Europe Trip travel pictures (modem burner!)

[2careless]

We went to London, Munich and Paris last month. Got my fair share of cold weather...

London -

Parliament House


Covent Gardens


St Paul's Cathedral


Parliament House night shot


Munich -

Bayern Munich game in Allianz Arena


Schweinshaxe at Ratskeller


Marienplatz


Neuschwanstein Castle


Deutsches Museum


BMW Welt


Paris

Inside Notre Dame


Notre Dame


Arc de Triomphe


The Louvre


Eiffel Tower


Ox Cheek with mushroom at le Jules Verne, Eiffel Tower


Chicken and Crayfish at le Jules Verne, Eiffel Tower


In the Louvre


Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Louvre


Napoleon's Apartment, the Louvre


Michelangelo's Dying Slave, the Louvre


Pantheon interior


Pantheon interior


Musee d'Orsay


Cake shop pastry


Last, the photos are in my flickr set http://www.flickr.com/photos/2carele...7623460516318/
I'm adding more photos regularly there once I have time to process them.

[calvinlgoh]

Nice shots!

[Tommysol]

Fantastic shots! Were these all from the same trip?

Thanks for taking us along!

[diversified]

Great shots! I really can't decide which pictures look best. There all fantastic.

[Gaijin]

Nice!

[R1@160@alltimes]

Thanks for sharing Kai The Pantheon is so GRAND!

[onkyo]

Amazing photography Kai.... thanks for sharing!

[Sweramic]

Great photographs Kai! Thank you so much for sharing

[TSW]

Fantastic shots!! Thanks for sharing.

[2careless]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated your comments.

All the photos are from the same trip last month. We were in London 5 days, Munich 5 days, Paris 6 days and Hong kong 2 days. We didn't join any tours, except for Neuschwanstein, which was a full day bus trip from Munich.

Weather sucked big time. I counted like 5 days with sunshine. Most of the times were overcasted, either snowing or just dark sky.

Most of the photos were taken with Nikon D90 and Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 VC lens. Occasional long shots were with Nikon 55-200mm VR kit lens. I regret not bringing my 14-24 lens (or get a fisheye lens) as with that extra wide I can get away with stitching on most of the architecture shots which stitching showed imperfections (e.g. seams) The food shots and the Allianz Arena shot were taken with a Panasonic TZ7 point and shoot camera as I didn't want to carry a big DSLR into those establishments.

Personally I like the castle shot best. It's a stitch of 23 handheld shots and the stitch is perfect (no stitch marks visible).

[Lol-x]

Simply stunning Kai
I like the night shot of Notre Dame the best, its eery but cool. I don't know how you make the sky bright at night, same applies to Parliament House at night

[2careless]

Originally Posted by Lol-x

Simply stunning Kai
I like the night shot of Notre Dame the best, its eery but cool. I don't know how you make the sky bright at night, same applies to Parliament House at night

Thanks Steve. The Notre Dame night shot was on tripod of course, and it was done approx 7pm. At that time the sun has set but there was still a faint residual light on the far side and with an exposure of 15s it will capture those residual lights. I did push the shadow higher in post processing to get the details out.

As for the Parliament night shot, it was actually done just after the sun set. (Big Ben said 5:55pm :-) There is approx 15 minutes of the so called "blue hours" every day after sunset (and also before sunrise) that the sky is very blue to purple'ish with the horizon yellow to orange. If there are clouds they are usually orange/pinkish. Most photographers like to capture at this time as it is visually most striking.

Originally Posted by JBat

What's your shooting setup?

Parliament House day shot - a handheld exposure fusion stitch of 5 vertical slices, each slice bracketed at +2, 0 and -2 ev, at ISO 200, 18mm, F/11, 1/200s.

Covent Gardens - a handheld stitch of 24 slices on 3 rows, at ISO 500, 17mm, F/8, 1/40s. I was unable to get a good stitch (the railings mismatched) for the bottom 1/3 of the pano so this was a crop of the top 2/3.

St Paul's Cathedral - a handheld exposure fusion stitch of 7 vertical slices, each slice 3-bracketed +2, 0, -2ev (so total 21 shots), ISO 200, 17mm, F/7.1, 1/640s.

Parliament night shot - single tripod photo ISO 200, 22mm, F/10, 1.6s at -1ev, further reduced exposure by 1ev, fixed white balance, and enhanced shadows in post processing.

Allianz Arena and knuckle shot - both on full auto with P&S camera, no flash.

Marienplatz - single shot at 200mm, ISO 200, F/9, 1/250s. I didn't do any post processing on this one so it looks a bit soft / hazy.

Neuschwanstein castle - handheld exposure fusion stitch of 8 vertical slices, each slice 3 bracketed, should be 24 shots but one shot was blurry so only used 23, shot at ISO200, 38mm, F/9, 1/80s. Did a fair bit of postprocessing to improve the contrast and colour correction.

