Church Interiors

[John R Smith]

After my trips to all the shows and events last summer, when for the first time in many years I started taking pictures of people (and horses and stuff) again, in the autumn I headed back to my comfort zone. Churches don’t tend to move around so much, but they are quite challenging in other ways – especially if you want to do interior shots by available light. I do love ‘em, though – I can spend hours in and around a country church on a warm afternoon, while the rest of Cornwall is heading for the beaches and the tourist honey-pots.

Here are three interior frames from Ladock church, all taken on the same afternoon. Let me know which you prefer, or dislike for that matter. This time I was using the 60mm lens, which is wide-ish, but not such a heavy lump as the 50mm.

John

[John R Smith]

Fred

I like your shot. There is a very nice light on the subject's faces. I'm not sure that I would be too comfortable about photographing people inside a church, it might seem a bit like an intrusion on their privacy.

This is not a problem for me, anyhow, as mostly I am the only person there.

John

[pegelli]

Nice shots John, I like the third best for composition and play of light on the book.
The second looks a little blocked up on the left and the first doesn't strike me as "church" but more as "office".

I also love church interiors, but wanted to show you one of my favourites, which is not so much about the interior, but about what people do in these beautiful buildings (I have many more conventional interior shots, but won't bore you with those today)

[Rob C]

Yes, Church are damn challenging.

I like to shoot candids on them, but it's not easy to respect people and get some good results. As I only shoot any kind of alive being included dogs, my goal is that stones aren't distracting from the human subject. In churches this is particularly challenging.

 

Beautiful shot, Fred. Love the shape of it all, the relative weights.

Rob C

[wolfnowl]

Nice work, John.  Of the three I prefer the last - it has a much simpler composition, which speaks of a quiet church to me.  The other two are very 'busy' in terms of what's included.

Mike.

[Dick Roadnight]

Yes - church interiors are what I intend to get started on, DOF, T/S challenges, HDR or what? fine detail in stonework... excellent practice, I hope for commercial interiors.

[langier]

There's a certain reverence and serenity about shooting in a church interior. It gives me comfort and peace and is one subject I've been shooting much of my career.

My favorite church I've photographed off and on for about 35 years is about one mile from home, St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church. Most of my work there has been in the past couple of years. I began to shoot St. Sava in earnest about 1993 or 1994 for it's one-hundreth anniversary celebration. That led me to a great iconographer and now friend, Miloje Milinkovich from Belgrade, who stated painting the iconography within St. Sava in 1995.

It was a challenge at first with Polaroid, big flashes, fish-eye lenses, mixed lighting and more. But I figured I was divinely guided and took the challenge, thus moving my work to a higher level.

Since that time, he's finished St. Sava and many other Serbian Orthodox Church interiors in the U.S. and Europe. In 2009, it lead to my first international assignment shooting his work in Serbia. It's been quite a ride!

Tonight, St. Sava will celebrate Blessing Badnjak, and the lighting of the Yule logs on Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar, and I'll be there to photograph it. It's always and honor and humbling to be able to do this within the small Serbian community here in rural California! I'm one of few not related to the church to do this.

A few of my photos of St. Sava are here: http://angier-fox.photoshelter.com/gallery/St-Sava-Orthodox-Church/G00005isRz6LX5V4

Keep returning and keep shooting! Perhaps this will lead you far and to new experiences you never dreamed of! However, photograph churches with respect and reverently and you will be blessed!

[DickKirkley]

John: Well just to be different I like your first one best. I admire it because it catches all the wonderful  grey tones particularly on the window casements. The overall lighting is impressive and if as someone said it is office-like it is to me at least a church-like office.
Cheers
Dick K.

[Jeremy Roussak]

That would be interesting if you could find a colaboration with a writer or an university researcher or arqueologist on the middle ages and illustrate books on the subject with your pictures.
I saw a report from the Cambrige university about the specific task of arqueology and photography, that was fascinating.

definatly a path I could take (well, with some models involved to make it more sexy)

Fred, I'd love to eavesdrop on the conversation you have with the vicar as you try to persuade him to let you drape sexy models over his pews!

Jeremy

[Jeremy Roussak]

John, I like the third best. I think the first would be better if you could burn the book (in the photographic sense!) a little: it looks rather bright.

