Photographing in the Louvre

I will be visiting Paris for the first time in the last week of May. I am looking forward to visiting the Louvre and taking non- flash pictures with my Nikon D-40 with VR lens. Any photographers been there recently? Can you share your experiences taking pictures inside the museum. Do guards give you much of a hassle?

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Why would they hassle you? It says on their website no flash photography but doesn%26#39;t say NO photography period.

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It is no problem to take photos provided you do not use flash or a tripod. In most cases this means opening the lens as wide as possible and bumping up the ISO so as to get a picture unaffected by camera shake. Make sure you have the right white balance too, or the pictures may look yellowish (incandescent light) or greenish (fluorescent light). AWB should do it.

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We have just returned from Paris for the first time and visited the Louvre - got there about 9.30a.m and virtually no queues. To answer your question yes you can take photographs, in fact that was all some visitors seemed to be doing, instead of actually looking at the paintings. Sign at the entrance says No Flash or tripods. No hassle from the guards. Agree about the WB and some shutter speeds can be a bit low for hand held even with shake reduction. The biggest problem was the crowds if you are trying to get a clear shot. You can also only get to within 20 feet of the Mona Lisa and it is behind glass if you were thinking of taking ML.

Personally from a photographic point of view the Musee D`Orsay, an old railway station offerred more photographic opportunities - the clock from the inside with Sacre Coueur visible through the clock face is a favourite.

Hope this helps.

Geoff

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Any rules about monopods?

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Don`t know specifically about monopods, never saw any. For most shots the light will be ok for handheld or bump up the ISO.

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Great, thanks! Sounds like my 30 f/1.4 will come in handy.

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Hi -

It helps to be tall so you can shoot over some of the tourists%26#39; heads. The glass within which the Mona Lisa is mounted is UV rated, and quite thick, and actually may be plexiglass rather than glass, too. Add to that the fact that many of the tour guides advise their bus tour clients to %26quot;run directly to the ML%26quot;, where they elbow everyone else out of the way, so it%26#39;s extremely difficult to get a clear shot in the first place. All in all not really worth the investment of your time. For that one, just get one of the slides, postcards or prints from the gift shop.

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Here you can see what it was like when we visited 2 weeks ago - it works well without flash as long as you adjust your ISO and preferable have a stabilized lense:

http://tinyurl.com/dysasn

By the way - my camera is a Canon EOS 450D. I used a 18 - 200 mm lense.

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Greek Traveller- Nice pictures!