Berlin’s Deutscher Dom (i.e. German Church, also called New Church) is part of the ensemble on the Gendarmenmarkt in the center of Berlin. And as every year it was time for the Festival of Lights in Berlin providing special illumination for all major sights. Festival of Lights means: Way to many photographers in Berlin and way too little possibilities to capture sights without people in front of it.
It was just by chance that I went exactly one day before start of the festival to the Gendarmenmarkt. I went there more because of my own stupidity, than anything else. I was thinking then that the festival had already started. Therefore I was surprised and disappointed. Positively surprised because of relatively few people around and disappointed by the illuminations. Nothing happened at the French Cathedral, a strange video was illuminating the Konzerthaus and the Deutscher Dom was just slightly different illuminated than usual.
This illumination on it was exactly what I liked in the Deutscher Dom plus the fact that no people were around. Everyone was trying to capture the video from the Konzerthaus but nobody was interested in the church. I had all the time in the world to set up and shoot, just a handful of people walking through my view.
In the post-processing I wanted to put focus on the red dome. I took down the general saturation and made the sky a bit darker for the red to stand out. Additionally I balanced the lights on the Deutscher Dom by merging three exposures and done – my first photo of the Festival of Lights.
Technical Details
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm @ 10mm
ISO: 100
Exposures: 3 (-2, 0, +2)
Aperture: 4
Exposure time (middle): 2s
Tripod: Manfrotto 190CXPRO4
Location: Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin
Software: Lightroom 4.3, Photoshop CS6, Photomatix Pro
