Eiffel Tower photo session
Everyone wants the same photograph and almost everyone takes it at the wrong hour, from the one spot where four hundred other people are standing.
- From
- €180
The session
The hour decides the photograph
Almost every disappointing picture taken here was taken between ten and four, from the one viewpoint everybody names. The tower is not the problem; the hour and the crowd are.
We give you a start time worked out from your dates. It is early. It is also the single change that makes the difference between your photographs and the ones already on every phone in the queue.
Three quite different pictures
Directly underneath, the structure becomes abstract — iron, geometry, no horizon. From across the river it sits in a landscape and the picture is about the city. From a street a few minutes away it appears between buildings, unannounced, and that is usually people’s favourite by the time the gallery arrives.
One walk covers all three.
What we do not promise
Photographs of the tower’s night-time illumination raise a licensing question we will not pretend away, so we plan these sessions in daylight and the hour after sunrise. If evening matters to you, say so at the start and we will tell you plainly what can and cannot be delivered.
Around it
The Paris photoshoot page covers a session that ranges across the city rather than around one monument. If this is going to be a proposal, read that page first — the approach is completely different and the tower is not always the right stage for it.
Price
From €180 for about 1 h. The full grid is on the pricing page; a deposit of 30% holds the morning.
What holds you back
The questions people hesitate to ask
- Is it not going to be packed?
- At the famous viewpoint, after nine, yes — impassably so. That is precisely why the hour matters more than anything else about this session. The same spot an hour after sunrise has perhaps a dozen people on it, and by the third viewpoint we are often alone.
- We have seen those photographs a thousand times
- So have we, and they are nearly all taken from one square at midday. A street where the tower appears unexpectedly between two buildings, or a bank of the river with it soft in the distance, gives you a photograph of Paris that happens to have the tower in it rather than a postcard.
- Do we need a permit?
- For a private session on public ground with a handheld camera and no crew, no permit has ever been required of us. We do not stage anything, block anything or bring equipment that needs setting up. Anything beyond that — commercial work, a crew, lighting stands — is a different matter and we would tell you so.
- What about the tower at night?
- Photographs of the illuminated tower are governed by rules on the lighting installation, so we treat evening sessions as a separate conversation and we do not promise images we cannot license to you. Daytime and the hour after sunrise carry no such question.
- How much of the session is walking?
- Perhaps a third of it. That walking is not lost time: it is where people stop being photographed and start being together, and a good number of the frames worth keeping come from it.
How it runs
How it works
The hour comes first
We give you a start time calculated from the date, not a general recommendation. In midsummer that is before six; in December it is well after eight, and the light is arguably better.
Three viewpoints, one walk
The tower photographs completely differently from close underneath, from across the river and from a street where it appears between buildings. All three are within a short walk of each other.
The session
We move between them rather than queueing at one. Ninety minutes covers the walk comfortably, including the pauses where people stop performing and start looking at each other.
Delivery
Sorted, treated and delivered as a private gallery within 5 to 10 business days.
Full gallery delivered within 5 to 10 business days.
Pricing
What it costs
€180
- Duration
- 1 h
- Delivery
- 5 to 10 business days
- Deposit
- 30%
TODO_TVA
Included
- The hour chosen for your dates, and three viewpoints on one walk
- Ninety minutes of shooting around the tower
- Selection and treatment of every frame kept
- Private gallery in full resolution, reachable from home
Options
Questions
Frequently asked
What is the best month?
There is no bad one. Winter light is low all day, which is flattering and forgiving; summer forces a very early start but gives long soft evenings. Spring and autumn need the fewest compromises.
Can we do this and a wider Paris session together?
Yes, and it is common. The tower routes join naturally onto the wider walking routes described on the Paris photoshoot page, and it is priced as one longer session rather than two.
Will you take a picture with our phone as well?
Happily, at the end. It costs nothing and it is what actually gets sent to family that evening, days before the gallery arrives.
Tell us about the day
Describe what you want to keep from it. You get back a written proposal with a figure in it, not a catalogue.