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I'm hoping that this is within the rules....scold me if you must :) There are leaves, mushrooms, and little flowers in this photo of a stained glass window that I made at one of the painted churches of Texas a while back. The B&W conversion doesn't really do any of them justice, but I liked this one because of all the fine details and shapes in the work that was done. This painted church was built in 1905 in High Hill, Texas. Made with Nikkor AF 24/2.8D on a tripod.
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Jim, I like the composition. Those windows stand out with the dark bg. Agree with you; the b&w does bring out fine details. TFS.
Jim, what a beautiful stained glass window! I wish there wasn't quite so much distortion - I tried to even up the windows against each other and couldn't get anything that made them really look better than what you have here but you might play around with the filter/distortion/lens correction filter in PS if you have time.
Love the high contrast of the image, also. Really nice sharpness and detail. Next time make sure you stand squarely in front of the window and be careful about using a wide angle lens - they really create the distortion when we get up close!
Jim, I do like the back-lit image and the detail in the stained glass. The wide angle distortion is pretty challenging, and the place to start is being square and flat to your subject. I pulled some of the distortion out with "transform -> perspective" in PS. There is still some non-linear errors in the geometry that can't be easily fixed after the capture. Better to get the least amount of distortion in your original capture.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions Indranil, Jules, and Kerry! The shooting conditions inside these churches aren't photographer friendly at all...The only light is the light coming through the stained glass windows and it's really like working in the dark. You have to wait for about ten minutes for your eyes to adjust to the low light. I tried to get as square as possible using the grid on the viewfinder, but didn't have my level with me on this first scouting visit. The working room inside them is another challenge using a wide angle lens. The next trip we take over there I'm taking my 80-200/2.8 so I can do some detail work on all the wonderful artwork in them. They are fabulous to see in person! Here is the color version of the same window.
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Jim, The B&W rocks! I really think that the lens distortion is a small problem that you could tweak. Many good ideas as to how to go about it.
This is my favorite old post that I think could be added to the workfow sticky. It gives some great tips for straightening.
check it out
