This photo was taken in autumn from the wooden tower at the eastern end of Île d’Orléans. Late in the season, there are fewer leaves left on the trees, but the sun hitting the vegetation from the side breathes new life into the landscape.
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in autumn on my blog.
Umbrellas cover part of Rue du Cul-de-Sac in Quebec City. Most tourists are unaware of this installation when they set foot in the Petit Champlain area. Surprised, they whip out their cell phones and capture the moment as best they can. Since they’re just passing through, most don’t have the luxury of choosing the most appropriate light for their multiple shots.
The situation is different for someone who has easy and frequent access to the location. They can wait for the “blue hour” on a fine summer evening, and at the same time capture the golden hue of the lights in front of the many restaurants lining the alleyway.
The main challenge in taking the above shot, however, is the sharp contrasts in light.
For example, the tourists in the foreground are standing in the half-light, but the viewer still wants to see the details. Just above the people, the lighting contrasts sharply with the shaded area at the bottom of the photo. It’s hard for the camera to decide which brightness to prefer.
To top it all off, the soft blue light of late evening illuminates the umbrellas from above, while the restaurant lights illuminate the installation from below.
Image processing software is used to optimize the information contained in the RAW file of the photo, helping to highlight the different areas of brightness in the scene while avoiding areas that are too light or too dark.
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer on my blog.
Above, a view of the Sainte-Famille Street in Old Quebec with, on the right, a section of the government office of the Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques.
The curb in the lower left corner of the photo serves as a prompt to integrate the scene. The door covers the first right-hand third of the photographic composition, preventing the observer from moving too quickly into the background. The rounded shape of the door and the old stones manage to occupy almost 50% of the image, while the rest shows an entire artery, mountains and a portion of the sky.
To energize the scene, I waited for an automobile to drive down the street.
Dating back to 1647, this Basilica-Cathedral has been renovated on several occasions and includes a historic crypt and holy door, attracting believers from all over the world.
Note that in this shot, the close-up of the tower does not prevent us from obtaining perfectly vertical lines, which are usually difficult to achieve in photography. This result is due to the use of a Canon EF 11–24 mm F/4L USM ultra-wide-angle lens, the only one on the market that allows such results without correction and without the fisheye effect taking over.
Above is the Basilica-Cathedral seen from another angle.
Click on the links for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer on my blog and for photos of the province of Quebec and Canada.
The photo above was taken in Matane, Quebec, in September 2024. It’s more a matter of chance than planning. I was on the beach photographing the sunset, and when the sky got too dark, I turned around to see if there was anything interesting left to capture. And I came across this full harvest moon rising in the firmament.
Photographing a full moon is a good challenge. We often capture only an almost white, very bright disk, losing the nuances of colour and the details of the lunar geography.
The advice available on the Internet on how to successfully shoot a full moon with a normal camera goes in all directions. But one thing’s for sure: to improve your chances of success, it’s best not to wait until nightfall, because then the very high luminosity of the star becomes impossible to attenuate while still retaining a view of the planetary topography.
Most of the time, the choice is between an excellent photo of a full moon, but a very dark surrounding earth relief where nothing is discernible, or a visible earth relief of acceptable quality, but a moon that represents nothing more than a large, white circle of light.
The method that works for the photo above is as follows: you have to be on the spot at the right time, i.e., during the blue hour and not the whole night. So, in my case, I was lucky because it wasn’t planned.
You need a tripod and an extension cable. There are two reasons to avoid long exposures: firstly, the moon is a moving object. The longer the exposure, the more the disk moves. You end up with an oval rather than a round moon. A long exposure also picks up more light, and the moon’s disk turns completely white.
Compromises become necessary. Trying to get a perfect moon and foreground at exactly the right brightness is quite a challenge. By the time every attempt has been made to achieve a flawless result, the moon is already too high in the sky. We have to act quickly.
We’re advised to lower the ISO to 200, but if I do that, I’m increasing the exposure time and introducing too much light into the camera. Instead, I use a higher ISO to reduce exposure, and use all the camera functions likely to reduce the amount of light entering the camera: higher shutter speed, if necessary, strong negative exposure compensation, and so on.
By not overdoing the settings and using RAW files, there’s still enough flexibility to bring out the foreground, in this case the houses lining Matane’s beaches and the surrounding lights.
In short, shoot during the blue hour, act quickly, accept compromises, limit exposure time in every way possible and use RAW files to facilitate post-production work.
Click on the link for more photos from the province of Quebec on my blog.
The HDR photo of the Dauphine Redoubt above comprises seven pictures with different apertures. The Photomatix software stacks them one on top of the other to create a single shot. This allows the darker regions to stand out, while controlling the lighter areas as much as possible.
For a successful effect, the following factors need to be taken into account: type of camera (ideally full frame), use of an appropriate wide-angle lens, focus, time of day, cloud types, tripod, extension cable, camera mirror vibrations, wind, visibility, photographic grain, depth of field, moving obstacles in front of the camera and photographic composition.
I use a Canon 5 DSr with a Canon EF 11–24 mm F/4L super-wide-angle lens. Focusing with the camera’s backlit screen improves accuracy. It is better to avoid nighttime and take advantage of the blue hour. The clouds don’t prevent the capture of a distant background, and allow the city lights to be reflected in the sky.
