Stained Glass

[gundy74]

Ive been trying to take photos of stained glass. The glass turns out well but the wall around it is badly underexposed. any tips?

 

[LaFoto]

Well, when I take photos of stained glass, I WANT the glass to be correctly exposed (and usually you only need exposures for the glass that equivalate outdoor exposures), so of course all the rest of the walls (indoor, usually churches and thus even darker than your usual indoors) will be all underexposed. The lighting situation is such that you have to decide for the one or the other. Unless you get a nice reflection of the stained glass window on part of the walls, you won't see them - or at least not much of them.

 

[Torus34]

Flash.

 

[LaFoto]

Not really, eh? Torus?
You mean it?
Photos of stained glass windows WITH the use of flash? Honestly?
(I guess you know better than I do, you being around for so much longer than myself and having taken photos "forever", but... - FLASH? :scratch: )

 

[Torus34]

The problem, as stated, seems to be that when photographing stained glass windows from the inside, the surrounding walls are too dark. Using a flash unit, preferably softened to avoid specular reflection from the window surfaces, is an easy solution to getting more light on the walls. Think of it as a 'fill-in' light.

The trick will be to get the light on the wall about 3-4 zones from the correct exposure for the window. Most of the better flash units have some sort of reducing function.

[And yes, I've probably been around longer than most. Unfortunately, I've found that while age increases our supply of facts, it doesn't necessarily confer wisdom.] ;-))

The very best of the season to you and yours.

 

[fmw]

Another approach is to adjust things in the post process. If you aren't familiar with Photoshop curves you can use the shadow/highlight adjustment to bring the darker areas up in luminosity without affecting the lighter ones. This adjustment can be overdone, of course, but it can help if not overdone.

 

[ksmattfish]

The glass turns out well but the wall around it is badly underexposed.

If you want to get it in one exposure you need to get the light levels closer to each other. The dynamic range between the sun lit glass, and the interior lit wall is too great. You need to decrease this range by either increasing the interior light, decreasing the exterior light, or both. For the outside light, if you can choose the time to shoot you might try a dark, overcast day, or right around sunset or sunrise. For the inside turn up the available lights, or bring your own (flash).

Or you could take 2 exposures. One for the glass, and one for the interior wall, and combine them in Photoshop.

 

[gundy74]

Or you could take 2 exposures. One for the glass, and one for the interior wall, and combine them in Photoshop.

Thats a great solution. Thanks for the input everyone