Le Sacre Coeur, Montmartre at Valentines
There is one place in Paris which is fantastically romantic and that’s the top of the Montmartre hill in the evening. Unfortunately a few million people know about that so it’s often pretty crowded.
For Valentine’s this year we went up to Montmartre (I was hoping that due to the cold weather it would be rather empty… it wasn’t). But after a bit of walking around and enjoying the great view on Paris (and a beautiful sunset), having a crepe and a coffee, I took a few minutes to shoot the Sacre Coeur.
It’s not as easy as it seems to shoot this church, due to the massive amount of tourists and people walking around you can hardly get a shot without plenty of passers by. Out of the several I took, this one is turning out to be the best and with the 20 seconds aperture the majority of the passers by disappeared.
It’s an HDR photo (three shots) which I processed twice through Photomatix to get more detail, the first time still left burnouts, and corrected in Photoshop on perspective (wide angle made the dome look like a pyramid) and a bit of dodge and burn.
Martin Soler Photography 
That’s one impressive shot… The lighting on the stonework is spot on…
Very cool capture, the sky in this one is especially impressive; I’ve found that it can be hard to get the sky right when using HDR but I think you’ve nailed it in this shot.
It’s nice to see people who appear to know their way around HDR photography. I myself still prefer the ‘old school’ way, for the simple reason that I haven’t finished playing yet!
Stunning picture!
First of all thanks a lot for leaving comments on my blog…Really appreciate it
Secondly I love all the HDR pictures you have posted..Looks like you have nailed down the technique down to the last detail, whereas I’m just starting to learn it. I would certainly like it very much if you can perhaps share your technique/ workflow with me
Anyway nice photos and your comments are always welcome.
Hi Martin,
I love this shot, especially the cool light in the sky with the warm light on the church. Your best shots are quite nice!
Thanks for your nice comments on my blog.
http://deonreynolds.wordpress.com
stunning shot!
The sky looks amazing and the lighting is spot on
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That is stunning! I haven’t seen Montmartre since I was a student travelling through Europe. BTW, about those tourists, you could take several shots, superimpose them, and mask out the tourists on the different layers in Photoshop.
Thanks to all for your lovely comments! I am glad you liked my HDR photos. I try to limit the tonemapping effects and oversaturated look (but sometimes I love putting it on though).
Avital, about masking out, yes it is an option but not easy at montmartre as all your shots will have a lot of tourists. Here I got lucky as with the 30sec exposure on the HDR a lot of the people are gone. An ND filter could help too.
absolutely wonderful splendid vertical depth, treès jolie!!!
Absolutely beautiful shot. Amazing.( I gotta find out about and try this HDR stuff!) By the way, I voted on every shot of yours I saw. You’re really talented.