My attempts at Stained Glass

[JohnRostron]

I was inspired by James G to look at the images I took in Gloucester Cathedral. I show three here of the larger windows. They were typically taken using three exposures at one stop apart and combined in Photomatix. There was a fair amount of colour noise in the non-window parts which I reduced using Nik Dfine. I learned to use the Photoshop Transform tool to adjust the perspective and finished with a mild sharpen (Photo-kit sharpener).

1) Great East Window


2) West Window


3) Lady Chapel East Window


I have more images of the smaller windows, and images from Tewkesbury Cathedral yet to process.
I shall be visiting Chester Cathedral in November for the award of my daughter's Ph.D. degree. I would welcome suggestions for improvement of the post-processing in these and other images, as well as improving how I take images at Chester. I am presuming that tripods are not permitted.

John

[Wavelength]

Very nice set of images

[joebranko]

Very nice images! I have tried unsuccessfully in the past to do these. I hope I can learn from your experiences. My only comment is to ash if images 2 and 3 are off level?

[pnodrog]

Exposures 1 stop apart was not enough. I like the composition of the last two but the interiors look very under exposed and noisy.

[Chris]

No expert but probably worth noting that the 2nd one is not level

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

I'd suggest that after all the HDR trickery, you look at the result and try to fix any issues it has.

Joe and Chris have mentioned levelness - and we could add some straightening of perspective to that.

However, the biggest issue for me is the colour cast and noise, also I'd suggest the black point is too high on them all (to a varying extent).

Unfortunately, you have already mentioned using several things that I would have suggested, so I don't know why they weren't as effective as I think they should have been - how confident are you in your monitor brightness and viewing set up, esp. with regard to ambient light? (I wonder if you're not seeing what we are)

For me; #3 is the best for black level and colour cast, I mention this as the three are vastly different.
Now, I appreciate the lighting inside might have been vastly different too (e.g. sodium lights in #1 and #2) and if that's the cause, then it partly explains its cause, but I'd still address it in PP by using the feature that allows independent setting of colour balance in shadows (and mid-tones and highlights).

Having attended a couple of (UK uni) graduation ceremonies over the years, I fear you may find that, on the day, you'll be shepherded in to a very un-photogenic place and have a tall chap directly in front of you, blocking what little view you had. Mind you, if it is a PhD, you may well have attended one already, perhaps even at the same venue, so perhaps you know far more than I did, but bear in mind you may not be sat where you were last time, so don't count on it.

Regardless of my thoughts, my congratulations to your daughter and I hope you all enjoy the day.

All the best, Dave

[rpcrowe]

When I shoot stained glass windows, especially very large ones, I often don't worry about the surrounding structure. I just try to get the exposure of the window pleasing and let the structure fall where it lands...

I find that the most difficult stained glass windows to shoot are those that have large amounts of clear (non-stained) glass included...

[JohnRostron]

Very nice images! I have tried unsuccessfully in the past to do these. I hope I can learn from your experiences. My only comment is to ash if images 2 and 3 are off level?

Thanks for your comments.

I had attepted to straighten them before transforming them using the straighten tool. Perhaps I didn't quite get it right.

John

[JohnRostron]

Hi John,

I'd suggest that after all the HDR trickery, you look at the result and try to fix any issues it has.

Joe and Chris have mentioned levelness - and we could add some straightening of perspective to that.

However, the biggest issue for me is the colour cast and noise, also I'd suggest the black point is too high on them all (to a varying extent).

Unfortunately, you have already mentioned using several things that I would have suggested, so I don't know why they weren't as effective as I think they should have been - how confident are you in your monitor brightness and viewing set up, esp. with regard to ambient light? (I wonder if you're not seeing what we are)

For me; #3 is the best for black level and colour cast, I mention this as the three are vastly different.
Now, I appreciate the lighting inside might have been vastly different too (e.g. sodium lights in #1 and #2) and if that's the cause, then it partly explains its cause, but I'd still address it in PP by using the feature that allows independent setting of colour balance in shadows (and mid-tones and highlights).

Having attended a couple of (UK uni) graduation ceremonies over the years, I fear you may find that, on the day, you'll be shepherded in to a very un-photogenic place and have a tall chap directly in front of you, blocking what little view you had. Mind you, if it is a PhD, you may well have attended one already, perhaps even at the same venue, so perhaps you know far more than I did, but bear in mind you may not be sat where you were last time, so don't count on it.

Regardless of my thoughts, my congratulations to your daughter and I hope you all enjoy the day.

All the best, Dave

Thanks for your helpful comments. I was using ISO 800 for most shots, but maybe higher for these windows. I was surprised at the amount of noise. However it is the windows that we are looking at, not the surroundings. I will bear your comments in mind when processing my Tewkesbury pics.

As a retired academic, I am more used to degree ceremonies from the Barbican stage. I was hoping that I would get a chance to wander round the cathedral. Chester does have a magnificent east window.

John

[JohnRostron]

Exposures 1 stop apart was not enough. I like the composition of the last two but the interiors look very under exposed and noisy.

Thanks. I shall bear that in mind next month.

John

[madcrow]

A very good effort on a hard subject. Well done.

[IzzieK]

I am kinda late to this party but I will use this tutorial by Deke to reduce noise...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lPemcMcFE

See how you go..

[JohnRostron]

A very good effort on a hard subject. Well done.

Thanks Maurice.

I am kinda late to this party but I will use this tutorial by Deke to reduce noise...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lPemcMcFE

See how you go..

I will watch and learn!

John

[ajohnw]

Some commented about plus or minus 1 stop not being enough. More than that can usually be squeezed out of a single raw file. The ideal is to get one good unclipped exposure of the window and then enough to to capture the surroundings. It's often perfect;y possible to judge the results from the jpg preview so take some tests shots ot get the exposure correct. The window is unlikely to need 2 exposures. The surroundings might.

Some people wouldn't use hdr software of the usual type to avoid creating that style of colouration and blend the shots by hand using layers. There is a utility that will blend without distorting the colours as well.

Not sure I would criticise noise. More differences in exposure between the shots. Maybe a bit more crispness in the windows. I took one recently and believe it or not the result came from a single jpg. Another Nikon V2 test shot really, guessing the exposure. If I wanted to do better in this case I would use 2 exposures from the same raw file. To avoid using high iso I rested the camera on the back of a pew. That has it's problems though as I had to ensure I had a big enough area covered to allow for perspective correction.



Using 2 exposures from raw would allow a little more control of the window frame, just enough to bring out a little more detail.

For a Nikon V2 test shot I'm pretty pleased with it. Wish I was on some others.

John
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[JohnRostron]

Thanks for your comments, John. The images I took at Tewkesbury Abbey were based on just one exposure. The windows were OK, but the surrounds were very dark. Your image here has just the right balance with the surrounds dark, with some detail but not blocked.

John