Here are a few shots from the Landmarks in Lights event in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania earlier this month. There were photographers (and tripods) everywhere, so perhaps someone will see this and post some more photos from that night.

I welcome input that might help me get better shots next year (it is an annual event) and/or reprocess these shots from the RAW files.

1. Bryn Athyn Cathedral


2. The West Door


3. The Side Door


4. The Small Chapel


5. Glencairn Museum


6. Windows in the Great Hall


7. Madonna and Child


8. Cairnwood Mansion

#'s 4 and 8 are very nice.

these are all great shots! 1 and 8 have those dramatic skies that highlight the colors of the main subject - love those. i find myself looking more and more for dramatic clouds i can bring out in post, really increases the interest. also love the doorway, just that it is open adds much intrigue to a great shot!

I agree with David - #4 and #8 the best of these. The lighting etc. is really nice but in many of the shots the perspective on the buildings is off with 'leaning' walls (there's a word for it but I'm having mental blocks at the moment). That distortion is distracting.

#1 The tower is blown out. This type of shot might really benefit from HDR. Also the perspective is way off (2,3,4,5 as well) This can be corrected to some extent with PS.

I find it difficult to get a great photo shooting up. While the scene looks fantastic to the eye it never seems to translate to a great 2 dimensional image.

To help reduce the vertical convergence level the camera and back off if you need to get more height in the frame. The more you point the camera up the more distortion you will have.

You could also buy or rent a tilt shift lens.

I think #8 could also benefit from multiple exposures.

Sam

Thank you all for your input! This is my second try at photographing this cathedral when it is illuminated (once a year) at night. Aside from renting a tilt shift lens, my options are to use a 10-22 mm or 18-200 mm lens on a Canon 7D. This cathedral is on a hill with a low stone wall around it, so there is a significant trade off if one backs off rather than shooting upward. Renting a tilt-shift lens - or leaving the "big picture" shots to those who already have them - may be the way to go. I did try tweaking a few of these in LR 3 to fix the lean (backwards) or perspective a bit, but I have little experience with doing this manually (rather than letting LR3 compensate for whatever lens I used). Hdr is an option for these as I did bracket my exposures. I may try using photomatix for some of them....

Glencairn Museum doesn't allow flash so I was trying to shoot these with the available light - at night - but they might look much better if I go back during the day sometime. We'll see.

Thank you for taking the time to comment on these shots!

Gretchen

I was able to straighten # 1 pretty well. I used PS to adjust the vertical perspective and then the warp tool to finish. Again try and shoot as level as possible. Can you get a pickup truck near? An RV with a roof that will hold you?

Practice in the day time with any bldg to maximize the initial capture as well as the post.

Good luck!!

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam I was able to straighten # 1 pretty well. I used PS to adjust the vertical perspective and then the warp tool to finish. Again try and shoot as level as possible. Can you get a pickup truck near? An RV with a roof that will hold you? Practice in the day time with any bldg to maximize the initial capture as well as the post. Good luck!! Sam

I have PSE 9, so I'm not sure if I have the capability to do this or not but will check it out. When I was shooting this last year, dgrin was doing a SOOC challenge and I discovered that the 7D has an electronic level which was a huge help. Sounds like I should have used it this time as well.

There is a road below the hill but it is a very large hill so a truck or RV might not help. (They used to allow sledding in the winter until there were a couple of close calls with the infrequently used road and children coming downhill very quickly.) But I could try extending my sturdiest tripod as high as it will go and see what happens, practicing at other times. Thanks for the great suggestions, Sam. Much appreciated!

Gretchen