Selby Abbey

[MrB]

This week I am visiting relatives in Yorkshire. Today I spent a couple of hours in Selby, a small town with a magnificent stone Abbey Church that is bigger than some cathedrals. It dates from the 11th Century, when it was founded as a Benedictine monastery. The weather was quite dull today, and the Abbey is surrounded by large trees that limit the viewpoints. Nevertheless, I tried to capture something of its form and scale - here are a few shots:









Thank you for viewing.

Philip

[Donald]

Good work, Philip.

Good angles and compositions. The exposure is very good on each of them. You have shown it off very well.

[Mike Buckley]

The abbey is gorgeous and your images show it off nicely. I especially like the people included in the first image, not just because they help provide a sense of scale but also because the building should be enjoyed by people.

[Ken Curtis]

Philip. I copied the top image into Photoshop. I rotated it counter clockwise .41 degrees because the abbey was leaning to the right. Next I increased the light in the shadows and decreased the highlights. Increasing light in the shadows helped to view the area around the entrance. Decreasing the highlights brought out the clouds in the sky.

If you have not already done so, you might try increasing the light in the shadows. I did not attempt that so do not know if it would help or hurt.

There are nice doors and windows and other architectural features in the abbey. You might want to try zooming in on some of these and cropping to see if there are any sub-images that you like. This is just a suggestion that you can try or not. I know it is not part of your original posting, and I am not in any way saying you should.

These are nice images. You are lucky to have such an interesting subject to shoot. The overcast day seems to evoke an emotional moodiness to the scene.

[dje]

Mission accomplished I'd say Philip. Nicely done. Capturing this sort of building is not easy - it's always hard to get the right angle and invariably "things" are in the way !!

Dave

[MrB]

Good work, Philip.

Good angles and compositions. The exposure is very good on each of them. You have shown it off very well.

Thank you for your nice comments, Donald. The limitations imposed by the location of the Abbey really forced concentration onto the considerations of angles and composition here, and it is encouraging that you approve of the results.

Philip

[MrB]

The abbey is gorgeous and your images show it off nicely. I especially like the people included in the first image, not just because they help provide a sense of scale but also because the building should be enjoyed by people.

Thank you for your nice comments, Mike. There were very few people in and around the Abbey - it was a market day and most people were there. I took several shots with no-one in view but, as you mention, it was great when this couple emerged to show the size of this church.

Philip

[MrB]

Philip. I copied the top image into Photoshop. I rotated it counter clockwise .41 degrees because the abbey was leaning to the right. Next I increased the light in the shadows and decreased the highlights. Increasing light in the shadows helped to view the area around the entrance. Decreasing the highlights brought out the clouds in the sky.

If you have not already done so, you might try increasing the light in the shadows. I did not attempt that so do not know if it would help or hurt.

There are nice doors and windows and other architectural features in the abbey. You might want to try zooming in on some of these and cropping to see if there are any sub-images that you like. This is just a suggestion that you can try or not. I know it is not part of your original posting, and I am not in any way saying you should.

These are nice images. You are lucky to have such an interesting subject to shoot. The overcast day seems to evoke an emotional moodiness to the scene.

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions, Ken.

I see what you mean about the Abbey's slight lean to the right (as I get older I also tend to lean more to the right!). I think it is a result of a slight error in correcting the perspective - the shot was from ground level at f=18mm, so there was quite a backward lean in the OOC image. Regarding the lighting - I have applied some moderate local contrast to bring out the textures in the stonework and this might have caused some of the loss of shadow detail. You are right about the smaller structures and features in the building - the number of possible detail shots seems limitless! I also agree with your comment about the overcast day.

Philip

[MrB]

Mission accomplished I'd say Philip. Nicely done. Capturing this sort of building is not easy - it's always hard to get the right angle and invariably "things" are in the way !!

Dave

Thank you for commenting, Dave - I am pleased that you approve. You are certainly right about things getting in the way - there seems to be little consideration shown for photographers!

Philip