Watch the Before-and-After Comparison to see where this photo comes from!
The story of this photo:
The Eiffel Tower was designed and built by the engineer Gustav Eiffel between 1887 and 1889 as a temporary structure for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition (Expo) of 1900. The Parisians did not like it at all. They thought it was an ugly eyesore. Today, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world with 200,000,000 visitor since its opening day. The nickname of the tower is “La dame de fer” – the iron lady – for its unique iron construction. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. With 324 meters it still stands as the highest building in Paris today.
A personal tip: If you ever happen to visit the tower and there is a long queue of people waiting beneath it for the elevator, take the stairs at the south pillar. It’s faster and more interesting, and it gives you the feeling that you have earned your stay. 
Enjoy!
Take a look at my “HDR Cookbook”! It contains some more information on my techniques.
How it was shot:
> Camera mounted on a tripod
> Three exposures (0, +2, +2ev)
> Camera: Nikon D90
> Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3,5-5,6G ED VR
> Details can be found here
How it was tone-mapped:
> 32bit HDR images created from 3 JPEG files
> Tone-mapping: Photomatix Pro 4.0 (Detail Enhancer)
How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise on the entire image (more aggressively on the sky) [details]
> Topaz Infocus on the entire image for sharpening
> Saturation layer on the greens in the foreground (master)
> Levels layer on the greens in the foreground (brightening)
> Levels layer on the trees (brightening)
> Levels layer on the sky (increasing the black point until all the ugly HDR artifacts disappeared)
> Global saturation and levels layer to fine-tune the image
> Sharpening using the high-pass filter [details]
> Watermarking
Any comments, feedback or criticisms are highly welcome! Thanks for viewing!
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Hi! I am Klaus Herrmann. I take photos - I create, write and teach.
Learn advanced photography and image processing techniques with my tutorials and resources like Before-and-After comparisons, Making-of videos and Pics-to-play-with features.
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Featured Images
Did you know…
...that our Before-and-After Comparisons give you a quick insight into the evolution of an image? They present the stages of the post-processing work from the source photos to the finished image in three simple steps.
Did you know…
...that the Making-of section provides HD time-lapse videos that take you on a journey through the complete post-processing work for a given image? You can pause at any point and inspect the tools and the parameters used.
Did you know…
...that our Dynamic Before-and-After feature allows you to make a direct comparison between the photo straight out of the camera and the final image? There is no better way to see the difference.
Did you know…
...that you can download full-resolution source photos of the images on this website in our Pics to Play With section? Test you processing skills and compare your style and abilities with others.
Did you know…
...that you will find hundreds of HDR photography resources in our HDR Resource Index? It contains photographers, communities, tutorials, books and more. Access all there is to know about HDR from a single place!
