Church Photography

[Terry Hull]

I typically use front rise and front tilt with either a 90MM or a 150MM on an Ebony45SW. I do not understand how to insure top to bottom focus (top of spire, and tombstone names in front) and it is usually the spire that is out of focus. I understand the increased distance to the spire top viz the bottom of the church, but even stopping down appreciably doesn't help. I understand the 2/3rds beyond 1/3rd before the focus point going front to back, does the same thing apply to vertical distances?

[Mark Barendt]

First, I'm going to make the assumption that the camera back is level right to left and the ground glass is vertical.

Assuming you are directly in front of the church and the spire is directly above the door, if the front of the camera is similarly squared up you can use front rise to get the composition of the front of the building.

Now when you focus, the whole front of the building from door to tip of spire should be very easy to get in focus even with a fairly large aperture.

This is a simple vertical plane of focus.

Reducing aperture extends the range of acceptable focus in front of and behind that plane.

When you tilt the lens forward you tllt the plane of focus.

The bottom of the plane moves closer to you the top of the plane moves away the middle stays put.

What you get on the church facade is the spire and the steps going out of focus and the name above the door left in focus, or something similar. It is no to hard to rack the front too far.

You can actually with enough tilt get to the point where you have laid the plane of focus flat on the ground like a book on a table.

Now walk a ways to the left or right. Mentally draw a line up from the headstone to the tip of the spire. That's your plane of focus.

Your lens board shouldn't be tilting that much, maybe a third of that tilt. Then focus and adjust aperture to make that plane thicker as needed.

Search out Scheimpflug principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle) here and elsewhere for more info.

[Jim Noel]

To add to Mark's answer:
After adjustments are made, step to the side and visualize a line passing through the plane of focus, another extending from the focal plane (ground glass), and a third an extension of the lens board. They should meet at a point somewhere beneath the camera.

[Tony Evans]

Jim, Mark,

I suffer from Terry's problem in trying (unsuccessfully so far) on my "practice" church. Once the front tilt is done, do I then have to do a similar back tilt to keep focus? Thank you both.

[Ed Richards]

I am having trouble figuring out why you are using front tilt at all. A church with a spire is the class single plane of focus problem. While the top of the spire is farther than the front of the church, it is not that much farther away relative to the camera distance. When you say the tombstones, do mean that there is a church yard between the camera and the church, so that you are trying to focus on a close stone, the front door of the church and the spire? If not, then forget the tilt and just stop down a bit. If this the sort of picture you are trying to do, skip the tilt and just stop down to f16 with the 90mm or f22 with the 150:

http://www.epr-art.com/galleries/b4a-la-ca-churches/photos/1170.jpg

[Mark Barendt]

Jim, Mark,

I suffer from Terry's problem in trying (unsuccessfully so far) on my "practice" church. Once the front tilt is done, do I then have to do a similar back tilt to keep focus? Thank you both.

Hey Tony,

The short answer is no. In fact Ed is wondering the right thing and his example is good.

The face of the church from foundation to tip of spire is essentially in a vertical plane.

The lens Board and the ground glass should be vertical, matching the face of the church exactly.

Front rise is used to compose. If you were to walk to the side and look at Ed's camera when talking that shot the the front of the camera would be high but the lens board and ground glass vertical.

For a practical real world example analogous to this go stand in front of a small window in your house, notice the view, now kneel down. As you kneel down you lose view of things low and gain view of things high.

The window (lens board) stayed vertical, your upper body (the film) is still vertical but the light coming through the window is at more of an angle. The film can now see the top of the spire.

Think of the window as a lens that just got a bit of front rise.

Keeping the back, the film, vertical keeps the vertical lines straight. If you tilt the back (right or left, front or back) the vertical lines in the subject will tilt.

[Michael E]

it is usually the spire that is out of focus.

You might have reached the edge of your image circle. Sharpness falls off even if your lens still illuminates the whole frame.

Michael

[Mark Barendt]

You might have reached the edge of your image circle. Sharpness falls off even if your lens still illuminates the whole frame.

Michael

Yep that's definitely possible.

[Terry Hull]

Thanks for the responses. Ed-I use front tilt to have graves stones names in focus in the foreground. Other times I also use back tilt (opposite to front standard tilt) to have all of those verticals intersect below. Isn't this the way to do this?

I am seldom directly in front of the church, usually somewhere between straight on and parallel to the long axis of the building. I imaging slight swing might also help. I suspect my problem may indeed be reaching the edge of the image circle as some of the churches have high steeples.