Taken in the evening, the shot features five photos with different apertures. This allows us to deal with the great difference in luminosity between the foreground and the city of Lévis in the distance.
The clouds and snow help to reflect the city’s glow during the night. Even so, I’ve enhanced the light in the background to make the buildings more easily visible.
Scène de Québec et du Château Frontenac la nuit. Photo par François Ouellet
Photographing a tourist attraction like the Château Frontenac at night, with all its lights, is a good challenge for both the Canon 5 DSr camera and the photographer. Here are a few photographic tips to help you repeat the experience:
1) For a special effect, you might as well go all out and capture the château, including all the lights in the buildings near the Petit-Champlain district.
2) Photographic composition is based on the rule of thirds. You don’t always have to respect the fundamental theory, but this time it works well.
3) The viewer first notices the brightest structures, all of which have a similar luminosity. He then detects the castle on the cape.
4) The contrast is deliberate. The castle is not depicted in all its architectural splendour, but as a few lines lit up in the night.
5) The observer no longer needs to see all the forms of the castle to recognize it. It’s the most photographed castle in the world. The brain quickly analyzes the visible shapes and completes the building in a fraction of a second.
6) Being photographed from this angle and in this light gives a more mysterious aspect to this hotel overlooking the smaller buildings.
7) HDR photography solves some of the lighting problems. I superimposed five photos to obtain the final result.
Old meets new in this photo of Old Quebec. On the right, the headquarters of the Norplex group, real estate developer. This is the former Canadian Bank of Commerce building, designed in 1914 by architect V. D. Horsburgh. The rounded shape is reminiscent of the Bank of England’s Tivoli.
In the foreground, the sculpture-fountain La Vivrière, a more modern creation inaugurated in 1995 on Place de la FAO to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the FAO in Quebec City in 1945, under the aegis of Lester B. Pearson.
In terms of photographic composition, the sculpted waves in the foreground gradually direct the viewer’s eye towards the main building at the top right of the photo. The rounded columns are only straight thanks to the use of Canon’s ultra-wide-angle EF 11-24mm F/4L lens.
Quiet evening in Old Quebec during Summer 2024
Above, a view of the newly restored Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville. In the distance, the tower of the Price building. Rotating spotlights create moving shadows for the couple in the foreground.
Old Quebec buildings seen from Côte de la Montagne, 2024.
Above, a five-shot HDR photo of buildings in Old Quebec. In the foreground, a wall stands at the intersection of Port Dauphin and Côte-de-la-Montagne streets. In the middle ground, we see the shops and buildings on rue De Buade. In the background, the Price Building, the only skyscraper permitted in Old Quebec.
Corner of Saint-Stanilas and Saint-Jean streets in Old Québec in the evening Summer 2024.
The photo above shows an evening view of the intersection between rue Saint-Stanislas and rue Saint-Jean in Old Quebec. For several months a year, a section of rue Saint-Jean is reserved for pedestrians only. This attracts many tourists. Just behind this popular street is McWilliam Street, with a radically different feel, especially late at night.
The McWilliam street behind the Cochon Dingue restaurant in Québec City.
To produce an HDR effect of the location, I plan to stack five photos. I set up the tripod and begin the session. Just as I’m about to finish, a door suddenly opens. A man steps out and lights a cigarette.
I need to capture this very brief moment when the individual is just a stealthy shadow in motion with the intense fluorescent lighting in the background. In this rather dark alleyway, this could generate an interesting effect.
The smoker asks me what I’m doing. It’s an employee on break working for the popular Cochon Dingue restaurant on Rue St-Jean. What a contrast between the modern façade and the back of the same building on McWilliam Street.
At home, HDR processing begins. But it’s impossible to use all five shots together as planned initially. The software combines a closed and an open door at the same time. The result is a kind of butchered wicket door, with almost no light filtering through.
I abandon the idea of an HDR montage and fall back on the single photo where the man is standing in front of the door. I wasn’t counting on this presence, but it adds a touch of humanity to a scene that’s still not very inviting.
Life often presents photography enthusiasts with unexpected opportunities. It’s all about being flexible and capturing the moment, even if it’s not part of the initial planning. Click on the link for more photos of Quebec City and Île d’Orléans in Summer 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.
