Photographing old churches

[Nigel]

I need to document an old saxon (1100ad) church before some works are underaken. My first attempt just using a couple of industrial floods to provide added light were fairly successful but some of the memorials on the wall had shadows. I have purchased a reflector to allow me to fill in those areas and cancel the shadows. I wonder if anyone cap provide any additional tips.

I am thinking to get the stained glass windows (fairly low apart from tghe one above the altar) I could use the floods outside to provide light so tghey are illuminated (unless the light is bright which is unlikely at this time of year)

This time around I ampthinking of using my Canon 450D and the preview software/control on my laptop to allow me to get a better idea of the finished picture

Can anyone help me with any oter ideas

Many thanks
Nigel Shephear

[Frog]

I don't know lighting well but those who do will want examples of what you have so far.

Welcome to the forums and hope to see your work.

[SmartWombat]

What are you documenting?
The church building fabric, just the stained glass, internal details as well?

You have the largest, shadow free, softbox out there in the sky - I'd use it!
I would expect to be using a tripod, small aperture, long exposure and natural light to illuminate the windows.

If you want internal detail as well, then I'd use the additional lighting inside.
But not harsh floods, not without something in front of them to soften the light and reduce the shadows.

How soon does this have to be done?
There are several UK members who may be able to come visit and help.
I'd certainly like to have a chance to photograph something like this !

[SmartWombat]

Hmm, another thought on the lighting.
Do you want the lighting of the windows repeatable, for a before-and-after maybe.
That's the only case where I'd want to use artificial lighting, which presents another problem of not allowing the different quality of daylight on different days to upset the exposure.

[dwainasaurus]

Tough to give specific advice without seeing the space. But my go-to in these situations is usually bouncing flash off a wall/ceiling/large reflector(s). I typically shoot in all manual (flash and camera) so I can balance ambient and flash. For a large space I would use one flash on camera and one or two flashes (that fire when they see the first flash) off camera.

Balancing the window should not be a problem. Opening aperture makes everything brighter. Adjusting flash to higher power makes non-windows brighter. Longer shutter speeds brighten the window but not the areas lit by flash. Trial and error chimping the LCD or laptop will get exposure correct with just a few shots.