Random Shots from Paris

[30psi]

Was in Paris this weekend, one of many times but with a camera. My girlfriend has a flat there so I used her PC to process the shots. Its now looking at them on my own monitor I feel that there is too much saturation, and the sky may be too blue.

I used two lenses. A 17-40L and a 28-105 USM II F/3.5-4.5 with a circ polariser.

The weather was very good and even without the polariser, the shots came out nice and blue, and still even consider them too saturated (e.g. No.1)

But I'm after some thoughts please. For those pics with the blue sky, do you find the shots over-saturated? Pics 6 & 7 were taken with the polariser.

Click for larger images. Thanks

1
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2032/2269377555_98c8fcc590.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2032/2269377555_98c8fcc590_b.jpg)

2
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2383/2270166542_0738805d92.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2383/2270166542_0738805d92_b.jpg)

3
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2269376453_a52392551d.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2269376453_a52392551d_b.jpg)

4
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/2269384023_f4fce466fd.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/2269384023_f4fce466fd_b.jpg)

5
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2269385895_8231fab335.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2269385895_8231fab335_b.jpg)

6
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/2270178686_e35512cb8e.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/2270178686_e35512cb8e_b.jpg)

7
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/2271155173_fc69a93d28.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/2271155173_fc69a93d28_b.jpg)

8
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2121/2271945134_3b0a4cb637.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2121/2271945134_3b0a4cb637_b.jpg)

[mmcp42]

very hard to find anything to criticise here
a great set of pics
love the cathedral inside shots as well as the outside
sparrows and swan pretty darn good too!
:thumbs:

[Witch]

Loving the sparrows - we made their aquaintance ourselves a few weeks back - cool little guys aren't they!

[30psi]

love the cathedral inside shots as well as the outside

Was the first time I used the camera in that sort of environment. I found in the past it was hard work with my Coolpix 5700 as they are often dark inside these places but fortunately it worked fine.

Loving the sparrows - we made their aquaintance ourselves a few weeks back - cool little guys aren't they!

Yeah they're quite tame really. Very surprising to see them by chance and luckily the camera was already in my hand.

Starting to get the hand of the camera's ability now (i got it just before xmas) and am pretty happy to see some good results coming out of it.

[mobilevirgin]

To answer your question, no I don't think the saturation is too much. They all look fine from here. With clear blue skies, you can often get away with saturating lots for more dramatic effect. The church pics are screaming "Please HDR me" for me .... but that's a whole different topic :)

[30psi]

To do HDR wouldn't this involve shots at different exposures? Thats all my understanding of HDR is. But in order to do that I would need a tripod which will be impossible in Paris, and I suspect most places.

[tank]

Some really fantastic photos there.

If you dont mind me asking, what were the camera settings for the inside cathedral shots? and what post processing have you done to them?

[mobilevirgin]

To do HDR wouldn't this involve shots at different exposures?


Yes it would

Thats all my understanding of HDR is. But in order to do that I would need a tripod which will be impossible in Paris, and I suspect most places.

If you shoot raw, then you can artificially under and over expose later. I do it often.

See here (http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/) and, for editorial balance, here too (http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/).

[30psi]

Some really fantastic photos there.

If you dont mind me asking, what were the camera settings for the inside cathedral shots? and what post processing have you done to them?

Thanks :)

The settings were pretty varied. I shoot in RAW, so only have to concentrate on ISO, aperature and speed. For these pics they're pretty varied some are ISO400-800, a shutter speed of 1/13 - 1/50 and an aperature of f/7.1-4.0 using Av or M mode. Your best to look at the exif's for individual images.

As for processing I just used the Canon software. I would have simply changed the white balance to shade or cloudy and maybe have selected landscape to improve the saturation. I haven't got as far as playing with the RGB curves yet. Not entirely sure how to work them.

More church pics (click for larger images):

9
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2270177920_50ae833140.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2270177920_50ae833140_b.jpg)

10
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2270176472_fd3059b92c.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2270176472_fd3059b92c_b.jpg)

11
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2122/2270174446_f0d7cca2f8.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2122/2270174446_f0d7cca2f8_b.jpg)

12
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/2269382373_4c6c26ae74.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/2269382373_4c6c26ae74_b.jpg)

13
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/2270172986_cfcc54f9cf.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/2270172986_cfcc54f9cf_b.jpg)

[StewartR]

Martin, you might not have got out and about with the 17-40 very much, but I think it's a case of quality rather than quantity. There are some good shots here.

The church interiors are good, but I think of them #4 is very good - the composition makes very advantageous use of the wide angle. It also looks much better large - the intricate detail of the window really stands out.

As for the polariser, I think the over-saturated blue sky look can be really effective at times, and in #6 it works really well because the composition is so clean and the buildings are so white. A great contrast.

Great stuff!

[30psi]

Cheers Stewart. Looking back at No.4 again with fresh eyes I'm really happy with this one.

A lot of the other churches and cathedrals I've been to are pretty dark, this one wasn't bad at all really which helped a great deal.

[Jophotography]

I like no.3!