Bastille Square in Paris, HDR in Black and White cloudy day
Place de la Bastille in Paris. HDR image of two photos taken with 5 exposure values of difference. Processed in Photomatix and Lightroom.
We’ve been having some pretty cloudy days lately. Sky has been changing from cloudy to sunny every hour, but for HDR photography that’s a pretty good thing as it leaves us with dramatic skies. See my other Paris HDR photo by the Louvre of a few weeks ago as well for more of that.
On my way home from work (I work just beside the Place de la Bastille) I thought I would try a black and white shot of the Bastille square. I think it sort of conveys the place quite well, while it is a great neighborhood with a buzzing scene full of great cafes and places to go, I have never quite admired the Bastille monument much.
It’s called Place de la Bastille, but the Bastille wasn’t here at all, it was closer to Place de la Republique, so even if this stands as a memory of the Revolution it’s not really my cup of tea/coffee or what have you.
As it was taken in August and Paris is seriously empty in this month, getting it without cars was not that complicated, I did put on a darkening filter (ND8) to get longer exposures and thus ensure cars were really “gone”.
Hope you like it.
Tips for Photomatix:
To get a cloudy sky to come out with some contrast, use the over-exposed photo and the under-exposed photo and you’ll have better luck. Somehow when you include the correctly exposed photo it just makes a boring grey sky out of it.
Note: I modified the photo slightly to give it more pop. To see the old photo click here: https://martinsoler.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/bastille-paris-hdr-black-and-white-soler.jpg
Martin Soler Photography 
I guess you’re not photographing the Perseids these days. 😉 Lovely image. I’ve never tried B/W HDR but I may give it a try. In the meantime, I’m heading up to the sun-blasted north of Israel, where it’s going to be very hot.
Great mood in those clouds Martin…
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Thanks for the great comments! I modified the image a bit to give it some more pop after some advice from photocamel.com forum. I think it looks better. The old version is still available on the bottom of the post.