Worship area of Abbaye De St Hilaire, France

[Don Chesnut]

This photo is the inside of the Abbaye De St Hilaire in France. It is a 5 shot HDR bracket. I used Photomatix Pro and the Nik Software and Topaz Software to tone map to get the final image. The statue highlighted on the wall by the sun is a statue of Joan of Arc. Comments appreciated.

[Viana]

Hi Don:


Welcome to CiC.


I am enjoying your series HDRs. Very Medieval. I too do a lot of interior houses of worship shots.




As a fan of Topaz and Photomatix HDRs I keep wondering if one could produce an excellent effect by using the best exposed photo with Topaz alone?


Could you put up a few SOOC on this series?

[Don Chesnut]

What are SOOC?

[Viana]

What are SOOC?

Sorry, "Straight Out Of Camera" meaning no adjustments.

[Don Chesnut]

Here are 3 of the images out of 5 that went into making this HDR Photo:

[Dave Humphries]

Another good result Don,

Fascinating to see where you started from too, thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

[Viana]

Thanks for posting the SOOCs, Don.


What I note about the HDR is its overall brightness. These ancient churches are typically very dark except when the sun comes through the stained glass windows—which did not seem to be the case with this photo. The human eye can detect most of the details in the gloom, but the camera generally cannot. There is the additional challenge of the stained glass windows and the reflected sunshine on the left wall. I decided to work off the darkest photo because that way the light reflection on the left wall would not be so blown and the stained glass windows showed nicely.


I cropped a tad and adjusted in Lightroom; then used Topaz to bring out the dark, gloomy details. I did not sharpen as such places are “well worn” and not very “sharp” in real life. The only other thing I might do is to correct the perspective and perhaps not have stars in the chandelier. Instead I might put in a diffused glow.


Even if one does not have time for multiple exposures, one can get an HDR effect using various filters and adjustments. I generally expose for the light, because the dark areas can be brought back, whereas the blown areas cannot.