Following a telephone conversation with my Tutor I decided to do some additional work on the problems of mixed lighting. Last year as part of a personal project I had taken a large number of images inside religious buildings and thought that a selection of these would be a useful additional exercise. They offered some very difficult lighting conditions that had to be overcome both at the time of shooting and in subsequent processing. All images were shot in Raw.
The final images can be found on the CD in the folder ‘AddtlChurches’.
The first image ‘Adoration’ was taken at f6.3; 1/160 and an ISO of 5000.
The difficulties faced were in part the problem of shooting the image from across the Church to ensure that all the frieze was included and the available lighting. As seen by the naked eye the colours were slightly muted and the gold leaf was dominant because it strongly reflected the light. The clarity of the many individuals was not clear I think in part because overall the light was flat but also because of the lack of perceivable contrast.
In processing and after the routine changes to Camera Calibration, Lens Correction and Exposure, my main aim was to increase the overall contrast, increase the saturation of the colours (largely done using the ‘Vibrance’ slider) and reduce the brightness of the gold leaf areas so that they were less dominant.
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The second image ‘Large Dusty Church’ was taken at f6.3 1/15 ISO 5000.
The attraction here was the golden light above the altar that was in stark contrast to the muted tones of the rest of the Church. I wanted to include the body of the Church to emphasise the lighting of the altar area. The challenge was to keep some of the detail in the stained glass window immediately behinnd the altar without leaving the rest of the Church in relative darkness.
Using the tools availalbe in Camera Raw (including Recovery and Adjustment Brush) I selectively reduced the exposure level of the windows until most of the detail was restored. I increased the saturation of the golden light to lift it out of the general lighting but left the body of the Church unaltered.
The figures were left in to give a sense of scale.
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The third image ‘ Magically Lit Chapel’ (f2.8 1/1600 ISO 2500) is selected because of the challenging light conditions. The attraction was the light that came from a stained glass window to the right of the picture (not visible) where a strong sun lit up the ceiling whilst providing a splash of colour across the floor of the Chapel.
I did lighten the ceiling slightly because I felt that the arched form provided a sense of depth and solidity that framed the altar and its background picture and statues which provided a counterpoint in the picture to the vivid colours on the floor that otherwise would have dominated the image.
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The fourth image ‘Ornate Altar’ (f9.0 1/125 ISO 5000) is included as the challenge for me was to maximise the detail in the statues and pillars whilst keeping detail in the stained glass windows. The lighting to the left of the picture proved to be satisfactory requiring very little enhancement in later processing. The right of the picture was in shadow and I decided to select the area in Photoshop and use Curves adjustment to lighten the area whilst preserving contrast as far as possible. The deeply convexed ceiling was partly in shadow and agin I used Curves to bring out the detail and colouring.
From a compositional point of view the presence of the figures in the foreground particulalry the female standing with her face pointing away from the altar is a distraction. After some debate with myself I decided to leave the image as it was taken because the figures provided a human context within the overall awe inspiring grandeur of the altar and surrounds.
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The fifth image ‘Wall Paintings’ (f2.8 1/250 ISO 1280) attracted my attention because of the wall paintings above the altar in a very simple (compared with the rest of this Church) alcove. Equally the simplicity and form of the altar provided a strong contrast to the arched form of the rest of the area. The wall paintings were quite brightly lit and this muted the colours that were already faded. In processing I darkened the area and used Vibrance to increase the saturation of this area without affecting other parts. I also increased the contrast to make the painted images stand out from the wall on which they were painted.
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The final image ‘Wood Relief’ (f5.0 1/80 1280) was, for me, unique because it was a wooden panel apparently of considerable age with the figures in relief on its surface. The lighting was directly onto the panel so that from the front view the relief was flattened. I moved slightly to one side sufficient to emphasise the relief but not too far that the detail was lost. In post capture processing the only significant enhancement was increasing the contrast and increasing the saturation of the colours by using the Vibrance slider. I did consider cropping the image just above the panel but this removed the context and I felt that the stained glass window added to the overall effect.
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As can be seen there are marked differences between the images I have chosen for this exercise and my original submission. The lighting conditions were more varied and in some cases the challenges were greater. These images were not taken with this exercise in mind and the in-camera shots were the result of some experimentation in situ using the histogram and camera LED screen to refine the settings of the camera. Looking back and having taken the time to re-examine the images and carry out some additional enhancements post-capture (using the Raw files) I would question, in some cases, the choice of aperture and ISO combinations.
A valuable learning experience
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