The London Eye – Big Ben / Westminster viewpoint.

Overview & Quick Tips

Big Ben is an iconic London landmark. This golden clock tower, along with the Palace of Westminster, can be framed beautifully from the London Eye with the River Thames and Westminster Bridge in the foreground. A 24mm lens will capture it all.

Detailed information

London Eye Tickets
The London Eye is a giant Ferris Wheel, standing 135 meters (443 feet). It was the highest public viewing point in London prior to 2013, when it was surpassed by the 72nd floor observation deck at The Shard.
3.5 million people ride the Eye every year, making it the U.K.s most popular tourist attraction. Expect a crowed.
Tickets are sold per half-hour rotation slot. The first rotation starts at 10:00am, the last at 8:30 pm, but check the times as there is season variation. The Eye operates seven days a week.
You have several ticket options, some tickets include a 4D cinema experience, and a River Thames Cruise. You can purchase a family ticket, or book an entire capsule for yourself. A Day And Night Experience Ticket give you two 30 minute rotations, before and after sunset.
A Standard Ticket cost around £20. You’ll need to join the boarding queue 30 minutes before your allocated time. If you have a Fast Track Ticket (approx. 30 pounds) be at the Priority Desk 15 minutes prior. A Day Flexi Ticket, or Week Flexi Ticket allows you to visit anytime during the day or week or your choice. If you’re pre-booking a ticket online, a Flexi ticket is advisable if you’re not convinced the weather is going to be obliging.
Tickets can be purchased online, or on sight. However if you’re visit during a peak time, you might miss out if you don’t pre-purchase online. The busiest times are school holidays and weekends, July and August, and 11:00am to 3:00pm.
The London Eye is wheelchair accessible, otherwise the seating is limited, so expect to be on your feet throughout the duration of your visit.
You can’t take a tripod into the capsule. Large items have to be left behind with security, to be collected after the ride.

Big Ben and Westminster
For a photographer, the best thing about the London Eye is the aerial view it provides of Big Ben, The Palace of Webmeister, The Themes River, and Westminster Bridge.
Westminster is the seat of the U.K Parliament. Big Ben rises to 55 meters from its northern end. The hour hand of it’s clock is 14 feet (4.3 meters) long.
Big Ben was officially remade as the Elizabeth Tower in 2012, to mark the Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II. The clock tower was completed in 1858, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by a fire in 1834.

Photography
—Standing before a capsule entry point, the London Eye rotates anti-clockwise. This first provide an unobstructed view of the flat, sprawling expanse towards Greenwich and Olympic park in the East. At first Westminster will be somewhat occurred by the hub and spokes of the wheel, but as the rotation reaches its zenith and your capsule brings to move back down you’ll get penalty of time for clear shots. —For the best view of Westminster, you’ll want to be on the outside of the carnage when it is moving downwards, or on the inside (closest to the hub) when you first enter the rising capsule. You many want to position yourself here when you first enter the capsule to ensure you have the prime location.
—Fortunately the capsule glass is in kept in good condition, so scratches and dirt aren’t too much of a problem. Even so, try to position yourself behind the clearest section of glass, and consider using a polarizing filter to cut out reflections.
—Any time of day can be good or bad for shooting Westminster from the London Eye. It simply boils down the to particular lighting conditions at the time. There may be considerable contrast between the sky and city building, so consider bracketing your photos and recombining the best exposed portions of them with software later. Even though you can’t take tripod on the Eye, and it is a rotating platform, you can still get good results worth bracketing hand-held. Alternatively, try using a graduated N.D filter.
—I used a 19mm lens on a APS-C format camera (So a DSLR Full-Frame focal length of 28mm). That worked well to capture the full spread of the scene. If you go too much wider Westminster and Big Ben will look too distant, if you zoom in too much closer you’ll cut an end off either end of Westminster Bridge. The lower to the water you go, the wider the lens you’ll need to keep the full length of the bridge in view. A 24mm Prime lens on a full frame DSLR would be a good choice.
—Watch the traffic on Westminster Bridge. If you can time a photo to include some Red Double Decker Busses making their way across, it will add considerably to your final image.
—If you are not shooting the hub and spokes, the ‘action’ will be distant so you wont need to chase depth of field, then a mid-range aperture from F5.6 to F8 should work well. If you are wanting to keep the close spokes and distant buildings all sharp in the one photo, f11 should do the trick.
—You could use a zoom lens for some close-ups of Big Ben, but you can shoot those shots from the ground, without needing to go on the London Eye.

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