Old South Church, Boston (Massachusetts)

Testing the new Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens. Awesome results for

architecture. Thank you for your comments.

The colors and lack of noise is exceptional, the combination of the 17L and Mark3Ds, seem to work well together.

Dennis... Fantastic new lens! The clarity and depth is tangible. Now, if you can just teach it to block out those modern fixtures.... :-) just kidding. Looking forward to many more posts with it.... Mike

 

 

Beautiful work Dennis, great lens and great photographer, congratulations // Salvador

Another magnificent shot. S

You must have read my mind! When you said you were going to test your new 17mm TS-E at the Trinity Church in Boston, I went back to my Boston folder and reworked some of my old shots. I had one of this same church but my HDR processing skills were not good - but I've honed my PS skills a bit since then, and I managed finally to get it right. I thought to myself, I should suggest Dennis take some shots in here with his new lens. Lo and behold, you have posted the very shots I envisaged!! It looks like an interesting church from the outside, would not look out of place in Venice, but it is quite small. The clarity of the 17TS looks fantastic - you must have the only one in the USA, I still don't have mine but I'm hoping it will arrive before I set off for France in August. Thanks for posting! Cheers, RickDB

This is a beauty, looks a great lens. beautiful sight of its architecture, great space that allow to see the details, the colors, the light. Enjoy, and we shall follow you....;-))

 

I looked to see if I can find a review on this lens, but could not find one, do you have a link? just curious....

I'm far from an expert on various lenses and their applications, so I can't really comment on that aspect, but as an architectural shot it seems to show off the structure, gives a good sense of depth, certainly takes in a lot of the details, etc. The lighting seems to expose all details, except for up top where the shadows allow a little more mood to creep in. It seems a stark rather than spiritual presentation of a church. It is impressive for its straightforwardness.

... Manuel, it is an exceptional lens, very please to have it in the arsenal. Given that about 85% of my shots were with the 24mm TS, would have to think that this lens will get the same kind of use.

 

Michael, it is great, you must see the original sometime. The details is incredible. One of the problems with the old 24 was chromatic aberration (cyan/magenta). This seems to be completely eliminated in the new lens. As far as the fixtures, Canon can't quite get that feature right :)

 

Salvador, ah, my Mexican church pal. Glad you like the tests. Can't wait for Europe when I can REALLY put it through its paces.

 

SW, thanks again. Glad you like the shot. I've been off PN pretty much for months, and it is great getting back and posting and seeing other work. I'll be back to visit you soon as well.

 

Rick, must have read your mind. Love your exterior, we were going to try for a morning shot but it just didn't look good. You solution to shoot above the M station was excellent, not sure if my imagination would have gone so far! Have you been inside the church? Quite nice, as I can hope that you see from the wide shots.

 

Pnina, thanks. The lens is reviewed a couple of places, but nothing great. This is the one that I liked: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/tilt_and_shift_ts-e.html

 

Fred, appreciate your notes on the shot, which is really a test. The two churches lack a great deal of the atmosphere and "patina" which is part and parcel of the Romanesque. This church, for example, has gone through three complete "renovations" since 1875 when it was consecrated. The last returned it to its "Ruskinian gothic" style. These tests are to see what kind of field of view the lens is capable of, what kind of detail. In reality, it is a completely different lens that the previous tilt-shift, much improved mechanically and optically. I can't see using many other lenses in Europe at this point.

 

 

Thanks for the link.

 

I must say that looking at it again, with all its beauty the romanesque churches have more "soul" of architecture (, the kind of stones, matterials , planning, design, "warm' maybe a good word,softer light I think))....Its not only the "patina" ,and I can compare now after seeing one of them in Verona...still it is an interesting difference.

Beautiful work and composition

Simply grand. The richness of the wood is what strikes me here. The arches offer such a great embrace over the scene below.

I was last in Boston in Aug. 2007 attending a conference - unfortunately I didn't have time to see inside this church. It is so Victorian in style - the rich colours, polished mahogany, and almost too perfect construction as a result of the industrial revolution - such a huge contrast to the simple medieval churches you have photographed in Europe. Hope to be in the great city of Boston again soon. Cheers, RickDB

A very long time ago, I used to teach drafting. The front fixtures are not proper for a rendering nor as we see it. I don't know if the camera is able to fix that as it would require corrections at different planes (depth) of the image. I do not know much about software but it seems that some sort of software could be developed to correct the problem. Just some thoughts I had while riding the bus to work this morning.

... this was one of the things that I discovered about the lens during these tests. I am now going to try to see if there are other distortions that occur because of the wide field of vision. I have been looking at the other images in this series but this is the one that shows the most problem. As far as a software correction, that is way beyond me at this point. I can imagine the correction being possible by a PS guru who might cut out the fixtures and reinsert them. But it is quite a problem. Thanks for bringing it up.

This isn't the church with the Burne-Jones windows, is it?

... you are thinking of Trinity Church, just across Copley Square from Old South Church. It has four windows by Burne-Jones, actually executed by William Morris! Four more are by John la Farge, who is largely responsible for Trinity's interior.

 

The glass here is original, created by an English company in 1875 when the church was opened. I can't remember the name of the Company. (Note: "The stained glass windows are by the English stained glass manufacturers Clayton and Bell and were produced in the style of fifteenth century English glass." Ain't Wikipedia a wonder?)

 

 

My compliments to a very beautiful interior capture from this lovely church. Wonderful control of light and excellent true vivid colors. The perfect dof adds the the atmosphere and the rich details in the textures are great. Thank you for sharing. Take good care Dennis and all the best from Jannica