Photographing cathedrals: I'm fairly new to DSLR photography. My daughter and I plan to visit England for 3 weeks in June/July, and would like to get some great pictures of the...

John Battle Loc: Tacoma, WA, USA

I'm fairly new to DSLR photography. My daughter and I plan to visit England for 3 weeks in June/July, and would like to get some great pictures of the splendid cathedrals there, both inside and out. I now have gotten a Nikon D750 and their 24-70 zoom lens. Would some of you who are more experienced suggest any other lens or lenses to get prior to our trip?

twowindsbear

Perhaps practice making photos, similar to what you have in mind, of local buildings? See how you like the results you get from your lens. See if you really NEED another lens for your trip? You don't specify the f value or range of your lens, a 'faster' lens may be useful as would a tripod or monopod rather than raising the ISO to levels that may produce noise.

Good luck & have a GREAT trip!

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

John Battle wrote:

I'm fairly new to DSLR photography. My daughter and I plan to visit England for 3 weeks in June/July, and would like to get some great pictures of the splendid cathedrals there, both inside and out. I now have gotten a Nikon D750 and their 24-70 zoom lens. Would some of you who are more experienced suggest any other lens or lenses to get prior to our trip?

There are web sites dedicated to what you are wanting to do. Looking at them can give all sorts of tips and ideas. Some may allow tripods, few will allow flash. Keep that in mind when choosing lenses. Your 24mm may give the view you want but the wider the better. Have fun.

toxdoc42

Most are not happy with tripods. Do a white balance in each if you are really interested. Shoot lots of bracketed shots to get the correct balance you want. I now have an 8 mm fisheye, bought it after my last trip to Europe.

John Battle Loc: Tacoma, WA, USA

twowindsbear wrote:

Perhaps practice making photos, similar to what you have in mind, of local buildings? See how you like the results you get from your lens. See if you really NEED another lens for your trip? You don't specify the f value or range of your lens, a 'faster' lens may be useful as would a tripod or monopod rather than raising the ISO to levels that may produce noise.

Good luck & have a GREAT trip!

Thanks for this sensible advice! My current lens is f 2.4.

John

Rongnongno Loc: FL

John Battle wrote:

I'm fairly new to DSLR photography. My daughter and I plan to visit England for 3 weeks in June/July, and would like to get some great pictures of the splendid cathedrals there, both inside and out. I now have gotten a Nikon D750 and their 24-70 zoom lens. Would some of you who are more experienced suggest any other lens or lenses to get prior to our trip?

Cathedrals are per nature big so a telephoto or mid telephoto is just a wasted space.

Now if you want to take captures or gargoyles and stuff of this nature, a telephoto is required.

When I am in Europe I carry a single lens (18~300) to cover all possibilities since I am looking for details more than the whole enchilada.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Photography is always about weighing trade-offs. In this case, one trade-off is between being able to travel light, with just one camera and lens, or having more versatility to take a wider range of shots. Consider a lens in the 10-20mm range, but then try to decide if that's worth the cost, extra weight, and fussing with changing lenses.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

DWU2 wrote:

Photography is always about weighing trade-offs. In this case, one trade-off is between being able to travel light, with just one camera and lens, or having more versatility to take a wider range of shots. Consider a lens in the 10-20mm range, but then try to decide if that's worth the cost, extra weight, and fussing with changing lenses.

I agree with Dan on tradeoffs. If forced to travel with just one lens and knowing I'd be indoors in Old World cathedrals, I'd go with the OP's 24-70 f/2.8. If I could add another, I'd take my 35 f/1.4 prime specifically for the indoor work. But, I wouldn't miss the second lens knowing the quality of my images from the 24-70 zoom. Outdoors on the narrow streets, I might wish I had my 16-35. But again, 24mm is 'wide' as in wide enough for a 1-lens trip. Have a great trip!

Dan R Loc: Way Way Way Upstate NY

That's a tough one; ideally you want a wide angle, but depending on the details of statues or paintings, you may want a zoom. I shoot some Christmas pics for my church's high mass and ended up using my 24-70 with a 1600-2200 ISO on a D750. You may also want to look for a local church or cathedral near you for practice and offer them some free pics. Enjoy your trip!

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Hi John, I cant give you any help regards what lenses to take with you, but I can tell you Some Cathedrals over here don't allow photography inside. I went to Durham Cathedral (near to where I live) a couple of years ago and was told in no uncertain terms that no photography was allowed..just check before you go to one.

Joe Blow

John Battle wrote:

I'm fairly new to DSLR photography. My daughter and I plan to visit England for 3 weeks in June/July, and would like to get some great pictures of the splendid cathedrals there, both inside and out. I now have gotten a Nikon D750 and their 24-70 zoom lens. Would some of you who are more experienced suggest any other lens or lenses to get prior to our trip?

The 24-70mm might be enough for your inside shots and a lot of outside. I would like something a little longer, as well, to complement that. I would suggest a 70-200 f 2.8. This could also be used inside for close-ups of areas that can't be approached.

Have a good trip.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

You may want to invest in a off axes lens like a Nikon PC lens.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

The D750 and a 24-70 would be great to photograph interiors. Practice locally before you go. Crank the ISO up to 1600 as a starting point and practice bracketing. Put your camera on continuous high speed and do 3 bracketed shots +- 2 stops. Then figure out HDR merging, and don't use Photomatix.

woodworkerman Loc: PA to FL

Taking pictures of taller objects when you are close to their base creates Vertical Distortion. Sometimes that is beautiful. Sometimes, like in the case of the taller portions of the image pointing inward in the photograph, you want to correct some of that distortion. Many image editing programs, like Photoshop, have the ability to correct this problem. Wider angle lenses exaggerate this. Check out something like "distortion of vertical images" in a Google search to see this effect. It is interesting to learn about this. Sometimes I want that in the image. Sometimes I want to correct it. I like both challenges.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

That is interesting about prohibiting photos in cathedrals. I have never had any trouble taking pictures in churches (when nothing was going on there). I set up a tripod and use long shutter speeds with small apertures, with wide angle lens to get everything in. Your 24-70 lens should do everything except very wide angles, which I like for interiors (especially large ones). I would almost never choose the large apertures of fast lenses for architectural shots.

Maybe the cathedrals don't want photography because they are Catholic and pretty much always open for worship. They don't want people with cameras bothering the people worshipping. Protestants are also sometimes open all the time, but very few people go there to worship in the off hours. Churches that discourage photos might relent if you ask politely for an appropriate time.