Simple Photography Tips - stuck overseas for the weekend - Paris
- Michael Blyth
- Apr 25
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 28
nine simple photography tips on what to do when you're stuck in a foreign city at the weekend - Camera and Phone Camera
Look for a new angle on a popular scene
play with angles to create art from the ordinary
Check the exposure, move the camera until the light is right
check the depth of field and shutter-speed if you're using a camera
If there's something in the way, try a different angle
If there's something in the way, deliberately incorporate it into your picture
Try to avoid post-adjustment
Relax, and have fun
Chablis helps, in moderation
Scenario: you're away from home, perhaps on business, and you google search 'best things to do in Paris', but you did those last time, and besides you want time by yourself, not with the hordes.
Resolution: wander through to city and look around you for things to take pictures of, let your eyes focus on something and as you wait, let your mind expolre for new angles, and how to take something a tad out of the ordinary.
So here are a bunch of images taken on a couple of trips to Paris in 2024, the first during the Paris Olympics. I've put in a bunch of images to illustrate a few different 'takes' on one of the biggest tourist attractions; the Eiffel Tower. Simple photography tips as ever, which I hope will encourage you to look and see differently.
Most of them are along the lines of avoiding the crowds, and looking for slightly quirky but fun images.
Image One is probably the most wacky, taken on the steps approaching the Passerelle Debilly, same place as the article with the balsamic vinegar. As you can see it's making use of differing lines of perspective and depth of field, with the effect that a simple bottle of beer dwarfs the both the eiffel tower and the lampstand.
As ever I'm pointing out the placement of the focal points, and the rule of thirds, the use of the shadow on the steps to add character and contrast.
Moving on to Image Two. I was looking at the positioning of things in the foreground, to give interest to the bit of metal (forgive me Monsieur Gustav) in the background. Came across these steps.
The relatively low sun angle and it's position well to the east casts a very white and bright light on the scene, and throws shadows on the steps.
Although the vertical shadow would ideally point towards the tower to lead the eye, the shadow at the far end does so with great effect, taking the eye back down, from whence it leads with a fresh perspective.
The low position of the lens does give a slight tilt to this photograph of the Eiffel Tower - one of those things you can do little about when experimenting.
Image Three. Yet another variation makes use of the barge in the foreground, and the strength of the image is increased by the appearence of the warm yellow to go with the blue of the sky.
As with the previous image there is win and lose in terms of verticals. Passaerelle Debilly, the footbridge in the scene, should ideally be horizontal, but the camera angle is such that the Eiffel Tower would be leaning. I feel the tower needs to be the vertical one - you may disagree?
Another point of discussion here is the rope and tender (boat hung off davits on boat in front) in the immediate foreground. Ideally they'd not be there, but i was very conscious of needing to get as much of the sunlit yellow , so needed to be in that position. If I crop the stuff out, the picture loses balance, the Eiffel Tower moving too far left.
If desperate, photoshop!!
Image Four is quite a challenge to take because of the intensity of the light.
There was not enough room to the right to get rid of the advertising pillar on the left, and it actually helps cut down some of the flare.
Image Five is the same image but with the pillar and some foreground cropped. What do you think?
I don't know what your thoughts are of this image, in theory I'd have loved to take this photograph of the Eiffel Tower with the River Siene and Pont d'lena without the extranous stuff in the foreground, however that was not possible from the place I could access, and I really wanted the bridge to be 'pointing' at the base of the tower.
Ok so I'm on the same side of the River Seine, but crossed so that the bridge is upstream of me (yes I did check on the map!)
The sun, as you can see is now right behind the Eiffel Tower, so we are talking silhouttes. As you may see there's part of a bike leaning against a railing in the left foreground - it would have been fun to get it fully in the picture, but as so often is the case, the position of the sun is critical - you might think I that the image suggests I could move right a tad, but I tried, and it didn't actually cut down the intensity.
Image Six is taken at a different time and very different place. I dont know about you, but as I approach something from a new direction I act as if the photographic opportuniteis are going to lessen, so take images as I approach. As is the case here.
In it's favour, the cloudscape added a huge potential to the picture, so as with me here, one of my simple photography tips is to take the opportunity. In experimental mood I used the foreground greenery in such a way that it visually makes the Eiffel Tower look more vertical than it would look otherwise - I'm not talking lean left or right, but leaning back.
Without the young Plane Trees Platanus x hispanica, to the left and right, I think the foreground would not be as effective.
Sunday evening in Paris, we had just returned from Versailles and the sun was on it's 'no blue-light' at bed-time setting. That lovely 'Golden hour' that occurs on warm sunny eveningswas just reaching it's end, and produced an Eiffel Tower dressed in gold. The shadow across the Pont d'lena and River Seine, in the lower third of the image and the tree to the right, serves to highlight the tower to good effect.
Image Eight, I treat the ultrawide setting on my iphone 14 with due respect, it can cause too much distortion if unwisely used. Here, i tried the 'normal' wide-angle, but this was so much better.
This photograph of the Eiffel Tower shows the amazing shape to good advantage, and again the gentle golden light is effective.
Image Nine, OK so there are people, far too many, but I guess it comes with the territory, and they have as much right to be there as me. As with Image Seven, Golden Hour is kissing the Tower, but the foreground in shadow, and that includes the people, and I managed to get a moment when the patterns on the slabs were clear. It's timing, and luck.
Image Ten. This image makes me chuckle, it plays mind-games, with the model of the Eiffel tower casting a shadow similar to the one the real tower would be casting, but part of my brain, such as it is, thinks they are linked.
The final image of the Eiffel Tower is a fun and very effective use of subsequent cropping, it cuts out most of the ineffective and was taken 'just in time' before the shadow of night fell on the base.
A tall thin image printed, and displayed big, would look fabulous.
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