Vieux Quebec at sunset

[Manfred M]

This is a hand-held night shot taken from the city wall of Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Canada. The old buildings are generally 19th century, but there are 17th and 18th century buildings as well. If you want that old European atmosphere, without leaving North America, consider a visit to this old city that was founded in 1608 and is one of the oldest cities in North America and is the only city north of Mexico that still has intact city walls. It was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

The church is the Notre-Dame Basilica and has been located on this site since 1647. It was destroyed by fire twice; in 1759 during the Siege of Quebec and again in 1922. It was rebuilt and restored both times. It is the parish church of the oldest parish in North America and is the first basilca in North America.

The lighting, of course is interesting as this is a classical case of mixed lighting; much of the illumination from the setting sun still lights the scene with a bit of a reddish light, but the tungsten street lighting adds some really warm yellow and orange tones to the areas where they are the predominant light source. The stained glass lit up from inside the church adds to the overa colours. I was standing up on the city wall, beside one of the main gates when I took this shot. I'm looking in a predominantly southerly direction; and the St Lawrence River is at the bottom of a steep hill that cannot be seen from where I was shooting.



Shot was with my D800 using a Nikon f/2.8 24-70mm lens using the 24mm focal length. ISO 2000 at 1/20 sec at f/2.8. This comes from a RAW file and the only PP work was a bit of sharpening and luminosity setting with an levels adjustment layer. I did not do any colour adjustments.

[Donald]

That is a very nice image and the information accompanying it will, I think, prove useful fro anyone wanting to study how to make this type of picture.

I think it's a bit of work that illustrates the point about mastering camera-craft and making sure that that what you capture is just as good as it can be. I'd suggest that if this had been badly captured by someone who believes you can rescue all in post-processing, there is no way you could have made this image. It is, in my opinion, a very good bit of work.

[Mike Buckley]

I like the mood of the image and I'm not referring just to the lighting. It's very natural.

[Polar01]

Going to Quebec City is very worth spending a few days, strolling the narrow streets of the old wall city, the view of the St. Lawrence from along the boardwalk, a place of great history as Manfred as stated.

Cheers:

Allan