Sunday, January 17, 2010

Week 38, Day 268, January 17, 2010, Bell Tower


 Today after the church service, I stepped into the Bell Tower to take a few photos.  The bricks and the old rickety stairs have always fascinated me.

This subject is probably a good candidate for HDR processing, or taking the photo just as it's starting to get dark.  The light from the windows dominates the image. 

Lessons Learned:
  • I tired some HDR processing, but when I had bracketed my camera, all three images were at 30 seconds.  I should have checked.  30 seconds is the maximum before switching to bulb (a direct control of the shutter).  The next time I try and take this photo I'll try and wait to sun up or sun down so that I have more direct control of the light coming through the windows.  Another option will be to use a higher ISO speed so that I can bracket my photos with more variety on the shutter speed.  Then I can try HDR processing again.

Photo details: Exposure time 30 sec, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, the camera was sitting on a box on the floor.

9 comments:

Andrew said...

Cool shot, at first I couldn't tell whether I was looking up or down :)

toledonative said...

I really like this shot. Reminds me of an MC Escher print.

Unknown said...

If I may ask, why did you use the aperture of 22? You are shooting at a fairly wide angle, so your depth of field should be quite large even at a larger aperture. And opening it up would reduce your shutter speed significantly.
I'm not criticizing you :) f22 feels like quite an extreme value for me so I'm just curious if there was a particular reason for you to choose it.

Unknown said...

sorry, I meant "increase your shutter speed" of course.

Yolanda said...

I am a bit lost in the perspective - is this looking up a bell tower? It's a cool shot - very interesting with the windows on the side. I agree that it would be very dramatic with sun rise or or sun set coming through those windows!

Gallow said...

The photo is looking upward. I liked how it was difficult to tell which direction. I think that helps to give it the MC Escher look to it.

Lana, thank you very much for your question. For me a large part of this blog is a learning experience. I like it when people ask me questions, or question my method. Many times I don't have a very good answer. This is one of those times. Depth of Field is something that I need to learn more about, and have a better feel for the appropriate aperture. The tower is probably about 45-50 tall, so I felt like I needed a lot of depth of field to be able to see the beams, and stairs near the top. I will read, and experiment to see if I can get away with a smaller f stop. If you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. (Or anybody else that has some suggestions.)

Steve

AnSa said...

..picture is great and original! ..excellent shot from the bottom .. I love everything from wood..:)

Unknown said...

Hi again, Steve.

Thanks for your answer. If I may give an advice, try the experiment with taking a picture of something long but with enough details (a row of lockers or a wooden fence or even simply a street with a row of houses) from the same point of view and keeping your focal point fixed, but changing the aperture. Try that while keeping your angle fixed, then change the angle and run through the aperture numbers again.
It's really worth doing to get the feeling for what you can get in focus and it doesn't take that much time :)
I don't know what camera and lenses you are using (and I'm not really an expert on anything anyway :) but in my experience f22 is mostly counterproductive. Check out this article for more details: http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/diffraction-small-apertures.html

Gary's third pottery blog said...

I remember peeking up there at night, tis spooky!