Critiques please

[Flash Harry]

Its been a while now but during college an assignment we had was to shoot an architectural interior, I had visited a large church and thought it would make for a great shot, my first attempt was a lot like this one (Also film) so as it was an AI it wasn't good enough.
My tutor who had also shot the same church said it was a nightmare to shoot regarding the lighting, I revisited the place saw the caretaker and the minister and was allowed to return with fotofloods, the 5x4 horseman and tungsten bal film, set up the floods hidden behind columns and tried to evenly light the place. The exposure I ended up with was a lot better but the light fall off on the ornate ceiling had underexposed the shot by around 2-3 stops, in the darkroom I managed to evenly dodge/burn this in and got a decent print after numerous tries.
Moral of the story, pick a better subject, there's too much work and expense involved to make this type of shot viable, be happy with what you got, its decent for the conditions. H

 

[Alpha]

Its been a while now but during college an assignment we had was to shoot an architectural interior, I had visited a large church and thought it would make for a great shot, my first attempt was a lot like this one (Also film) so as it was an AI it wasn't good enough.
My tutor who had also shot the same church said it was a nightmare to shoot regarding the lighting, I revisited the place saw the caretaker and the minister and was allowed to return with fotofloods, the 5x4 horseman and tungsten bal film, set up the floods hidden behind columns and tried to evenly light the place. The exposure I ended up with was a lot better but the light fall off on the ornate ceiling had underexposed the shot by around 2-3 stops, in the darkroom I managed to evenly dodge/burn this in and got a decent print after numerous tries.
Moral of the story, pick a better subject, there's too much work and expense involved to make this type of shot viable, be happy with what you got, its decent for the conditions. H

I nominate this for best technical advice given in a critique this year.

 

[a5i736]

I nominate this for best technical advice given in a critique this year.

 

[Alpha]

If you think that's a joke then I'm really tempted to believe that you know absolutely nothing about photography.

 

[jon_k]

If you think that's a joke then I'm really tempted to believe that you know absolutely nothing about photography.

No joke. Unless you can bring the sun into the room from behind, there's no way can you balance the shadows vs the windows. Especially with a in-body flash!

HDR would be the only viable option, but given the situation the picture he got isn't bad.

 

[lordson]

i think original is too dark, i like the one posted by august, but thats a bit too bright

would still like some shadow and mystery in the photo too

 

[Oblivious]

I would try de-saturating and darkening the purple fringing a bit.

 

[stubbsk]

if you had exposed for the windows and then the interior and maybe for the shadows you could have masked them together. However I wouldn't go for the HDR look with this shot you shouldn't be scared of shadows. I just don't like the soft edges at the top of the windows.