Basilique notre-dame de montreal

[Polar01]

I was in Montreal on Sunday and Monday, and took this image inside Basilique Notre-Dame. This image is brighter than when you first go inside, as it is quite dark inside. I spend about 2 hours inside shooting, as there are a large number of people coming and going, I used 6 minute exposures. There were not the large crowds of summer so a shooter could get away with doing long exposures. As I spend a couple of hours inside the image does look that bright, as my eyes were well use to the dim light by that time another story after I went out into the sunshine though.

Cheers:

Allan

[dje]

It's a beautiful church Allan and you've captured it very well IMO. Lovely lighting and colours. Looks like the few people sitting down were fairly still.

My wife and I will be visiting Canada including Montreal later this year and this looks like a "must see" place.

Dave

[FrankMi]

Hi Allan, I was able to visit Notre-Dame in the mid 70’s when I lived just outside Montreal. This was before arson destroyed the Sacré-Cœur Chapel in 1979.

The intricate carvings, bright colours (particularly the blues) and gold leaf detail were some of the most dazzling I have seen anywhere in the world.

If ever there was a subject that could benefit from Tonemapping techniques, this would be it as there is such rich detail in the dark woods and shadows.

Notre-Dame was raised to the status of basilica by Pope John Paul II during a visit to the city on April 21, 1982.

I can remember the howl that occurred when some enterprising souls wanted to sell 'Pope Soap on a Rope' souvenirs. The Pope was not amused and the church didn't think the shower stall was an appropriate place for the Pope's caricature to reside.

[Polar01]

Frank: thanks for the history lesson, I did not know that, knew that the John Paul did visit back in the 80's. The carvings and the colours are dazzling as you say, it was dark inside almostly lit by candles, and what lights there were, were small and very directional, the strongest light was coming through the domes as you can see the bright white at the front. This is a church that as you sit, and your eyes become more adjusted to the light it becomes more and more beautiful, not one that jumps out at you. The image I took was a three shot pan, each of 6 minutes in length, I used a 4 stop Lee ND filter at 200 ISO, I use a Nikon D7000, and on this image I set the dyamic range setting to high to get the rich detail in the dark woods and shadows as you stated. I hope to go back in late September or mid October to see if I can improve on what I learned here.

Cheers:

Allan

[FrankMi]

If you do get to go back Allan, see what a set of exposure bracketed images and HDR (Tonemapped) processing can do for you. If you end up including any stained glass windows that have the sun striking them I'd go for using a -5EV, -2.5EV, 0EV, +2.5EV and +5EV (or similar) set. Otherwise, a -2EV, 0EV and +2EV may be sufficient to capture all of the detail.

I was able to recently visit the Vatican and although St. Peter's Basilica is much larger, I don't feel it is was intricately decorated as Notre-Dame.

[Dave Humphries]

Very good result Allan

There might be a bit more shadow detail to be had, but this is still a very impressive image viewed at full size in the Lytebox.

Well done,

[Momo]

Very impressive! Me likes!

If you captured in RAW, then you may be able to double process the image. Process for the shadows and then process separately for the highlights. You could then blend those two images together for a more well-rounded exposure. Just thinking out loud... or, in type.

[Polar01]

Frank: I see you shoot glass very close to the same way I do, 5 down then 3 down, I do them in RAW then open as smart layers, to do the blending by hand, if I need another I will copy one of them rework it in RAW. Once I get the glass looking the way I want it, then I blend it into the final image. Some times that is a lot of work when you have a 5 shot pan of the insides of a church. As for doing bracketed exposures that would be hard in Notre Dame as you have a great number of people walking around in front of you, you want long exposures to give you the best possiblility of them not showing up in your image. Also with the bracketed images as this one was 6 minutes that would be 6+(6*4)+(6/4)=34 minutes per 1, 3 bracketed image do that 3 times for a 3 shot pan 1hr 42 minutes. Here is another problem the light moves shining through the domes in the ceiling, as is the above shot was increased 2 stops in processing making it much brighter than it is in the church. This is a hard church to shoot, not as hard as some, each one gives me it own challenge and I hope to learn from them, you Frank, and others on CIC to do better things.

Cheers:

Allan

[FrankMi]

Frank: I see you shoot glass very close to the same way I do, 5 down then 3 down, I do them in RAW then open as smart layers, to do the blending by hand, if I need another I will copy one of them rework it in RAW. Once I get the glass looking the way I want it, then I blend it into the final image. Some times that is a lot of work when you have a 5 shot pan of the insides of a church. As for doing bracketed exposures that would be hard in Notre Dame as you have a great number of people walking around in front of you, you want long exposures to give you the best possiblility of them not showing up in your image. Also with the bracketed images as this one was 6 minutes that would be 6+(6*4)+(6/4)=34 minutes per 1, 3 bracketed image do that 3 times for a 3 shot pan 1hr 42 minutes. Here is another problem the light moves shining through the domes in the ceiling, as is the above shot was increased 2 stops in processing making it much brighter than it is in the church. This is a hard church to shoot, not as hard as some, each one gives me it own challenge and I hope to learn from them, you Frank, and others on CIC to do better things.

Cheers:

Allan

For eliminating people from the image, you can use much shorter shots as long as they are properly exposed. To do this, shoot, then wait for folks to move, then shoot again. If they don't move fast enough for you, get a helper to stand by the door and yell 'fire'. You may need to do this several times to get clear images where people were standing but it takes far less time to clone them out of multiple images this way. That is how I eliminated the tourists in this image.

[Polar01]

Frank: did you use the fire method back in 1979?

Cheers:

Allan

[FrankMi]

Frank: did you use the fire method back in 1979?

Cheers:

Allan

Gee-manee Allan. It was just a thought!

Actually I was living in Nova Scotia at the time and read about the fire in the news. Such a shame. The chapel was gorgeous and as well appointed as the main church. I understand that have rebuilt it from some of the original plans but I wonder if they could get craftsmen like they had 200 years ago?

[Polar01]

Frank: I did get a quick image of the other chapel the Sacre-Coeur Chapel, the sun was really bright in there blowing out a lot of the detail in the ceiling, next time I will time it to get better lighting conditions.

Cheers:

Allan