Stained Glass

fredjclaus

I've suddenly got the itch to photograph stained glass windows. I've been toying with the different settings on my Nikon D60, but just can't seem to get a shot I like. The stained glass windows at my church are so beautiful, but the way they turn out in the photograph is no were near the beauty of the real thing. What's the best way to photograph stained glass windows from the inside?

pathfinder

Capturing the windows is easy - just expose them properly or under expose slightly for better satuaration. The hard part is that the rest of the interior of church will be woefully under exposed - like this, shot handheld with a G9





What you must do is shoot an exposure for the windows, and one for the interior walls, which will usually require at least three stops more light, and then combine them in PS, or shoot three shots as an HDR and do it that way. I did not get the shots I needed for the horse and rider unfortunately.

Shoot during the daytime so the windows are lit from outside, not at night when the windows are only lit from the inside ( unless you are going to shoot from outside the church with the windows lit by the tungsten lights inside the church ) Shoot later in the day so that the light is from the side, and not at noon if possible.

fredjclaus

thanks for the tips. I think I will play around with the exposure and maybe shoot some from the outside as well. That's a beautiful shot you posted by the way.

pathfinder

Thank you.

Usually the range of lighting intensities are beyond the 5 or 6 stops a sensor can cope with. Hence the need for a composite or HDR.

JohnBiggs

You could try to light the inside with mono lights. Essentially the exposure works just like balancing a backlit subject.

pathfinder

Good suggestion.

I'm sure Joe McNally would use a couple speedlites on the inside to transilluminate the glass windows too

jeffreaux2

If shooting sillouettes from inside during the daytime, be sure to choose "Daylight" white balance.

LiquidAir

HDR works very well for church interiors. This shot was 3 exposures set 1 2/3 stops apart and I have used a variety of tricks in Photoshop to compress the 11 stop composite (give or take) down to 6(ish) for display.

BradJudy

I'll second much of what has been said. You'll likely want to shoot during the day and underexpose. Do not shoot with the sun directly opposite the window, since that will probably blow out a portion. Overcast days can work quite well if you can use a tripod.

Here are two of the Mucha window in the St Vitus Cathedral in Prague done with just a Canon A630:

pathfinder

Very nice.