Church and film suggestions

I've been asked to shoot MF and LF images in a large church soon

which may involve varied light (as often happens in churches). I will

be able to use tripods and plan to set up my LF gear in a balcony at

the back of the church. I will do some images with my Hasselblad 6x6

gear in the body of the church with a range of focal lengths from

50mm to 250mm.

 

My LF shots will be with 120 film backs (6x7, 6x9, 6x12) giving some

tighter AOV images as well as wide stuff on 6x12. I will use 90mm,

150mm and 210mm lenses.

 

Given how light varies in large churches (and this one in

particular); the need to expose well for shadows and the mid shadows

in particular I will want to limit the risk of any highlights burning

out. I will use my Sekonic L558 for metering light.

 

They will want lots of fine detail of the church as well as images of

a big choir and some "closer images" as well.

 

They will not worry about mirror slap from the Hassy!

 

I plan to shoot some colour and some B&W.

 

So does anyone have similar experience and suggestions about film to

use - neg and positive; fine grain and faster film (will shoot some

hand-held)?

 

Would trannie be a bit risky given the exposure range?

 

Any specific films even wedding shooters prefer?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I did a series in a church several years ago. The basic challenge that I faced was that the lighting in the church varied from bright spotlights on an altar and pulpit, to recessed fluorescents behind a proscenium arch, to general area lights, to ambient light coming in through windows, and even with a few light fixtures that would appear in the scene.

 

I used a technique called "subtractive lighting". In this approach, I made multiple exposures on the same piece of film. The first exposure was fairly short, and was based on getting proper highlight detail in the brightest highlights. Then, a series of additional exposures were made while lights while selectively turning lights off. The final exposure was with all interior lights off, and using only the fairly dim light coming through some stained glass windows on one side of the church.

 

I initially developed this technique using black and white roll film in a TLR, and later repeated it with sheet film in a Crown Graphic. Later, I had to repeat the series in color, for which I used a roll film back on the Graphic.

 

The color series presented an additional challenge that the lights represented three distinct characteristics - incandescent, daylight, and fluorescent (of an unknown color) - and I don't own a color temperature meter. In a previous exercise I found that using tungsten film for interiors gives pleasing results - the color balance is about right for the incandescent lights, and any daylight through windows results in nice blue highlights. So I chose to use Vericolor L tungsten film. I turned off the fluorescent lights for all but one of the exposures and did them without filtration. For the final exposure, I turned off all the incandescent lights and turned on the fluorescents, and then applied a filter over the lens. I didn't have the right fluorescent filter but that didn't matter because I also didn't know the actual characteristics of the fluorescents - but I had an orange Cokin filter that appears to be similar to the filter recommended for use with fluorescent light and tungsten film. I suspect the balance is off a bit, but in the overall mix it's not obvious.

 

The results are in the APUG technical gallery.

Some additional info I should have included:

 

1. all images will be printed form scans: a) normal Fuji Frontier scans (limited res with 120 film) for general use and smaller printing; b) special images will be drum scanned for very large poster size high quality printing eg A1 and even A0 prints. These will also be used in high quality publications.

 

2. I will take both a Hassy 501CM body set up on a tripod about 30 feet from the choir; and the Linhof Technika V set up on a balcony at the back of the church (depending upon what I discover when I actually see inside the church the night before the event). I plan on using 100asa film for these.

 

3. I will also take my 503CW with the cw and PM45 to shoot hand held from the centre of the church and maybe the sides too. So I was planning on using 800asa and maybe Koday 800uc film, which I tried out a couple of weeks ago and its relatively fine grain impressed me as too did its "quite natural" colour despite its high saturation.

 

All will be available light.

Many thanks Louie. You have raised a very important issue of light temp that I nearly overlooked. I will study your suggestions and the APUG images tonight. I very much appreciate your comments! I will also ask the church people about the lights used before I get there.

For mixed lighting you might want to use Fuji NPZ800.

 

http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/NPZ.pdf

 

If you can't use flash, I'd suggest a monopod for "handheld" photos.

Also, I'd leave the 100 film/view camera at home. The view from the Hassy 50 is close to that of the 90 on 6x12, but the lens is faster and sharper at wide apertures.

im an ameture but here is my view.. the black tux and thewhite dress will not give good detail with films other than black and white.. id shoot the 4x5 with black and white letting the 7 stop coverage keep the white highlites and black shadows from washing out. be sure to do it all silver process , (Prints also) explaining that long after the color film, color prints, digital prints are faded and gone, the black and white photos will live on for 100s of years for thier children and thier grandchildren.. ... just another way of looking at it.. dave.

Thanks Mike and Dave. I'll keep that film in mind Mike (have used it before very happily).

 

Dave, this is NOT a wedding - no issues of B&W lighting contrast fortunately.

Use tripod at all times in a church unless you have very fast lenses and 35mm film. I would use Efke 25, probably suits the 'clean' look of churches. I think the subject is very important as is the light.

I would rather shoot a 15th century church in the evening, or perhaps a Budhist temple in the morning. Run of the mill Evangelical

Christian stuff makes my skin crawl, but then it all does since I'm an atheist.

 

Tripod and cable release, not sure trannies are welcomed in churches.

If the church is unoccupied, I wouldn't have any trouble shooting the MF and 4x5 stuff, since you'd have time to mess with tripod, move around, take light readings, etc. With the church occupied, I assume this would be during a (atheists, skip the following word) Chirstmas service, lots of candles and decorations, I would rent the Canon 1Ds or similar to make sure I was getting what I wanted. You said they won't worry about the mirror slap on a hassy, but a lf photographer workings is distracting in itself...Based on my past experience in dark balconies of churches, don't forget to bring a small flashlight, comes in handy for camera settings or finding a lens....

I've shot several cathedral series with B&W using ULF cameras. Some of these places are

really dark in the shadows. I used Efke PL100 and found that very long exposures for

shadow detail (3 hour average) makes it almost impssible to overexpose (sounds

ridiculous, I know) and the highlights such as stained glass don't present too much of a

problem if you time the shot to coincide with when the sun isn't directly on the window.

Really long exposures like that also eliminate the people in the shot unless they stand still

(or fall asleep) for a very long time.

Simon, I have alot of experience in shooting church interiors. Most of my work has been

on my 8x10 toyo field or my 4x5, always using the zone system and development to

control my values for the final print. Using your meter, place your lowest value no lower

than zone 3, two stops doen from the meter reading that the shadows read(or darker

areas iof you want detail in that area). That will give you enough information in your lower

values to print it later. The highlights can be controlled in development by pulling the stop

difference, less to even out the values. Hopefully, you are going to print your own, because

that is where you will then, with the info in the negative, to burn in highlights of blown

stainglassed windows and find the balance of tonality in the shots you print. I agfa 100 asa

with long exposures for maximun depth of field, etc and they look great. Good luck

capturing God's light. Kieran

An oft-preferred film for shooting in mixed light - daylight, incandescent, and flourescent - is Fuji NPL. That's what I shoot most of my interiors with. A friend even foregoes the 85 filter when using daylight as the primary light source, but I like to at least help the film out with the filter. With NPL, I ignore the existence of flourescent, then tweak the green away in photoshop.

Thanks to each of you for the further comments and tips. I will have time to set up tripods and take light readings; but will have a small flash light in my kit. Thanks for sharing your experiences.