A Day in Mainz Part 1: The Amazing Chagalle Windows of St. Stephen's Church
Yesterday I was given a little tour of the historic city of Mainz by @patze and @racing-richard. As @patze is starting out in photography she asked me to give her a crash course on the basics and we then headed out to put some of it into practice.
My intention for the day was to do some B&W street photography with the Contax RTSII using Ilford HP5 and an orange filter. Since these photographs still need to be developed, you will have to wait for those results. However I did bring my Fuji XT-10 and the standard 16-50 mm kit lens as a backup and to take test shots. My plan to only take monochrome shots was instantly annihilated by our first destination: St. Stephen's Chruch, which is famous for it's eerily blue, stained glass windows. The church itself was completed in 1340, but the windows where only added between 1978 and 1985. Depicting scenes from the old testament and created by the jewish artist Marc Chagall, they are intended to be seen as a part of the german jewish reconciliation.
The western windows. It was roughly 16:30, so the light would fall through these windows and play on the walls. Almost like the reflections you see on the walls around pools of water.
The main windows above the altar. These face north and portray the main biblical images.
Closeup of the organ and its nearest window. This is the eastern side, which can be seen in its totality in the title image. The indirect light falling through this window created subtle blue reflections on the pipes of the organ.
A small candle stand for lighting prayer candles in exchange for a small donation. I mainly took these images because the lighting conditions where perfect for such work.
One of a number of smaller round windows. These are part of the south facing wall.
The conditions were very difficult to shoot in, as the church is barely lit and the windows very bright. The Fuji 16-50mm kit lens struggles here, because at 50mm the aperture will only go down to f/5.6. As a result the images required the use of ISO 1600 and a 400% dynamic range boost, whilst trying to maintain fast enough shutter speeds to prevent blurring. The difficulties were further exasperated by the difference in brightness of each window, as the afternoon sun illuminated them all differently and not being able to rely on a flash. All images are posted as taken, with no post processing haven taken place, apart from being resized to 840px width.
Overall I would have to say, that the 16-50mm lens was inadequate in these conditions, mainly due to its aperture being limited to f/5.6. Should I revisit this shoot, I would probably use my Fuji-Contax adapter and use either a Carl Zeiss Distagon 28mm f/2.8 or a Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.4.
All images are the copyright of @gentbynature. They may be freely reproduced, as long as the author is adequately accredited.
Great pictures man! I wish I have a talent in photography and rich enough to afford a good camera because I only have an iphone lol
You don't need a lot of money to start out and it doesn't really matter what camera use. Most people think equipment is the most important thing, but learning the basics like composition and proper exposure is far more important and can be done with any camera. If you are starting out just look around and get yourself a cheap second-hand camera. As your skill increases, you will learn about what pictures you want to take and what equipment you really need.
I agree, I just use a regular point-and-shoot cam, which can be pretty cheap nowadays, and an action cam. A bit of photoshop editing can be handy as well.
Beautiful stained glass windows!
Yeah, the windows are crazy cool. They don't quite come across as amazing as I'd like them to on pictures. I was totally amazed when I saw them yesterday.
Most of the time I actually use a film camera and only carry digital as a backup. Sometimes my only digital option will be a GoPro Hero 3+ because it's very light and film equipment is stupidly heavy. You can take good pictures with any camera.
Check out this link:
It's pro photographer Chase Jarvis taking photos with a Lego toy camera.
This is pretty cool.
Yeah, I agree with you, and I lose things most of the time when I travel. I don't really want to lose an expensive dslr.
Try analogue photography sometime. I wrote an article about how you can get into it cheap and easy:
https://steemit.com/photography/@gentbynature/getting-started-in-film-photography-for-less-than-150usd
It forces you to become a better photographer and the equipment is really cheap. You'll be surprised how many people actually still do this.
Ok, I'll check it out. Thanks for the tips!