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Last week I had intended on christening my new Sirui N2204 carbon fibre tripod and K20x arca swiss ballhead by using it to take some images in St Andrew's Cathedral. As it turned out it was closed that day and I ended up shooting next door at Sydney Town Hall.

Anyway I went back to try again and the people there were very nice and extremely helpful (suggesting the best time to come back when the church would be more empty (there was a police band concert about to stage a concert) and even offering to turn off the very bright lights down the central corridor so I could get some nice exposures without the lights acting like suns blowing out everything when I pointed my ultra wide angle lens up towards the ceiling). I've offered to send them copies of some images that they can use as they wish.

St Andrew's Cathedral was consecrated in 1868 and major restoration work was undertaken in 1999-2000 to bring the Cathedral up to its present state of good order.

As luck would have it it was a slightly overcast day (which helps to cut down on insanely bright light coming in the many very nice stained glass windows). These are all HDR (high dynamic range) composite images, most of which using 0, -2 and +2 EV bracketed shots. The close up of the stained glass windows used five images at -4, -2, 0, +2 and +4EV.

This is probably my favourite image of the set and helps convey the sense of scale inside the building

High Vault


A very close up view of the stained glass windows at the back of the church

Stained


Spiral Stairs


The view from the main central area of the church towards the front of the church (facing George St)

Vaulted

Hi Riodney,

These are all great, but I'm struggling to gain some sense of order in the third one.

Which is why I love it. It's almost Escherist in its execution.

The conversion to mono is good, although I'd like to see a tad more contrast as I'm not seeing any really rich, pure, deep blacks in the image.

But your angle of view, the intensity of the details, and the distortion from the wide angle lens and chosen viewpoint make this a very confusing, and thus a very compelling, image.

gstark wrote:These are all great, but I'm struggling to gain some sense of order in the third one. Which is why I love it. It's almost Escherist in its execution. The conversion to mono is good, although I'd like to see a tad more contrast as I'm not seeing any really rich, pure, deep blacks in the image.

Thanks Gary and thanks for the suggestion - here's one with a contrast boost (and I did a little burning on and around the window as well).

Hey Rodney,

#3 is absolutely primo! Mesmerising lines and detail.

How are you enjoying the new pod?

I like them all, but especially the first. Would it be worth straightening the columns to see it differently? In any case, some sterling images.

Ozi.

A skilfully done set of images. I love the control!

I also really like the stair well shot Rodney. Very interesting. I like both versions as well.