Photographing a dark stone building

**John Kasaian** · 30-Sep-2007, 19:19

Our local architecture is for the most part uninspiring but there is a treasure in a nearby town---a little church celebrating 100 years built of locally quarried stone which is dark gray in color. I'm wondering if any special filtration would be useful in marking the surface more interesting. My first instinct is to use (maybe) an 8 (or 16 if neccesary) to restore the sky but in this case I don't think I'd want the sky competing with the contrast of the building (which is pretty contrasty as it is with it's lightcolored mortar and dark stone.) I'll be shooting B&W---I've got some TMY in the freezer but I think I've got a few holders loaded with FP-4+ left over from a previous shoot that I'd like to finish off. Any thoughts or suggestions? I'll have to shoot in the late afternoon to avoid shooting into the sun plus I'd like to shoot the stained glass windows in color film which brings up another issue----I don't work with color sheet film! I'll have to use a lab to develop the stuff. Am I better off using transparency or negative color given my lack of experience? The format I'll use for color will be 4x5 since I have a reducing back for the 'dorff. Any suggestion for a film giving accurate color rendition for stained glass? I suppose I could borrow my bride's digi but what fun would that be?

**Ed Richards** · 30-Sep-2007, 20:07

I would just try a few different filters and see what they do - it will depend on whether that stone is pure gray. I would start with a Red 29 or 25 to darken the sky, then try a yellow 23 to darken the sky and perhaps lighten the rock if it has any warm colors in it. I would shoot negative color film for the contrast range, and shoot one sheet with a gray card in the frame to give you a color reference.

**John Kasaian** · 30-Sep-2007, 22:27

Thanks for the ideas!

FWIW the stone used is not only very dark---more black than gray---but it is very roughly hewn.

**Brian Ellis** · 1-Oct-2007, 06:24

I'm unclear about why you're thinking of using any filter. You first mentioned using a filter to make the gray surface more interesting. Then you mentioned using a filter to darken the sky. But then you said that maybe you didn't want to darken the sky since that would make it blend with the building.

So I think your first step is to decide what you're trying to accomplish and whether there's a filter that will help. There is no filter that I know of to make shades of white and gray in the stone walls more interesting. The best choice for making the walls more interesting might be to pick a time when the sun is at an steep angle to whatever part of the church you're photographing so that the texture of the surface will be emphasized by the side lighting.

If you end up wanting to darken the sky then whether a filter is useful or not depends on the sky. If it's white/gray no filter will do much for you except possibly a polarizer if you want to remove reflections (e.g. from the windows). If it's some shade of cyan or blue then as I'm sure you already know, the choices are variations of yellow, orange, or red. Red will darken any green foliage that's in the picture, sometimes to the point of turning it black which usually isn't good. Unless the blue in the sky is a fairly deep blue a yellow filter won't do much either but maybe that's good because it might add just enough to make the sky interesting without competing too much with the stone. With a blue sky I usually prefer an orange filter as a reasonable compromise between yellow and red but that's up to you once you decide what you want to do.

I don't have much experience with color film either, which is why I use negative film on the rare occasions when I use color film.

**Louie Powell** · 1-Oct-2007, 07:55

I'm with Brian on this one. I think the thing you will need to do is carefully study how light falls on the stone, and then pick a time of day when the angle of the light results in the most interesting textures in the stone.

Filtration may be of only secondary help in emphasizing texture. If it has any role at all, it will be in helping control what happens to the sky and background around the church.

If the subject is that important, then it deserves the time and expensive of experimenting with a variety of exposures over a time - perhaps even over several days and potentially several seasons. The good news is that buildings (usually) aren't going anywhere and you can easily come back for additional exposures.