Christmas on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées

This is one of the most famous streets in the world, so I wanted to do my best to capture it in as romantic a way as possible. The time of day usually does a lot to affect the mood, and these classical places (especially in Paris) are often better to shoot in the evening or night. The dusk light is different than the morning light. And, frankly, it’s easier to stay up past sunset than it is to wake up before the sun rises.

I love how these cities put up lights on the trees. I wish all cities would do this at night. Some people complain about “light pollution”, but photographers won’t!

Trey's Tip: While I don’t mind making a busy street look hectic with the hustle and bustle of little ants marching, in this case, I wanted it to look fairly empty. The two ways to do this are to shoot at a high f-stop or to shoot when it is raining and people don’t walk on the streets. This is the latter case. Normally, in an HDR, the rain does not show up – just the nice reflective wetness that stays behind.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

Christmas on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées

This is one of the most famous streets in the world, so I wanted to do my best to capture it in as romantic a way as possible. The time of day usually does a lot to affect the mood, and these classical places (especially in Paris) are often better to shoot in the evening or night. The dusk light is different than the morning light. And, frankly, it’s easier to stay up past sunset than it is to wake up before the sun rises.

I love how these cities put up lights on the trees. I wish all cities would do this at night. Some people complain about “light pollution”, but photographers won’t!

Trey's Tip: While I don’t mind making a busy street look hectic with the hustle and bustle of little ants marching, in this case, I wanted it to look fairly empty. The two ways to do this are to shoot at a high f-stop or to shoot when it is raining and people don’t walk on the streets. This is the latter case. Normally, in an HDR, the rain does not show up – just the nice reflective wetness that stays behind.

- Trey Ratcliff

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.