Paris Wedding Photographer?

Photographic Tours of Paris

These tours take place in the vicinity of the Latin quarter of Paris and around Montmartre, but nine times out of ten they take place in and around the Latin quarter. Which I have to confess I prefer out of laziness and my dislike of hills. I’m built for comfort not for speed! And that includes hills. The clients are from all over the world, from South America to Australia and often the UK. We start the tour at the fountain of St Michel. It is here I give my first photographic exercise. I ask my “students” to photograph the monument how they “see” it. This gives me a good idea of where to start with each individual, taking a close look at how they compose and expose the subject before them. The most common composition includes the entire monument, which includes lampposts, bins, lorries and all sorts of other distractions which usually makes the image very busy and does not hold the viewers attention as a result.

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So I take each person in turn and explain if and where they could avoid distractions and improve their image, it usually involves moving a few feet in either direction to change the whole effect of the image. I make it clear that each of us is shaped by our life experiences, and thus have our own unique point of view which is special and sacred to us as individuals.

Depending on their level of expertise and photoshop skills I encourage my clients to shoot in RAW and manual mode as this will give them more processing leverage and control, and a digital negative that is not effected in photoshop, where as jpegs will lose image quality after several manipulations.

Note : Every camera is set to meter/see everything as 18% grey!

The RAW image is the equivalent of the old film negative, almost indestructible when stored properly and backed up at least three times. In my case hard lessons learned! Hard drives do fail and laptops can and do fall or get dropped.

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From St Michel we walk through the narrow cobbled streets full of Greek, Italian and Mexican restaurants always looking out for an interesting street scene. I usually stop at the closed shop front shutters, that to the unsuspecting eye could not be used in a photograph. This is where I use my clients for models, and they are always without fail surprised and delighted with the results.

From here we the cross rue St Jacques towards the church of St Julian le Pauvre. On arriving at rue Galande we are offered a great view of Notre Dame cathedral, where the trees in the adjacent park and the buildings on the left create a natural frame around Notre Dame and the small posts along the street offer excellent leading lines. Coincidentally this park is home to the oldest tree in France planted in 1602. Don’t ask me how they know? After a walk in and around the park, after trying some macro work on the residing flowers we warm up or cool down depending the season in the great old book shop of Shakespeare & Co. My favourite part of the four hour tour.

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After warming up or cooling down, and having tested the patience of the lovely staff we leave Shakespeare & Co in peace and head for the jewel of Notre Dame. Here I talk about how we can turn ourselves into a tripod. First off I suggest increasing ISO sensitivity to as high a point as workable depending on the dslr in use. Then switch focus mode to manual, as in low light even pro lenses struggle to fix on a focal point, and next set camera to self timer. Next thing is to find a pillar to support you, or use a beanbag, rucksack or even the floor to enable you to compose and take your shot with stability. I also recommend holding your breath as the camera fires if you are hand holding it.

The shots in dark churches like this generally suffer from “digital noise” and colour pixilation, to avoid colour pixilation as much as is possible I suggest to avoid under exposure as this pixelates the colours in the image.

Having played around in the dark for long enough we exit onto rue du Cloitre Notre Dame and walk along the side of this iconic building that was saved from demolition thanks to Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

My favourite quote from Mr Hugo goes as such;

Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.

At the rear of Notre Dame is another park where we have many of the necessary components for the making of a great image, if the light is right of course.

We photographers like the great masters of art Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer etc need light, and beautiful light at that to make beautiful images. That is why the golden hours of sunset and sunrise are so important to remember along with composition if you want truly great images.

Onward from Notre Dame we cross the road to make a visit to the memorial of the deportation. This sombre site recalls how the Vichy government of the time aided the Nazis by rounding up all classes of people not only jews. I am not qualified nor is it appropriate to talk of it here but it is worth a visit. From here we cross the pont d’archeveque which has a picture post card view of Notre Dame.

If time allows we make our way towards the Pantheon, passing back by the Sorbonne and the Gallo_Roman remains at the musée de moyenne age.

If it sounds too much to take in, it can be for the absolute beginner that’s why I’ve started to give out helpful and slightly technical information sheets to those interested. Most are!

Wedding and portrait photography are what I enjoy most, and being an Irish man and a photographer makes a great combination me thinks?

My peers ask me why I do this? I say because I enjoy it, and in order to keep it I have to give it away.

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Thanks for reading my ramblings!

Kevin.