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Archive 2016 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass

  
 
WalterF
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


Gini and I had the opportunity to photograph the windows of a local church. I didn't want the typical shot with the dark interior. I shot one exposure for the window and another for the wall and trim, then combined them using layers and a mask. I tried HDR and it didn't look good, Is there another way of accomplishing what I want?

I would like to find an easier way before we try to photograph larger stained glass windows.

Thanks for any ideas.

Walt












Feb 03, 2016 at 03:47 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


I like the approach, but I would make the walls a bit darker.


Feb 03, 2016 at 04:05 PM
JameelH
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


Meter for the interior and then for the window, layer the two and use blendif. It should be pretty straight forward as the window should completely blow out when metered for the interior.

And yes the walls should be darker.



Feb 03, 2016 at 05:07 PM
AMaji
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


I also agree that the walls should be darker or even minimized further. The blend-if option of combining two layers is a great idea. I had learned it a while back but then forgot about it. I need to check my notes and relearn it. It is much better than HDR.

Thank you,
Maji



Feb 03, 2016 at 06:15 PM
WalterF
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


ben egbert wrote:
I like the approach, but I would make the walls a bit darker.


Thank you Ben for your input.
---------------------------------------------

JameelH wrote:
Meter for the interior and then for the window, layer the two and use blendif. It should be pretty straight forward as the window should completely blow out when metered for the interior.

And yes the walls should be darker.


I haven't used blend if sliders much, will have to try it out.
Thank you for the info.
---------------------------------------------

AMaji wrote:
I also agree that the walls should be darker or even minimized further. The blend-if option of combining two layers is a great idea. I had learned it a while back but then forgot about it. I need to check my notes and relearn it. It is much better than HDR.

Thank you,
Maji


It is a good idea, now to learn more about Blend if sliders.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Walt



Feb 03, 2016 at 06:47 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


+1 @ two shots.

The interior is the walls / trim being illuminated by interior light (maybe some additional rim lighting from the window) as a reflected subject. The luminance / exposure value, contrast and WB of that light will be that according to the light that is incidently falling onto the walls/ trim.

The stained glass is itself a light source (albeit muticolored). (Granted some of the above ^ light will fall on the glass, but typically it is not a major influence).

As such you will have two very different exposure values. Not unlike an exposure of something in the daylight would receive a Sunny 16 exposure as illuminated by the sun (clear sky) ... BUT, take an exposure of the sun itself directly, and as a light source, it would require a very different exposure to yield anything other than a white overexposure.

Light sources and illuminated subjects have significantly different exposure values ... and imo, HDR isn't the right way to contend with that diff when you have the option to bracket and composite for the two different values. Additionally, while you have two different lighting sources in luminance values ... but they will also differ in contrast and WB. As such, the composting (imo) is vastly preferred to HDR, where you can contend with those variances independently as you dial them in @ S&P to taste.

Watch your neutrals in the two diff components ... not likely that they will have equal WB, nor warrant equal (i.e. global) corrections.


Not the best (banding, artifacts, imperfect masking, etc.), but here's kinda how I see it.

Notice the light falloff / direction of shadows around the trim, etc. You might even consider lighting the walls / trim with your own lighting, rather than relying on the interior lighting inside.









Feb 03, 2016 at 07:45 PM
beavens
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


Any thoughts on nixing the walls altogether and focusing more on the awesome glass?

Jeff



Feb 04, 2016 at 09:44 AM
WalterF
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


RustyBug wrote:
+1 @ two shots.

The interior is the walls / trim being illuminated by interior light (maybe some additional rim lighting from the window) as a reflected subject. The luminance / exposure value, contrast and WB of that light will be that according to the light that is incidently falling onto the walls/ trim.

The stained glass is itself a light source (albeit muticolored). (Granted some of the above ^ light will fall on the glass, but typically it is not a major influence).

As such you will have two very different exposure values. Not unlike an exposure of something in the daylight
...Show more


Thank you Kent for the indepth answer, this time we left the interior lights off. Would have helped to have had them on. I don't know about bringing light might be more work than I want.
---------------------------------------------

beavens wrote:
Any thoughts on nixing the walls altogether and focusing more on the awesome glass?

Jeff


Jeff I feel the walls give some sense of framing to the window.

Walt



Feb 04, 2016 at 02:53 PM
beavens
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


WalterF wrote:
Jeff I feel the walls give some sense of framing to the window.

Walt


Absolutely! Just don't be afraid to single out some more interesting portions with tight crops.

The glow that backlit stained glass gets is just gorgeous.

Jeff



Feb 04, 2016 at 04:18 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Question About Shooting Stained Glass


Using multiple varied exposures as layers and selections with various exposure and gamma changes ought to allow you to depict a scene however you wish to render it.


Feb 04, 2016 at 04:37 PM





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