which took a while to come. Not even so sure he didnt miss a couple before he realized what was happening.

To me photography is a passion, it’s about capturing moments that and conveying emotions. Aside from HDR which is all about strong emotions (and incidentally why I love it) street photos are another great way of capturing special moments. There are masters of the art, they just know how to be at the right place at the right time and take it. They probably also have the nerve to stand up in front of strangers and that a great photo.

I don’t pretend to have any of the above, as to street photos, I am still a bit of a luck photographer. Even though I sometimes go out and tell myself not to return until I have a whole bunch of street shots, only a few of them make it out of my hard-disk.

It was taken in Paris subway system at the station called Luxembourg (I guess you figured that out) I took it the same day as I took this photo “Looking back“.

Street Photography tip

Subways are great places for street photo. Especially outside of rush hours (as you’ll have more space) and just sitting on the opposite side with a decent zoom you’ll get lots of great pics. When in Paris look especially for RER stations because people are travelling longer and that tends to show in their behavior. It’s also easier for the non-pro as you’ll have more time to adjust for your shot.

For the pros well I’d say metros are great. But if you’re a pro you hardly need a tip

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Bored in a museum. Street photo

Visiting a museum can be fun, it can be exciting, but for these guys it was boring – and extremely much so.

Street photos generally have little text to them so I’ll let you imagine the words that go with this photo.

All I’ll say is that about the dodgy quality, yes I know it’s shaky, it’s not tack sharp, it’s lots of things far from a perfect shot. But what I like about this shot is moment it captures, I tried to re-shoot it at the time but the couple got up and left. So this is street photo at it’s best. Capturing a unique moment of emotion that will probably not repeat itself again. To me that’s what street photography is all about.

I admire those that do it well, and I attempt to do it as good as them.

This was taken in the Victoria and Albert museum in London a while ago but I just never posted it because it’s blurry, now looking over it again I think it’s worth posting blurry or not.

Street Photography Tip

If you don’t know what you’re going into then put your camera on automatic. Otherwise try to keep setting like this Aperture 5.6, Iso 400 outside 800 inside and put it on aperture mode. Then of course keep your lens-cap off and have your camera out of it’s bag. If you’re going to be in dark spaces well then pump up the iso and try to recover the noise with a noise removal software.

Street shots are from the hip, they’ve got to be quick and you need to be in-your-face about it.

An old car in Montrouge, Paris

I realized I haven’t been shooting much lately when I opened my Lightroom to work on my next photo and saw that aside from a gazillion photos of Damon (my son) there just wasn’t much I wanted to post. Like most new fathers, we’re showing our kids to everyone we meet and I figured that most of the readers of my blog would soon ban my blog if I started posting all the baby photos I have.

But I decided that I would go through some old archives and look around for some of my old shots to see if there was something I could work on and use. I found this photo of an old car in Paris suburb called Montrouge. If I am not mistaken this is a Morgan +4, a pretty photogenic car from the 60s.

The photo was taken in May 2009 with my first DSLR which was a Canon 500D at a car show they were doing in the city. The street was lined with Ferraris and lots of other great cars. I shot quite a few of them but they just didn’t turn out that great due to the background which didn’t really look that good with a Ferrari but on the other hand fits well with an old car like this.

Well this little experience made me realize how much I need to start going to shoot again, however, taking care of my son has stepped up on the priority list and I think nobody will be upset about that.

About the photo: It’s not an HDR, I post-processed it in Lightroom and de-saturated it quite a lot, then took it over to Topaz and enhanced the details a bit to give it a more grainy look and voila.

Photo tip of the day

A car is only as photogenic as the background makes it, so look at what you have behind and find the right car or background for yours. A car meetup can be a great opportunity but remember the backgrounds.

Damon Benjamin Soler, born 29 March 2011

For a while now I have been talking about my son and how I have not put that much time on my photography and other projects. As a photographer I would not hesitate too much to take photos of unknown people and publish them. Just like Farris Smith playing Jazz in Paris or some of the other street photos I took. But taking a photo of my own son, or wife or a great friend is a whole other matter. Now those photos need to be perfect.

And I am still a long shot from having a perfect photo of Damon. I keep looking at Anne Geddes photos and wonder how in the world she does it. Get the baby in the cutest positions and take a perfectly well lit image it’s quite an art.

