Stained Glass

[MrB]

Some of the windows in Exeter Cathedral:







Cheers.
Philip

[Rufus]

These are very well exposed images and I dont see any evidence of HDR so they are excellent results.

Might you consider a slight crop on the right hand side of the third image so that the columns on both side are equal and the vaulting less unequal?

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[FootLoose]

I would try cropping all the images to remove all the extraneous content and focus the viewer's attention on the subject. For example:

[LePetomane]

All are nicely done, the third being my favorite.

[proseak]

Nice series!

Care to share exposure, processing?

[MrB]

Thank you very much for all the replies above.

David, you are correct - no HDR work here. The third image was taken to the side of the aisle so I didn't mind the slight asymmetry in the surroundings, but your crop suggestion would also produce a nice composition, thank you.

Greg - I wanted to include some of the surroundings to give a better idea of the scale; for example, the window in the first is more obviously huge! However, again your crop suggestions would make some very nice compositions, thank you.

Peter - These images were captured in a hand-held Pentax K-3 (24MP APS-C DSLR) with a 28-105mm zoom lens. The exposure was set for the highlights in the windows, making sure that they were not blown out in the camera review screen and in the histogram. In PaintShop Pro each image was corrected for vertical perspective and slightly cropped to give the compositions in post #1 above. In addition the shadow areas (i.e. stonework) were brightened, and a few other minor adjustments (contrast, local contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness) were applied.

Cheers.
Philip

[DanK]

Philip,

My suggestion is pretty much the opposite of Greg's.

Years ago, when I was just starting flower photography, I chanced on a posting by Scott Kelby in which he said that one crucial step in flower photography is finding a perspective that is different from that of a person walking by. Otherwise, he said, you will end up with something that strikes people as a very nice snapshot.

I found that I can often do this with flowers, but I am terrible at doing it with landscapes, which is one reason I do so few landscapes.

In this case, I asked myself the same question: how could one make this image something other than a capture of what everyone standing in that position would see? One way might be to emphasize the geometric elements that people standing there might NOT focus on. You could do that by retaining the arches and cropping off the bottom. I tried that, and I used a simple curves adjustment to brighten the stone and increase increasing contrast and saturation (increasing saturation only by leaving the curves adjustment in "normal" blend mode) to bring out detail in the stone.

Dan

[JohnRostron]

A very nice set of images, well done Philip.

I find that when photographing church windows, it is serendipity as to whether you need HDR. I usually take bracketed exposures, but I often find that just one of these gives the desired result. It is a matter of how the external and internal light sources balance.

Like Philip, I typically take such shots hand-held, but I will utilize any firm surfaces to lean on. This usually means that I am just off-centre, like Philip. (Churches rarely have convenient solid supports in the middle of an aisle.)

John

[royent]

For exposure on stained glass I was told to spot meter on a yellow. That was in the days of film but it seems to be OK for digital
Roy

[MrB]

Dan - thank you for your good comments and suggestions. It seems that, as is often the case, there are several attractive framing possibilities, and I think I do prefer of those here the ones with more than just the window.

John - thank you for your nice comments. I have sometimes used 3-shot HDR when there is strong sunlight directly on the window. As in your experience, often just one shot will do the job.

Roy - thank you for your suggestion of an idea to try. I don't think I've ever used spot metering. I usually use matrix metering in Aperture Priority Mode, with between -1 and -2 EV compensation.

Cheers.
Philip

[Digital]

Phillip, nice photos.



Bruce

[Tom Barry]

Such an attractive subject and well photographed. I like all the originals and every one of the alternatives.

[MrB]

Thank you, Bruce and Tom.

Cheers.
Philip

[Manfred M]

Philip - whenever I have visited old churches in the UK or on the Continent, they always seem to have been more dimly lit on the inside which made the stained glass seem a lot darker and more saturated. These shots seem to be almost the opposite of that; more of a flat look. Admittedly, there is a lot of clear glass in this stained glass so I would not expect it to look overly dark and dramatic.

Regardless. Good work in capture and in PP to correct for the perspective distortion.