My Customized Night Photography Workshop Tour in Paris with Mike started 11pm until 7am
A Customized Night Photography Workshop Tour in Paris
Duration for a Night Photography Workshop in Paris with Fred is around 8 hours.
This is a real good duration for a long immersion into the city during the dark side of the night until the sunrise of the early morning.
How to prepare your Night Photography Workshop in Paris
Lights of the city
Illuminations of the main monuments stops not later than 1 am.
Some night monument accesses may be more or less difficult depending on the place.
By ex. The pyramid of the Louvre after 10 pm is no longer accessible from the Cour Carrée du Louvre because the place became sensitive.
Of course when we move by scooter in Paris it’s always easy to move with the gear quickly to park as close as possible of the locations we plan to go.
Shooting the Seine & Eiffel Tower from Pont Alexandre III
Public lighting in the streets of Paris runs all night until sunrise.
In the streets of Paris the streetlights remain lighted all night.
For a photographic workshop in Paris rather oriented on atmospheres captured in the alleys that will suit us perfectly.
Petit Palais
Monuments under construction during your trip
You expected to take a picture from the parlement or Madeleine Church but there are some reworks just the month you are visiting Paris.
Please visit and check my web page for monuments under construction before planning your visit in the city of Paris.
A roadmap for the night
Le Moulin Rouge
Le Cabaret Le Lapin Agile
Chez Eugène
In general, in order to approach a customized night photography workshop in Paris it’s better to organize first a brief with Skype or Facetime.
With Mike we decided to spend half an hour together around a good coffee in order to agree together the neighborhoods we were going to explore.
How to prepare your gear for the night
The perfect bag to walk when we shoot is the shoulder bag.
This bag can be placed into the top case at the back of the scooter with you tripod on the top.
When we stop it’s very quick to unload the gear for a shoot or many shoots around the stop.
Mike in Montmartre with his shoulder bag and his tripod
Mike’s expectations are clear, he does not need technical advice, he is a professional photographer
in the process and my role was to advise him on the right places to photograph according to his wishes.
Mike came in Paris with his wife more than 5 times and for this night the first wish was to shoot new locations he never been before.
Expectations of everyone in terms of photographic advice have to be cleared.
Vintage Italian Vespa Scooters
The last goal is to ensure a memorable sunrise over the Seine and to be able to photograph reflections on water would be great.
From the time Mike’s requests were recorded, all we had to do was define our roadmap for the night.
1. The first objective that we can set ourselves before starting a photographic night in Paris is to determine its theoretical itinerary in Paris in order to avoid unnecessary travel and loss of time.
2. Photograph the most beautiful monuments, fountains or squares before the extinction of illuminations until midnight or even one o’clock in the morning at the latest.
3 Choose two or three different districts to explore, but above all you have to determine in advance the choice of the last place of shooting that will be that of the sunrise.
Along the Canal Saint Martin around 4:30am
It is also an opportunity to express your preferences. Instead of photographing dark alleys, a panoramic view of the sleeping city, reflections in the water of the Seine or a canal etc …
Depending on the season, the orientations of the sun, the moon and the sunrise are changing.
Tracking the light
LightTrac is a perfectly recommended application to check the expected time of the sunrise but especially the angle that the latter will take to illuminate the monument that we decided to photograph.
For our photography workshop with Mike our objective was to rally the platforms in order to be in a good position to photograph the back of the cathedral of Paris at sunrise.
LightTrac Apps – A free and essential tool for photographers
In illustration 1 we can see that the sun will rise at 6:30 am but to see the first rays of sun on the monument it will be necessary to wait 7:30 am (illustration2).
Illustration 1
April The 29th – Expected sunrise at 6:30 but you see altitude is -1.4°
means the sun is not visible on the surface of earth.
The sun will be on Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris not before
an altitude of 7° minimum.
Illustration 2
April The 29th – Sun is in the sky and starts to be visible with an altitude of 7°.
the light of the day is coming.
It is therefore advisable to study his theoretical course correctly and to check the last time to leave to be on the spot of the last location for sunrise.
When the sunrise is expected at 7am then it will be necessary to be on the spot one hour before to catch the last lights of the streetlights of the city, the beginning of the day then the sunrise.
The process of sunrise is broken down into four stages and it’s nice to be able to catch this process with a camera.
How to shoot the sunrise in Paris
To be on the the good location at the good time with a good light needs to be on schedule.
Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris by night until sunrise.
The Seine is flat until sunrise because the trafic on the river is down.
1. The dark night is cleared but the streetlights are always on.
2. The streetlights turn off and the daylight is coming soon
3. The day gets up gradually
4. The sun rises on Notre-Dame and the nice building on Ile de la Cité
A fast retro planning is necessary in order not to be late for the sunrise and above all not miss any of the phases described above.
We will decide to settle down on the quays at the port of La Tournelle located just after the Tournelle’s bridge.
We could also have chosen to take a seat on the Tournelle bridge, but we were better placed near the water to catch the reflections of Notre-Dame and the first buildings of the ile de la Cité, on the still quiet water of The Seine.
Our position on the platforms is perfect so that we can photograph Notre Dame with the guarantee of the best light possible that day.
My Customized Night Photography Workshop Tour in Paris with Mike started 11pm until 7am. A long night in the streets of Paris into different areas.
I picked up Mike in front of his hotel in the 15th and we started shooting Eglise des Invalides, Pont Alexandre 3 bridge and Eiffel Tower from the bridge before to move to Petit Palais.
Then we moved to Moulin Rouge before to reach Montmartre.
After some photowalk into the streets of Montmartre we stoped to relax 15 minutes for a good coffee and a croissant in Place Pigalle at 3:30 am.
Then we moved to Canal Saint Martin until 5:30am, our last location before to jump along the Seine close to Pont de la Tournelle.
The first shoots have been taken around 5:55am during the last moments of the night with the nice public light on the bridges until the sunrise on Notre Dame around 7:30am.
Le Départ Saint Michel
The night photography workshop is finished now and it’s time for a great breakfast
This night photography workshop started in the 7th rive gauche, then in the 8th rive droite. We continued our course in the 9th, 18th, 10th and then the 4th districts of the city.
After a complete night in the streets of Paris we must sleep some few hours before to come back to real life and to start a normal activity.
All photographers and travelers visiting Paris are welcomed to contact me for any questions about any practical request about your expected next trip in Paris.
I would like to thank Mike for his agreement for using some pics about our tour. He would be happy to share with you some tips about his experience with me.
If you want to contact Mike you are welcome to contact him directly on Mike’s website.
To Book your own Night Photography Workshop please click here
To experience your first night in Paris A night Photography Workshop should be a good experience.
For a shorter time you can book an Experience Photo Tour the best of Paris in 3 hours, starting at 6am, 10am, 2pm or 6pm.
To download the App Light Trac => App link