Yesterday as it was getting really hot in Paris (see my tweet on that) and Damon wasn’t going to be wearing any pyjamas, I took this photo of him on our bed. It’s pretty good, but it’s not perfect. However it’s straight out of the box, only work done on it is a crop.

The light source is pretty good, it’s a large window on his right facing east so no direct sunlight in the evening in a very dark room. It’s a little under-exposed on the left, but I actually quite like that so am keeping it that way.

Voila world, here is Damon he was born in Paris on March 29th, 2011 and is celebrating his three month birthday very shortly. A big step for him and a big step for us. We’re happy to have him in our family and he seems just as happy to be there.

Photo Tip:

Babies are cutest when they are sleeping. Try and shoot when they are sleeping and you’ll get some amazing images.

Pyramid of Branitz Parc in Cottbus, Germany

I was in Cottbus, Germany a week ago visiting family with my wife and baby, my wife’s grandmother gave us a tour of Branitz parc which has two parallel pyramids one in a lake and one on the ground. I believe these pyramids are mausoleums for the original owner’s wife or so. Don’t quote me on this. But of course, when going to new places, I did shoot some photos and I always try to fit in an HDR somewhere.

The parc is quite different from French style parcs/gardens in that everything isn’t designed with trees in rows and bushed cut to the millimeter etc. It’s almost growing wild which has a quite relaxing feel to it. The paradox is that the German’s are known to be the super-precise ones and the French rather disorderly, not so when it comes to parcs.

The city itself is actually quite nice, it’s far east of Germany in the former DDR and the great thing about the city is that it wasn’t totally destroyed by the war to there is still a lot of history left. Add to that a bit of DDR history and you have a quite interesting city. Thankfully it seems that the economy is doing OK so there’s lots of restoration of old buildings, great new places being built etc.

The above photo was taken in HDR handheld. I then processed it with photomatix as usual, but I then had to work quite a lot in photoshop and lightroom to get the image to be a bit more interesting. The odd thing with photos is that when one sees something it can be quite interesting, but a photo sort of flattens the whole thing and then one needs to work post processing to bring back the emotion.

I desaturated the background quite a lot since the pyramid was blending in with the rest, and then put it out of focus so your focus goes where it should, on the pyramid.

Voila, feel free to leave tips and ideas below.

Photo post processing tip:

When shooting in nature you’ll often encounter the problem of the background over-powering your subject, since your subject is likely to be green and so is the background, try desaturating the background to make it pop a bit and add some depth.

Turn right to the Tree

Lonely tree in the fields near Pougny in France. The signs on the road made this a great picture adding some direction to where to look.

If you’ve been following my tweets lately at http://twitter.com/martinsoler you’ll know I was on a short vacation on the country side last week. With my wife and baby and the grand parents we enjoyed an extended weekend in a village called Lere on the Loire river.

Of course I brought my camera with me and went out to shoot in the evenings, afternoons and well whenever we went out.

I wanted to shoot some long lonely street going off into the horizon so we went driving and as we were looking for an interesting scene to shoot (with the whole family in the car) we came across this tree in the middle of nowhere. I thought this would make a great shot so we stopped the car and parked it in the fields and off I went to shoot the tree. The road isn’t very busy but every so often a car came rushing by so I had to have my grand dad on watch to tell me to get off the road.

In addition to that the clouds which were nice kept covering the tree so I also had to wait for them to shine some light on the tree which it finally did. So after several attempts I finally got this photo.

I shot it in HDR but in the end the HDR didn’t do any good to the photo so I just used one of the pictures and worked on it with Photoshop, Topaz and Lightroom to enhance it a bit and make it pop a bit more, the way I remember the scene at the time.

I think it would have been better with yellow markings on the street but unfortunately in France they are white so that’s the way it will stay.

Photo Tip of the day:

If you’re out on the country side looking for a good spot to shoot can be harder than it seems. Unlike Paris there is often very little to shoot. I used Google Maps in satellite mode to get some idea of the areas where I wanted to go that could have some great photo opportunities and it was quite good. Additionally if you have an iPhone or other geo-locating phone, take a quick snap of the photo so you remember where exactly you took it.