Altar - St Catherines Church

[Manfred M]

This is the alter of St Catherine's church in Kuldiga, Latvia. A former Catholic church, was converted to a Lutheran one. The church was "repurposed" during the time that Latvia was part of the Soviet Union, but it has been restored as a church in the post-independence years.

[ajohnw]

Nice one Manfred. I understand that churches are being "restored" in Russia too.

John
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[Cantab]

I enjoyed the photo. Do you know if the baroque style reredos behind the altar is old or a recent construction?

[Manfred M]

I enjoyed the photo. Do you know if the baroque style reredos behind the altar is old or a recent construction?

I strongly suspect it is modern, although I cannot say for sure. I was unable to find anyone who could tell me what the church was used as during Soviet times, so the interior paint job would be recent, The church was originally built in 1252, but was renovated in the baroque style. The Lutheran church architecture tends to be much more plain than what we see in Catholic churches, so I suspect that this modern restoration is probably in keeping with the post-reformation style.

[Donald]

Excellent control of the exposure, what with all that white wall. A lovely simple image that belies the skill in making the picture.

[Manfred M]

Excellent control of the exposure, what with all that white wall. A lovely simple image that belies the skill in making the picture.

Thanks Donald. You are quite right; getting the art work on the alter piece to stand out with all that white was a challenge. I\m also not convinced that the church walls are 100% vertical. I used a tripod with a bubble level and shift / tilt lens to take this shot, but the walls and windows don't look 100% even. I guess there is some settling in a building over the course of the 800 or so years it has stood here.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed and exposed.

[Ziggy]

Nice and clean, well taken.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice image, Manfred. But what's the fuss about exposure? What with those giant built in reflectors/diffusers

[rpcrowe]

Beautifully done!!!

[MrB]

Wonderful image of a beautiful and fascinating altar. (Does it have a slight tilt to the right?)

Cheers.
Philip

[JohnRostron]

Excellent control of the exposure, what with all that white wall. A lovely simple image that belies the skill in making the picture.

My second thought (after admiring the image) was that it must have been post-processed using HDR, but thn again perhaps not. Well done!

John

[Manfred M]

Wonderful image of a beautiful and fascinating altar. (Does it have a slight tilt to the right?)

Cheers.
Philip

Only if the building is not level. Parts of the building (foundation) are likely from the 1200s, so that is always possible. I took the shot with a shift / tilt lens, using a tripod and a bubble level to ensure that the camera was properly level and square.

[Manfred M]

My second thought (after admiring the image) was that it must have been post-processed using HDR, but thn again perhaps not. Well done!

John

Definitely not HDRI; I haven't done one of those in years. This is a single shot image, processed in Photoshop. Like virtually all of my images, I did some dodging and burning to get it looking the way I want. I used a light dose of the Nik Collection Color Efex Pro filter (Pro Contrast as well as a ND gradient to bring down the brightness of the top of the shot).

[Wavelength]

Very nice