Stained Glass

[robh1920]

I need help on shooting some photos inside and old church. It has beautiful stain glass and huge marble alter. The problem is the big round stained glass window is behind a narrow part of the marble alter. My issues are in order to get the gold and marble to show up I blow out the stained glass and the part of the marble in front of it. I took numerous photos at different ISOs and Fstops and I could not get a good photo of both. Do I need to do HDR and merge the photos into one.

My set up was a tripod but no flash (I tried a flash but the marble shined it back, I evened use an off camera flash but the marble is too shiny). The church is pretty dark even with all the lights on. Any ideas would be helpful.

I posted one of the photos

Thanks,
Robert

[dlanter]

I'm not sure, but I think you would need to expose for the stained glass and then use multiple strobes (at least 2) fired from each side towards the alter maybe using umbrellas.

[trahanw]

Highly suggest shooting RAW then correcting exposure during post processing. Also what type of lense are you shooting with, the exif data isn't displayed. Do you have a light meter, if using the in camera meter reading where are you metering your light. As Dan mentioned using umbrellas would help if allowed, also try bouncing the light from the ceiling. Welcome to Wedding photography in low light, a pro lense here would definately help.

[trahanw]

Curious, post the original pic unedited so we can see the EXIF data, this will tell us the ISO, Shutter, F Stop. Were you shooting in Manual, S or A Priority?

[trahanw]

Also what exactly are you trying to achieve. Below is a quick run in photoshop.

[robh1920]

here is an unedited version converted to jpg with exif data. I will not have the ability to use strobes but I did think about shooting in the morning with the sun in a different position. This is the west side of the church.

[robh1920]

The glass behind the alter is beautiful and I would like it to show through. Even fully lit the church is dark. It was built in 1918 so the lighting is poor. More lights have been added over the years but overall it was a very dark church for photography.

[dlanter]

Robert,

If we are looking toward the sun in this shot, then I would say definately try it at a different time of day when that window is darker, maybe even a cloudy day. It looks like the ceiling is too high to try to bounce 1 flash so your going to have to find a time when the window and alter light reading are a lot closer to each other.

I assume you are not trying to get this for a shot during a wedding. If you are, good luck, it's going to be tough to get it all right at the same time.

[robh1920]

Correct Dan, This is just for the pure beauty of the church and my personal collection. I will try to shoot it in the morning next time. That brings up the next problem of time. Its not always up to me but I can always ask.

Yes the ceilings are to high for a bounce. I tried that too. On some of the photos I stopped down a little and shot a longer exposure and fired my flash numerous times but could not an bounce or the the desired photo. Live and learn. I will try again next time I am over there. Thanks for the input.

The lens is a Canon 10-22

[dlanter]

If you can catch it when the window is fairly dark, then I think you can do a long exposure of the whole scene without a flash. Good luck and be sure to show us what you manage to capture.

BTW, is this church in the Carrollton area? If so I may have to run over and take a look sometime.

[robh1920]

No its three hours from here, I grew up going to this church and get over there several times a year. I hope to get the chance again in a few months. We will see. I will revive this thread if I get a good one and it will be posted on my small smugmug account.

I want to add a group of church photos but I can see it will be a learning curve in there.

[trahanw]

Sorry Robert, should have read you post more closely on wanting to capture the stain glass details. The EXIF data is still unreadable, but I don't believe it would really matter for the affect you're going for. But I agree in order to get the details of the stain glass a different time of day will definately help eliminate the blowout. As Dan mentioned a longer exposure will definatly help. Would definately like to see your results, not sure if you're familiar with Lucas Art, but it does a great job pulling out the shadows in the exposure. Somewhat similiar to HDR but not as good. Good luck on this. Take Care,,,

[venchka]

Robert,

What is the name of the church and where is it?

I didn't read everything above. If some of this is a repeat, sorry.

Use a polarizer to tame the reflections off the marble.

Level the camera and get it up higher. Unless you really like the "falling backwards" look, you need a new camera position. You might evn need a ladder. Is there a choir loft you can use? Keep the camera level as much as possible.

Blend multiple exposures or use film. That's the only way you'll get the alter and window exposed correctly at the same time. There could be 4-5-6 stops difference between the two.

I know it's a long drive, but if you can figure out where the sun is during the day and try to be in the church when the sun isn't shining directly though the window it will help. A cloudy day helps too.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[3n-Out]

I would shoot it at sunup or sundown. Or be prepared for a major battle. It looks like the sun is right behind the alter to me.

[dtscds]

Forgive me if this is too simplistic a suggestion...
I think you will probably need multiple exposures combined in PS. One for the window and one for the rest. The correctly exposed window shot will leave everything else very dark, the correctly exposed sanctuary will leave the window blown out. Merge the best of each into one. (Don't ask me how to do that--I'm out of my pay grade here, just thinking of how it could be done...)