Today is the technically the first day of my “holidays” – although they are being spent doing DIY at home – so I thought I’d post one of my holiday photos – this one from a weekend away to Berlin back in November 2006. The photograph is taken in the roof dome of the Reichstag, although for some reason it has always reminded me of the set of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”.
The Reichstag is the seat of German parliament, and is located close to the Brandenburg Gate in the historic city of Berlin. The parliament moved there from Bonn after reunification of Germany, and the building was partly reconstructed to add a glass dome, designed by Norman Foster, at the top of the building. Tourists can walk to the top of the dome without ever entering the parliament chamber, and the glass design affords visitors a view from the dome down into the chamber.
Capturing this particular exposure was all just a matter of timing. I don’t mean shutter speeds – it was down to the time of day. Purely by chance, I happened to visit the dome during that part of a winter afternoon where day starts to become night. When I lifted my camera to take this shot, outside there was a nice twilight, which was providing a low level of ambient light. Inside, the lights were on, and there was a nice natural balance between these two light sources.
My camera’s white balance was set to tungsten to match the main source of light inside, but this had the nice side effect of turning that exterior twilight a deeper shade of blue, which you can see in the floor at top left. Finally, the interior light sources above my camera position and just out of frame created nice highlights on the floor. And all the while, I was able to hold a good exposure for the chamber floor beneath the glass in the centre of the photograph.
If I had visited the dome much earlier or later in the day, to achieve this exposure would require large studio lights and lots of complication. By getting there just at the right time, the picture could be achieved with the most minimal of equipment – one camera, and one lens.
Recent Comments