HDR exposures in churches

Church interiors are difficult to photograph because they usually have huge bright windows and dark nooks and crannies with the rest being a mix of tones illuminated by tungsten light or candles. Automatic exposure cameras will often deliver a photo with a well exposed interior, but no detail in the windows. Fortunately, with digital photography and modern software there is a solution, it's called HDR (high dynamic range) photography.



Gear
To do HDR photograph you need to take several shots of the same scene at different exposures, each one from the same position. These are then merged into one photo using HDR software which we will show you in our HDR processing article. To ensure the photos are in an identical position it's best to use a sturdy tripod which will keep everything aligned and steady. It's worth using a cable-release too to trigger the shutter when the camera is on the tripod, but with a static subject such as a church you can get away using the camera's delayed action feature.

A wide-angle lens is best for church interiors and ideally one that's really wide - the Tamron 10-24mm or Sigma 12-24mm or others in this range are perfect. With a lens like this you can usually shoot the interior from wall to wall if you stand back far enough. The camera should have a manual exposure mode or at least exposure compensation to ovderide the automatic settings.

As exposures are long in churches they can soon flatten your camera battery so always carry a spare just in case. Also when shooting HDR every picture you take requires several exposures so you may need extra memory cards.

Technique
HDR exposures should have a fixed aperture so that the depth of field is the same for each shot. Set the camera to f/8 and before setting up the shot take a meter reading for the lightest area. If the shot has a stained glass window in view this will usually be the brightest part. These are usually very decorotive and beautiful works of art so you need to record those with an exposure that gives 100% detail. Use the camera's spot meter and position the camera so the window is in the centre of the viewfinder where the meter takes the reading. Take a shot and preview the result on the LCD If it's good make a note of the shutter speed. Now take a meter reading for the darkest area and make sure that the resulting photo has detail in it. Make a note of the shutter speed.

Your HDR exposure should have a range of shots that covers from the speed needed for the window to the speed for the dark areas. Lets say the window was 1/15 sec and the dark area was 8 seconds.

The full shutter speed options would be 1/15sec, 1/4sec, 1/2sec, 1second, 2 seconds, 4 seconds and 8 seconds. So you could take seven photos or most hdr software can get what it needs from two stop intervals so you could take four shots at 1/15sec, 1/2sec, 2 seconds and 8 seconds.

With this new information, adjust the position of the camera on the tripod compose the photo, including the previously metered elements in the frame and take a sequence of pictures, making sure no one walks into frame and the light doesn't change, sun comes out, floodlight goes on inside etc, at the shutter speeds calcualted earlier.

1/2sec at f/8	1.3 seconds at f/8
3 seconds at f/8	6 seconds at f/8

Try this technique all around the church, in bigger churches/catherdrals there are lots of smaller rooms and chapels to discover and record as HDR brackets.

When you have your HDR brackets have a look at this technique showing how to combine the shots using a HDR processing program.
 
To ensure the colour you capture is the colour you keep, use Datacolor - the Colour Management Experts.

Enter ePHOTOzine's exclusive competition and you could win 1 of 3 Spyder3 prizes.


You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.