Baden-Württemberg
Heidelberg is the most photographed subject in Germany and is still usually shot wrong. The Philosophenweg on the north side is the place from which the castle, the old bridge and the old town line up on one axis; it climbs steeply, takes twenty minutes on foot, and faces south. Which means backlight in the morning and the whole slope in warm light in the afternoon and evening. Walk up early and you get haze and silhouettes. The second subject is the crowd. Heidelberg has a hundred and sixty thousand residents and some twelve million visitors a year, and they do not spread out. Between ten and five the Hauptstraße is a column of pedestrians and the old bridge is occupied for group photographs by the minute. A session here either starts at seven or it starts at six in the evening, and in between you go down to the Neckar or into the castle gardens, where people disperse.
The best window is late October to mid-November: the slope behind the castle turns, the coaches thin out, and the morning haze over the Neckar becomes a subject rather than a problem. May and June are green and pleasant but busy. In high summer the Neckar valley sits still and hot. From late November there is a Christmas market in the old town for six weeks — for couples who want that, the densest picture of the year; for everyone else, a reason to stay off the Hauptstraße.
Here is where to shoot in Heidelberg, with ideal times and permit notes.
The view the town is known for: castle, old bridge and old town on a single line, from above and across the river. It faces south, so it is right in the afternoon and exactly wrong in the morning.
A baroque sandstone bridge with a gate tower, occupied by groups by the minute from ten. The one hour in which it is yours is before eight — after that every frame is a frame with strangers in it.
The terrace on the Altan looks straight over the old town and down the valley — the view Turner painted. The garden in front of it is broad enough to step out of the flow of visitors, which the courtyard itself does not allow.
A kilometre of riverside meadow on the north bank with the castle on the far side. Half the student body sits here in the evening, and that is exactly what makes it the least self-conscious place in town — nobody looks when somebody is being photographed.
Red sandstone over a square tight enough that the facade throws the light back. For a church wedding it is the central address in the old town; for anything else, early Sunday is worth it, before the market stalls and the terraces take the square.
These come under the Heidelberg rate: a photographer travels out from the city at no extra charge, and the session is priced exactly as it would be in Heidelberg itself.
Before eight in the morning and after six in the evening, and in January and February almost continuously. Twelve million visitors against a hundred and sixty thousand residents do not spread across the day; they concentrate in the old town between ten and five. So we put sessions at the ends of the day as a matter of course — which here is the better light anyway.
Everyone needs a ticket for the courtyard, the photographer included. The moment the work is commercial — wedding reportage included — the Baden-Württemberg state palaces administration requires permission and charges a fee. The climb up, the Altan terrace and parts of the garden are freely accessible; we settle the exact scope before the booking.
The evening, without exception. The path is on the north bank and looks south at the castle slope; in the morning the sun is behind it and you get a silhouette in haze. In the afternoon and in the last hour before sunset the light hits the red sandstone head-on, which is what you climbed up for.