I shot this on the spur of the moment one evening while at a church for a non-religion based meeting (if I went to church for church the world would come to an end). I took this from the outside as the sanctuary was occupied. I am not happy with the results. I plan on reshooting this but the snow has stopped anyone from using the sanctuary and turning on the lights. I could reshoot this from the inside and I know getting premission from the church is not a problem. The only thing is I want to make sure that when I go back I get some decent exposures. Anyone have any tips for shooting stained glass? Magick Michael

I've never shot stained glass, but I would think first and foremost you would want to use a tripod definitely. I think that if it were me....I would use an aperture of about f/11 for maximum DOF throughout the whole stained glass and as long a shutter speed necessary to get the right exposure. I'm guessing you will need longer shutter speeds on this, especially if shooting from the outside. I would also bracket my shots going at least 2+ and maybe 1- to make sure I got my exposure right. I loved stained glass and would not only try to get the whole of the window but also maybe play with some close-ups as well.......hope that helps but like I said I'm not an expert on stained glass photography.

If you can, do a double exposure. Once for the windows, turn the lights on, and re-shoot. If you are using a digital camera, it should be no problem compositing the shots. Use a tripod, though.

Just my 2 cents: Get as parallel as you can to the glass (to maximize depth-of-field) - of course, this is going to depend on whether you are going to incorporate any other compositional elements (foreground pews, whatever). take a spot meter reading from a pane that you would consider "medium" in tonality and shoot at that exposure - I would stop the lens down to about the middle of its range (best optical results) - and DEFINITELY use a tripod. The dual exposure idea is good too, if there is going to be anything in the foreground to expose for as well (gonna be about impossible to do it in one exposure if you've got something in the foreground unless you bring in some lighting and balance it to the window) If you want the glass to really "pop" as a subject in itself, turn all the light out in the building, exposing for just the light coming through the glass. Something that may be cool - a silhouette of something/someone in front of the glass - but now we're getting into your creative vision - which needs to be all yours.

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everyone seems to have covered this pretty well... although i wouldnt shoot at f/16, u risk not focusing on the all of the window and depending on how far away you are, some of it may not be in focus, i would shoot f/16 or even f/22... if your shooting film, get 100iso film, slide is even better if u can, id pick up a roll of kodak e-100vs for this. tripod is a must, if u dont have a shutter release cable, set your camera up then set the timer, that way u wont risk bumping the camera at all during the exposure bracket shoot it.. set it to f/16, meter to the right shutter speed, then underexpose by 1 stop and over expose by stop