LightningPaul

09 Jan 2009 • 666 views
 
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photoblog image Montmartre View

Montmartre View

Beautiful early evening view of the Montmartre hill in Paris. The basilica you see is Sacré-Coeur. This image is shot on top of Arc de Triomphe.


TECH-INFO: one RAW file shot hand held. Developed several exposures in DxO Optics Pro, merged them into a HDR file and tone mapped it with Photomatrix Pro. The latter step makes the houses stand out, due to local contrast enhancement.
In Photoshop I desaturated the color of the sky a bit and warmed up the city using curves. Finally I used twice the gradient tool to darken the left and right top parts of the sky. To be correct: It might have been cloudy but I'm not sure anymore.
At the end I cropped the image to remove some disturbing parts.

Montmartre View

Beautiful early evening view of the Montmartre hill in Paris. The basilica you see is Sacré-Coeur. This image is shot on top of Arc de Triomphe.


TECH-INFO: one RAW file shot hand held. Developed several exposures in DxO Optics Pro, merged them into a HDR file and tone mapped it with Photomatrix Pro. The latter step makes the houses stand out, due to local contrast enhancement.
In Photoshop I desaturated the color of the sky a bit and warmed up the city using curves. Finally I used twice the gradient tool to darken the left and right top parts of the sky. To be correct: It might have been cloudy but I'm not sure anymore.
At the end I cropped the image to remove some disturbing parts.

comments (20)

Great capture. As I said in my email, the colors are just perfect!
LightningPaul: Many thanks for your comment and visit.
wow, this I really like.
I like the post processing!!
It works for me.
These busy images an be hard to make sense of photographically, especially at 800 pixels across. Full size on a 30" screen I can imagine how it'd be.
One thing I'd be tempted to do in this location is a pano, with a longer lens, making for a massive file with uber detail.
I am ranting.



Rob
LightningPaul: Thank you for your comment. I'll try to print it in bigger format one day, just to see how it looks like. Regarding panos: I have no experience yet in this area but I really would like to try it sooner or later.
Wow. Your post-processing technique is really great; I'm thankful you posted the information. If you don't mind revealing, what did you crop out since you mentioned it at the very end of your post?
LightningPaul: Thank you for commenting. I cropped out a little bit of the sky and a bigger part of the bottom. On the latter part where a few trees and bigger roofs of houses. So nothing very disturbing but after cropping the collection of roofs looks more uniform.
what a great capture of this build up hill
LightningPaul: Dank je Chantal smile
  • anniedog
  • United Kingdom
  • 9 Jan 2009, 09:54
That's a lot of work to go through, but it was certainly worth it! I'm not usually a great fan of HDR but it has worked very well. The detail on the houses is amazing and you have made a well-known view look very different.
Ingrid
LightningPaul: Thank you anniedog! I hope I can make you a bigger fan of HDR. It can open a whole new world with endless new opportunities: you can keep it real or go into a too artistic way. Personally I prefer the first.
Beautiful! And thank you from Andy, bye
LightningPaul: Thanks for your visit.
  • PhotoSam
  • United Kingdom
  • 9 Jan 2009, 11:09
brilliant work! great detail!
LightningPaul: Thanks! I can image you like it a lot smile
beautiful cityscape
LightningPaul: Thanks for your visit!
This could be the jigsaw puzzle picture from Hell!! tongue

superbly done once again Paul
LightningPaul: LOL :-D
I really love your comment. Many thanks!
  • Ilan
  • Israel
  • 9 Jan 2009, 14:25
This is outstanding view. Cropping the photo in half (without the skies) leaves a magnificent semi-abstract of building... Can't take my eyes from the photo smile
LightningPaul: Thank you Ilan. I always try to make images which stick to your eyes, I'm glad I succeeded here.
well thats not a bad view is it Paul lolgrin

Stunning in every department fellasmile
LightningPaul: I must agree Tim :-D
Thanks!
thats really a superb shot...jigsaw puzzle from hell indeed! smile grin
LightningPaul: LOL smile
Thanks for commenting.
  • Tracy
  • Great Britain (UK)
  • 9 Jan 2009, 19:17
LOL at Bill he took the words from under my fingerssmile
LightningPaul: Bill is a fantastic comment writer. He has a great way of looking at pictures. Thanks for visiting.
very beautiful.
LightningPaul: Thank you smile
  • 613photo
  • United States
  • 10 Jan 2009, 00:35
Awesome work.

The level of detail and complexity is...I don't know...it's captivating. I can't stop looking at it. I love density and you just can't get much more dense than this.

The sky is also terrific. It's foreboding and plain, which was needed. I think if there were many clouds it would be too overwhelming.

I don't see it as busy at all. It's more of a playground for the eyes, but I would love to see this one printed.
LightningPaul: Thank you for commenting and sharing your thoughts. I highly appreciate it.
I was thinking to start some kind of service where people could buy printed copies of some of my images, but I don't have much experience in that field. The purpose would that people get a print of an image they like, not that I would get rich (I don't believe I could earn enough to even survive with photography and I also don't have such intentions at all). It would be nice (but nothing more) to get some extra money to help covering a little part of the costs of purchasing lenses, photo processing software licenses and other equipment.
I really like what you have achieved here.
LightningPaul: Thanks a lot!
  • Tero
  • Finland
  • 12 Jan 2009, 08:38
Fantastic cityscape with lots and lots of details to look at.
LightningPaul: Thank you Tero.
  • Doum
  • Canada
  • 13 Jan 2009, 13:23
OMG... the number of viewable details still outstanding! And the sky color adds more value to the building around the basilica. Paris est la ville des amoureux, n'oublie pas...
LightningPaul: Many thanks for sharing your reaction!
About Paris: I was there with my wife... smile
  • Ania Kornacka
  • Poland
  • 20 Jan 2009, 08:29
wow, I really like it.
LightningPaul: Many thanks for your visit and comment smile
  • Bop
  • Czech Republic
  • 25 Jan 2009, 18:11
this is an absolutely amazing view! Really like used colors.
LightningPaul: Thank you for your comment and visit. I'm very pleased that you like it a lot.

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for this photo I'm in a any and all comments icon ShMood©
camera NIKON D200
exposure mode full manual
shutterspeed 1/250s
aperture f/8.0
sensitivity ISO100
focal length 200.0mm
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