Best Photo Spot for Eiffel Tower

I would think most are taken from the Champs de Mars. Keith

I like taking pics from the Trocadero

keith - how do you get to Champs de Mars from the eiffel tower - do you have to cross the river?

LoriNY is right -- it's from the Trocadero. Champs de Mars is a bit too close, and the elevation of Trocadero makes it much easier to get a good shot of the entire tower without giving people attacks of vertigo.

Pass GO and head straight for the Palais de Chaillot ( Metro Trocadero)!!
Get there about sunset and mingle with the hundreds of other people taking photos, laughing and talking, listening to the drums down below beating out a steady hypnotic rythymn by a North African group( I think). Perch yourself/selves? on the wall and ask some kind person to take your picture with the Eiffel in the background.
Hang around awhile until it gets dark and see the Eiffel Tower go balistic as it bursts into a million flashing strobe lights! It's absolutely my most favourite place to view it.
By the way......did you know the Eiffel Tower's weight distribution is that of a person sitting on a chair? And that the air capacity surrounding it's frame is heavier than the actual tower?

Incidentally, on the rare clear morning you can get a terrific shot of the sun rising from behind the tower from Trocadero. Sunrise is relatively late in Paris, especially from September until February or March (the city is on the very western edge of the time zone, and it's also very far north), which makes it a bit easier.

The champs de mars is the long green park that extends from the base of the Eiffel Tower to the Military Academy. It is on the same side of the river as the tower. Keith

From Notre Dame.

Here's my picture:
http://fodorite.fisherfowler.net/liz/gargoyle.jpg

...although...there is a poster on slotravel who had an old picture of her father on roof with the Tower in the background. It was pretty spectacular and lo and behold it is from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Sunset from one of the Bridges is stunning...

Elberko: NICE SHOT!

Hi - you can get great photos as everyone here has described, but my favorite was taken in December from a sidestreet in the 16th. The street was in shadow, the trees bare and in silhouette, as lacy and interesting as the Tower. Not the traditional shot, but really nice. Look for the unusual to get a picture of "your" Eiffel Tower.

I took a shot I really like from a little park right by Les Invalides. I think it was at Rue Grenelle and Blvd. des Invalides.
You can see it at:
http://www.ofoto.com/PhotoView.jsp?&collid=82790054206&photoid=21324454206

Here's one of mine, from a totally different perspective: http://p.vtourist.com/1376659.jpg

Here are some more of mine: http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/49c35/#TL

It partly depends on how wide angle your lens is. The other posters are right that probably the best place is Trocadero but you can get nice shots from the end of Champs de Mars also. I also like to walk along the Seine, on the Trocadero side, a ways and there are some good vantage points from there. I also like some of the more distant shots, particularly from Pont Alexander and also from Place de la Concord.

Myriam, I love the your first one looking up through the braches!

I love the views from Pont Alexander III. So romatic.

Hi HH,

If you take a ride on the Batobus (www.batobus.com) you get a good shot as the boat approaches the Tower.

You can also get a good shot of the Tour Montparnasse through the arches of the Tour Eiffel.

There's lots of great spots, even the obvious ones. Early in the morning or late in the day will give you better light.

Here's a couple from the standard spots...right under it, and from the Trocadero:

http://www.jimtardio.com/france/paris-2004/paris-2004.html

Unless you know how to take good backlit pictures, you should picture it from the East in the morning, and from the West (i.e. Trocadero) in the afternoon.

The joy of taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower (to me) is to find a perspective I haven't seen on a million postcards and that reminds me of the joy of noticing it in the first place.

I like images that include some of Paris. I have one somewhere that includes a long wall broken up by regularly placed billboards each displaying the same, predominantly red poster. The red echoes the red lights on the tower that have just been switched on. I have several that are taken from various places around the city and show how the tower is visible from so many different spots. I have some taken from really close to its base which distort the shape a little and emphasise it's immense size. I have some that include people, some that include road signs and some taken at different times of the day.

For the classic shot, buy a postcard and slip it into your photo album when you get home.

For stronger memories search for your own unique perspectives on this iconic monument!

Myriam and Jim - Great photos. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions - If i am lucky - I will be able to get to all the suggested spots and maybe even come back and be able to tell you of a new spot that I discovered!

My favorite is walking along Ave. de Bourdonnais. As you get near the river, you look through a small street (sorry I don't know its name) and see the Eiffel Tower looming through some pretty residences on both sides of this small street. You are likely to find it as there are often photographers set up there.

Aw, gee. Anyone can take an amateur version of a postcard. Boring.

The best real life shots of the tower come from looking in its direction from other places, then taking a picture which just happens to have the tower in it. A street. A market. A cafe. A garden.

Second choice: Get right under the tower and get a shot of the intricate steelwork above you as a sort of an abstract.

Third choice: Use a telephoto lens and fast film at about 11 pm from the top of the Tour Montparnasse and get an almost impressionistic illuminated Eifel Tower. If the night is a little cloudy-hazy you can catch the beam of light shining out from the top of the Eifel Tower, too.

Fourth choice, if they are still doing it: We took a ride up into the Paris sky in a tethered balloon from a Paris Park. The Tower is then seen from above!

No Postcards!

This thread inspired me to go look at some of my old photos of the Eiffel Tower. I took a great one at sunset from the Tour Montparnasse -- that is the large skyscraper that sticks up above the Paris skyline (and destroys it, in my opinion). They have an observatory you can visit (reasonable cost), and the view from the top is spectacular. We went up at sunset and watched the city light up.

Have a great time.

My favorite is an oddball, but it's a fabulous shot. As you are coming out of the subway part of the Metro, and as soon as you are above ground, you are crossing a railway bridge just before the Bir Hakeim station. The instant you come out of the ground, there is a SPECTACULAR view of the Tower, with the river as the foreground. If you can get next to a clean window on the train, and you are ready for the shot, you will be rewarded with what I think is the best picture of the Eiffel Tower.

It depends on whether you want a shot of just the Eiffel Tower, or whether you want to be in it.

As you come down to the mid-level at the Trocadero, through the Palais de Chaillot, there is a perfect spot to take a photo with people (like you) and the tower in the background. Because it is higher up, you get a wonderful perspective. It may be the "tourist" view of the tower, but no one will have to guess where in the world you are!

Wow, blast from the past, Waldo!
Haven't seen this thread since 2004!!!

You get a different perspective from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, especially at night. If you have the right equipment or even know how to manipulate settings on any decent camera you can get a great shot during the nightly light show.