Du haut de la basilique

Stunning cityscape! I'd love to hear some tech details.

this is wonderful !! i wish it was a little more sharp in the background though . that is the only factor preventing it from being a 7/7 !!!

The shot was taken with a Ricoh GR1v compact camera on a table top tripod Manfrotto 210B/MB18.

The place was very narrow (a corridor around the main dome of the Sacre Coeur, see picture), so the small tripod was a good choice.

It was also difficult (but not impossible) to find a place where to be stable with the tripod. As you can see, there is no plane wall where you could easily put the tripod.

I used Portra 100T film exposed 8s at f8. I chose negative because of the high contrast of the illuminated tower with the cityscape. Another problem was the flare caused by the powerful floodlights. The lens hood of the GR1v helped there.

I converted the picture in b&w with channel mixing with different coefficients for the upper sky, lower sky, city and tower (see original picture below).

Here is the picture before retouching.

Hello, Pearce.

This is not a lack of sharpness, it is just "small" because of the use of a wide-angle 28mm lens.

Here is a sample of detail from a medium resolution scan.

inspirational.

Incredible composition and just breathtaking.

 

It IS an incredible perch from which to see the city!

 

Personally, I think it is perfect.

Thanks for any critique.

Excellent shot. Great capture. Love the tonal effect and the light. Well done.

If you want, have a look...