This is the interior of the Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is by far the most incredible interior I've ever seen. There are several paintings in which the artist depicted beams of light striking Jesus or Mary, and I hadn't seen this kind of artistic interpretation before. I wanted to show this prominently in the frame while still including the grandeur of the rest of the interior. To do this, I used my new Sigma 14mm f/1.8. However, in order to make the foreground painting prominent, I had to stand close to it -- about 5 or 6 feet away. This, in turn, meant that I needed a certain amount of depth of field. I couldn't use the largest lens aperture, f/1.8, because this would have meant the depth of field would be so shallow that the ceiling wouldn't be tack sharp if I focused on the foreground art. Such a large aperture would allow for reduced ISO, but I had to have everything sharp or else what was the point of this? Such amazing detail and artistry must be rendered with tack sharp clarity. Blur, even a slight amount of blur, would ruin the picture. This is a 5-frame HDR composite, hand held, and my settings were f/5.6 and 3200 ISO. The slowest shutter speed in the HDR sequence was 1/30th.
2 Comments
Feb 15, 2018, 12:18:46 PM
Jim - Rosemary, Thanks for the compliment. I was really concerned about the no camera policy, but the churches I visited are considered museums now. That's why I could shoot pictures. Other churches that are still used for services typically don't allow photos. I've seen this in other places, too, regarding Russian Orthodox churches.
Feb 15, 2018, 12:06:49 PM
Rosemary Sheel - It's a beautiful photograph. And you were keen to notice the rays of light descending upon Jesus and Mary. When I visited any church in Russia, cameras were not allowed. Did you arrange for special permission?