In photography, it’s not just planning that makes for interesting results. Luck also plays an important role. But you need to get out frequently, in all kinds of light and weather conditions. The photo above is a good example of it.
I’m in a district of Old Quebec that is shunned by tourists late at night, because it’s less well lit. The location is close to Rue St-Jean, a popular thoroughfare lined with restaurants and other businesses. The contrast in traffic is striking.
I visited the area to try my luck with HDR photography. The photo session being over, I am preparing to head home quietly as nighttime falls.
Suddenly, a woman on a bicycle stops under a lamppost. The scene, with its plants, old bricks, neon sign and play of shadows, looks promising. But a quick reaction is needed, because with so little light, even the slightest movement will result in a blurred picture. Fortunately, the woman consults her cell phone, which immobilizes her for a few seconds.
HDR photography is out of the question here. She’ll never be still long enough in this subdued light for me to take multiple pics with different apertures. I snap twice, quickly. The young woman puts her phone away and disappears from the scene. There’s only one quality shot, the other being too blurred.
This photo session shows me once again the importance of getting out frequently to try one’s luck. Combined with an acceptable reaction time and the right equipment for working in low light, you’re likely to come home with one of life’s unexpected gifts.
The photograph shows a view of the fertile land along the St. Lawrence River in the Kamouraska region. A public observatory allows visitors to admire the panorama.
Sea kayaking on the St.Lawrence Seaway near Rivière-du-Loup
In the evening, in Rivière-du-Loup, these two kayakers enjoy the tranquility of the St. Lawrence River as they indulge in their favorite sport.
The St.Lawrence Seaway seen from Rivière-du-Loup
This HDR shot of a unit at the Auberge de la Pointe in Rivière-du-Loup features seven superimposed photos, for a total of 354 megabytes of data. This ensures that the sky is correctly exposed and that the rooms in the foreground are not completely obscured.
Ferry towards St-Siméon in the province of Québec 2023
The journey takes us to Saint-Siméon on a calm seaway. A Canon EF 11-24mm F/4 USM wide-angle zoom lens captures the scene without exaggerated distortion.
Île-aux-Lièvres and the St. Lawrence river, Québec 2023.
Auberge la Châtelaine Saint-Laurent, La Malbaie 2023.
Here’s a shot of one of the corridors of the Auberge Châtelaine, in La Malbaie. One of the reasons to stop by is the excellent breakfast included after a good night’s rest. No fat bacon or greasy potatoes here: just homemade bread and jams.
Photographers make little use of the intense midday light when it comes to achieving an interesting effect. However, as in this HDR photo of the stairs of an Old Quebec street above, bright light can be used to create shadow effects with horizontal, vertical and oblique lines.
Quebec City HDR Spring 2023
Above, another staircase with lines running in all directions. But it plays only a partial role in this HDR photo, the rest being taken up by the scene in the distance. I was looking for a double effect of chiaroscuro and atmosphere. The foreground, dark and cold, contrasts with a brighter background with an uncertain sky. On the right-hand side of the photo, the tension eases and the blue sky and sun appear.
Street photography at the “station de la Plage” 2023
This image is what is known as “street photography“. Chance has placed this person in the right place with the right dress and the right umbrella. She is wearing a horizontally lined dress and holding an obliquely lined umbrella in front of the vertically lined fence of the “station de la Plage” in Quebec City. The gray sky avoids distractions and focuses attention on the main subject.
For this last photo, I didn’t have my full-frame camera, but a cell phone. The file was of inferior quality, so I had to improve the focus using photographic software with artificial intelligence capability.
HDR photo of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in Québec, June 2023.
Above, a photo of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in Quebec City, taken in June 2023. Five photos of 50.6 Megs each in RAW format and with different apertures make up this HDR scene.
After adjusting the basic HDR photo using Photomatix software, I worked with an image processing software to optimize the final result without exaggerating hue and saturation, which is not always obvious in photography today. Finally, I converted the whole thing to JPEG format for distribution.
On the St-Jean street, the Magasin Général P L Blouin in Quebec City.
The photo shows a partial view of the window of Magasin Général P. L. Blouin Enr on rue St-Jean in Old Quebec. This store sells all kinds of traditional items and souvenirs in French and English, popular with tourists and locals alike. Digital image processing applied a pseudo HDR effect to bring out details and reflections.