I opt for a sturdy tripod. Its extra weight cancels out minor jolts and supports fairly heavy photographic equipment. The extension cable prevents the photographer from touching the camera when taking seven photos.
For mirror-equipped cameras like the Canon 5 DSr, it is important to activate the mirror lock function. This means that vibrations caused by the mirror rotation will have two seconds to fade before the actual picture is taken. A light wind also reduces the chance of vibrations.
Moderate visibility allows better graduation of colours and reflections. Tonight, the mist plays its part well. By using a tripod, I greatly limit the photographic grain. ISO is therefore set at 200. Depth of field is not a problem, as the tripod will prevent movement caused by long exposure.
As many people visit the site in the evening, I try to take each of the seven photos between two crosswalks. This isn’t always possible, but Photomatix can remove “ghosts” when compiling the shots. There is, however, a limit to this function.
The final point concerns photographic composition. The photo above is divided into three roughly equal horizontal zones. Oblique lines on either side at the bottom of the photo direct the eye towards the centre of the image. The five lights of the Dauphine Redoubt and those of the city capture the attention. All the shots have visible details and are not lost in the darkness. For better balance, the composition ignores another imposing building at the right of the scene.
These are just some of the precautions taken when capturing the scene in HDR night photography.
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Autumn on my blog.
At first glance, you don’t know what to look for. Nature’s mimicry has done its work. Then the Cooper’s hawk appears, wings outstretched, flying in our direction.
I took the photo in a British Columbia park. The RAW file makes it possible to correct areas that are too light or really dark, but you still have to respect the bird’s ability to blend in with the landscape. By over-lightening the bird, we take it out of the environment where it hides to watch its prey.
The fact that the hawk is advancing rapidly towards the camera makes it difficult to focus, especially through high light contrasts. The result is a slight blurring of the head, which is easily corrected by artificial intelligence.
Several companies sell a product capable or claiming to be capable of correcting blurred areas. As far as I’m concerned, I use Topaz AI. All you have to do is position the cursor on the spot where a slight improvement is desired and you’re done.
However, don’t expect miracles with such software. The photo has to be good enough for the program to make a tiny improvement.
Click on the link for more photos of Canada on my blog.
Above, a view of Cap Diamant and the Château Frontenac as the Transat Québec Saint-Malo 2024 gets underway. You can see the water jets and the Volendam, a cruise ship anchored at the Port of Quebec.
The photo above shows the sailboat La Boulangère Bio on the St. Lawrence River off Île d’Orléans. Skipper Amélie Grassi is originally from France, more specifically La Rochelle. She achieves excellent results in most of the races she takes part in.
In the background is the 150 MW Massif du Sud wind farm, which supplies electricity to Hydro-Québec.
Click on the links for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer and for photos of the province of Quebec on my blog.
This photo shows the Atlas Ocean Racing sailboat during the Transat Quebec Saint-Malo as it passes near Île d’Orléans near Quebec City. Skipper Gilles Barbot is a French Canadian of Breton origin who now lives in Montreal. All crew members are Canadian, from the province of Quebec.
Curious onlookers set up here and there along the south shore of Île d’Orléans to watch the sailboats that left Quebec City an hour ago.
Off Île d’Orléans, lenticular clouds and a small rotor cloud are visible. They are formed by strong wind aloft that is crossing the mountain range north of the St. Lawrence River.
P.S. After many days of racing, the results are now known. It is the Atlas Ocean Racing‘s team that arrived first in St-Malo, France.
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer as well as photos of the province of Quebec on my blog.
Above, the sailboat Martinique Tchalian in the Transat Québec Saint-Malo 2024. Piloted by Jean-Yves Aglae, Jean-Marie Hervé and Moane Mangattale, the boat is off Île d’Orléans as the cruise ship Volendam approaches on its way to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Above, the Martinique Tchalian is in the area of Berthier-sur-Mer, near two ships, the Alerce (on the left in the photo) and the Frankopan. In this section of the St. Lawrence River, the channel is narrow, and ships must use it to sail upstream to the Great Lakes.
The Alerce is a bulk carrier heading for the Port of Quebec, from the Port of Jorf Lasfar (MA JFL) in Morocco. The Frankopan tanker left the Port of Sainte Victoire in Quebec (CA SVD) a few hours ago, and is heading for the Port of Houston in the USA (US HOU).
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer and for photos of the province of Quebec on my blog.
Marine traffic off Quebec City was blocked in anticipation of the departure of the Transat Québec Saint-Malo 2024. As soon as the sailboats got a head start, cargo and cruise ships summarized their operations on the St. Lawrence River. Pictured above is the Volendam rounding Île d’Orléans near Quebec City. It is heading for Charlottetown, capital of Prince Edward Island in Canada.
Its captain appears to put a little pressure on the captain of the sailing vessel ahead, but this is in fact an optical illusion caused by compressed perspective. In fact, I took the photo when the ship was still a long way off. I brought the subject closer using a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM lens, followed by a major crop from a 50.6 megapixel photo.
Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer, as well as photos of the province of Quebec on my blog.