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Gloucester Cathedral
#1

A few from last night's club outing to Gloucester Cathedral. I ran into all sorts of problems that I'll write about elsewhere. But I was pleased with these - especially the one of Robert, Duke of Normandy. I spent a long time moving the tripod up and down steps, getting ever closer, and I think the result is one of my better photos to date.

All taken on the Nikon D7100 with kit 18-55 lens.

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#2

Sensational compositions with excellent color and clarity. I especially love the last shot!

Tony

"My wife & I make the perfect point-and-shoot photography team. She points and I shoot!"
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#3

Well taken. Looking forward to the story behind these. Me , I love #1.
Mike.

" Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst "
Henri Cartier - Bresson.
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#4

Thanks guys. These are my notes I made following the shoot. I usually try and think about the shoot in detail as an effort to learn and improve.
______________________________

Cathedral Photography – Challenges

A number of challenges arose from the cathedral shoot. I thought it worth capturing them so I can start to address them one by one, where possible.

1) Converging verticals.

I’m aware that the moment you tilt a camera upwards then the verticals will start converging, and I have indeed used this technique for compositional purposes in the past. However, I’ve never cracked how to get a decent picture of the great hall in the cathedral with the massive pillars and the wonderful roof. “Arty” converging verticals just don’t cut it. With this in mind I thought I’d look for abstracts and small scenes instead, but… I still tried a few of these shots and they failed. Maybe a wide angle lens or a tilt-shift lens are the answer? Beyond that I don’t know.

EDIT: This is why I went to town on the "distorted" shot with the post-processing. I thought, if you can't beat 'em...

2) Camera level

My fault entirely. I have a small spirit level that goes in the hot-shoe and I should have brought it along. So many times my camera was not level. See also (3). I need to start taking more care in this respect – I do seem to have an issue in this regard. Also (4).

3) Tripod issues

I felt like I was fighting with my tripod all night. I couldn’t get it to go how/where I wanted. I simply need to practice.

4) Camera controls

I need to know my camera better. There is a control, for example, that shows a level horizon line. But I couldn’t find it… Need to be more intuitive.

5) Camera features

Would have loved a flip down screen so I could have got low angle shots / high angle shots. Would have liked an EVF so I could see what I was looking at in the dark. I couldn’t always get the focus point where I wanted it either. Maybe related to (4) but I think the focus points are simply too centrally located.

6) Cathedral lights

The normal lights… there were so many of them that when doing long exposure shots (2 seconds or more) these lights are extremely bright in the pictures. How to deal with such things?

EDIT: You can see the results of this in shot #1. There's a sort of "mist" around the lights. I had to reduce the light / highlights in PP to get rid of the burnt-out areas, but still that mist persists

7) Rushing

I should have taken my time and worked just a few scenes instead of trying to get everything! I do think I rush too much. The one time when I spent a long while in one place resulted in the best shot (Robert of Normandy).

8) Peer Pressure

I never intended trying for the big shots, the cloisters, or the crypt as these are the "standard" shots everyone goes for. But sure enough I gave in and stopped my "small" shots and spent an hour trying and failing to join the in-crowd.
__________________________________________

Derek
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#5

super effort, paid off. Ed.

To each his own!
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