Deutsches Museum - single shot at 17mm, ISO 500, F/5.6, 1/20s

BMW Welt - single shot at 17mm, ISO100, F/32, 1/13s to ensure the vehicles are blurred and not distracting the main building scenery.

Inside Notre Dame - 4 rows x 2 columns handheld stitch at 17mm, ISO 800, F/2.8, 1/10s. Not a good stitch as the stitch marks are visible easily ( e.g. right most column)

Notre Dame night shot - single tripod photo at 17mm, ISO 200, F/11, 15s. Push up the shadows in post processing.

Arc de Triomphe - single handheld photo at ISO 400, F/7.1, 1/10s. Pushed +2ev in post processing, fixed white balance, straighten and cropped, improved contrast and shadows.

The Louvre night shot - single tripod photo at ISO 200, 26mm, F/13, 8s, no post processing done.

Eiffel Tower shot - single handheld photo at ISO 1600, 92mm, F/4.5, 1/15s. Improved shadows, white balance, contrast and straightened it in post processing.

Food shots were on auto P&S settings.

In the Louvre - single handheld shot, ISO 320, 50mm, F/9, 1/4s. a bit blurry when zoomed large.

Winged Victory of Samothrace - single handheld shot, ISO 500, 50mm, F/5, 1/30s, -1.3ev. Pushed +1ev, improved shadows, contrast and white balance.

Napoleon's Apartment - single handheld shot, ISO 1000, 18mm, F/9, 1/13s. Pushed +1ev, improved shadows in postprocessing.

Dying Slave - single handheld shot, ISO 1000, 34mm, F/7.1, 1/25s, +1.3ev, improved shadows in postprocessing.

1st Pantheon interior - handheld stitch of 8 horizontal slices on 1 column. Each slice at ISO 1000, F/5.6, 1/25s. Not perfect stitch as the columns are jagged.

2nd Pantheon interior - handheld stitch of 10columns x 3 rows slices. Each slice at 22mm, ISO 1000, F/5.6, 1/13s. This is a crop of the original stitch as the stitch seams were all terrible. There are still lots of stitch errors but the image is just too good to throw away.

Musee d'Orsay - single handheld shot at 17mm, ISO 320, F/6.3, 1/10s. Straightened in pp.

Food shot - auto in P&S.

The software I used in PP - PTGUI (www.ptgui.com) for stitching and HDR/exposure fusion, Nikon Capture NX2 and Photoshop CS4.

[JBat]

Excellent shots, Kai! You got some real beauties in there.

[JBat]

What's your shooting setup?

[sunburst]

Kai, great photos !!
I've saved them for wallpaper.

[Ashley]

Gorgeous! Thanks for telling us what lenses you used, that was my first question, and whether or not you had actually used a wide angle lens! Now that I have my new wide angle, I am going to have to take a trip out to Europe so I can visit all of these beautiful places!

[davestan]

Nice photos, good eye!. Just bought myself a Nikon D90 18-105mm and heading off to Europe in a couple of weeks which will be its first real test out. First time in many years I've used an SLR.

[2careless]

Originally Posted by davestan

Nice photos, good eye!. Just bought myself a Nikon D90 18-105mm and heading off to Europe in a couple of weeks which will be its first real test out. First time in many years I've used an SLR.

Cool!
I heard that it's snowing again in Germany so bring thermos :-)
A lot of places now don't allow tripods. Maybe also bring a gorillapod too.

[davestan]

Originally Posted by 2careless

Cool!
I heard that it's snowing again in Germany so bring thermos :-)

I'll be going colder again, The Baltics and Finland! Hope the Nikon can cope with sub zero temps. Then UK and France which should be a bit warmer.

[Kokyuryoku]

Kai,

THOSE ARE AMAZING!!!!

[ROLEX MAN]

very excellent photography!

[Latrodectus]

very good pictures...

[2careless]

Thanks guys!
I'd have shot more if it wasn't that cold.
When I was in Europe, I was thinking about all the shots Patrick showed us, e.g.
http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=64820
Especially #9 picture. I went there and tried to see if there were any musician busking... All I got was this.

[sea-dweller]

Great photos !

[swatty]

Fantastics shots Kai. looks like a great trip

[chrislkb]

Nice!

[Cru Jones]

just saw these! impressive shot of notre dame....well done.

you're right to have posted two pix from the jules verne. truly an exceptional restaurant!

[alby.bda]

wow wonderfull photos

[jatco]

Excellent shots .. Looks like a great teip ...
Ah yes, Paris. Love it there - a great city. Tres bien..!!

[htc8p]

i love pictures! excellent! i especially like the night shot of notre dame (how long was the exposure?)

Notre Dame night shot - single tripod photo at 17mm, ISO 200, F/11, 15s. Push up the shadows in post processing.

SWEET! great photo