Jeremy

[Chairman Bill]

Fred, I'd love to eavesdrop on the conversation you have with the vicar as you try to persuade him to let you drape sexy models over his pews!

Jeremy

You might be shocked & disturbed, but not altogether surprised, at what said vicar regards as 'sexy'.


Just wondering, what is the protocol for adding our own images, assuming they fit with those of the OP? Could this become a thread about church interiors?

[Justinr]

Yes, Church are damn challenging.

I like to shoot candids on them, but it's not easy to respect people and get some good results. As I only shoot any kind of alive being included dogs, my goal is that stones aren't distracting from the human subject. In churches this is particularly challenging.

 

To be honest I cannot see how you can respect people and at the same time take photos of them in a church unless explicitly invited to do so.

I am not particularly religious or pious but I do respect churches as being sanctuaries from the material world, a place where the spiritual self is what is of importance and where privacy of thought as well as person is to be expected and provided. I too am a great lover of church interiors but would never intentionally violate a persons desire to remain unrecorded and unbothered by the camera.

[Rob C]

You might be shocked & disturbed, but not altogether surprised, at what said vicar regards as 'sexy'.

And to think they used to worry about putting their kids on the stage; sending them to choir practice sounds more hazardous these days!

Rob C

[Jeremy Roussak]

You might be shocked & disturbed, but not altogether surprised, at what said vicar regards as 'sexy'.

Oh dear: how about this.

Jeremy

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Oh dear: how about this.

Jeremy

By golly! And all along I thought he was a priest!

Eric

[bjanes]

After my trips to all the shows and events last summer, when for the first time in many years I started taking pictures of people (and horses and stuff) again, in the autumn I headed back to my comfort zone. Churches don’t tend to move around so much, but they are quite challenging in other ways – especially if you want to do interior shots by available light. I do love ‘em, though – I can spend hours in and around a country church on a warm afternoon, while the rest of Cornwall is heading for the beaches and the tourist honey-pots.

Here are three interior frames from Ladock church, all taken on the same afternoon. Let me know which you prefer, or dislike for that matter. This time I was using the 60mm lens, which is wide-ish, but not such a heavy lump as the 50mm.

John,

I like the image with the book and the windows, but the latter appear blown out. HDR techniques might be helpful.

You might like Paul Debevec's HDR of the Stanford Memorial Chapel.

Regards,

Bill

[Rob C]

I always make it so that the people are fully aware of what I'm doing. In this particularly shot, this couple was there for a while, so I was. In this case I looked at them and made a sign with the camera, and a smile. according to the reaction I do or I do not take the picture. I must say that in churches, people are maybe much more cooperatives than in the street, it also happened that a woman show me some stairs I didn't know to, as she said " to take some pictures from a wired angle".
It just depends on your attitude.

But Fred, you have to admit that looking like Tom Cruise helps you a little bit too.

Rob C

[John R Smith]

Folks

Thanks for all your input and interesting comments.

I like the image with the book and the windows, but the latter appear blown out. HDR techniques might be helpful.

Just to mention, that none of the highlight areas in these pictures should appear to be "blown-out". If they really do, then your monitor calibration is off in terms of luminance. The jpegs are fine on the calibrated screens I have at home and here at work, and match my prints spot-on as well. With the first picture, the top value is actually the highlight on the corner of the desk in the lower left. This is just below pure white, at about 95 - 96. The book page itself is below that again, the windows much lower still, and so on. It is perfectly reasonable to criticise my distribution of the tone-mapping, of course, but nothing is "blown-out".

I think I like the top picture best of the three, myself. I have always loved playing around with window light, and the kind of interior-exterior tension it produces. Actually this room is an office - the vestry is the Rector's office, where he (or she, these days) changes into their vestments and keeps the Register of Service. The vestry at Ladock was added to the church in the 19th century more or less where the N transept would have been, and has these very lovely leaded casements.

John

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

John,

Sorry to be late to respond, but I, too, like the first one best of the three. And it looks just fine on my cheap but calibrated Dell monitor (so maybe I'm better off not getting a really good monitor?)

Eric

[John R Smith]

Thanks, Eric. We have some Philips cheap-as-chips 19in panels and also a couple of Eizo very expensive CG 211. My photos look just as good on either panel, provided the cheap ones are calibrated correctly. The difference is mostly in the acceptable viewing angle.

John