Pictures of churches and cathedrals: how to handle big space and poor light

jmeyer | Photography Tips | 14/02/2013 11:53am

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Editing your pictures of churches and cathedrals

Our original shot

Our shot was taken with our best guess at the correct settings. The exposure was worked out automatically by the matrix metering, and the Incandescent White Balance setting seemed the best choice.

In fact, the shot needed 1 stop (1EV) exposure compensation and a custom White Balance setting to look its best. Shooting raw allowed us to adjust the results later on the computer.

Our edited shot

We used Nikon’s ViewNX 2 editing software to process our raw file, but you can make these same edits in any raw editor.

Exposure compensation
The Exposure Comp slider isn’t a substitute for getting the exposure right in the first place, but it can carry out small adjustments without a serious loss in quality. This shot needed an extra 1EV exposure compensation.

Manual White Balance
Sometimes none of the camera’s White Balance settings will give the right results – the mixed lighting in this scene is a prime example. In ViewNX 2 you can select the White Balance Gray Point option, and use the eyedropper to click on an area which should be grey. You can only do this with raw files.

PAGE 1: Nailing the basics of interior photography
PAGE 2: Step by step how to shoot interior pictures of churches and cathedrals
PAGE 3: How to process your pictures of churches and cathedrals

Posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2013 at 11:53 am under Photography Tips.