These shots are taken in the St. Vitus Cathedral. The cathedral is located within Prague Castle and contains the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors. It is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.

Feature Image Details

ISO 400 at F5.6 for 1/50 of a second. I used a  Canon 24-105MM F4 L Lens at a focal length of 47 MM.

I was setting up my tripod when an attendant stopped me with a warning “no tripods”.

Ouch. Even at ISO 400, I was on the edge of an acceptable hand-held image. There are a number of things I would do differently today, but my camera today is better than I had then.

I opted to use a pew railing as support, and the resultant image was very sharp.

There were other problems, notably pointing a lens up at anything. This is the actual image I captured.

The eye sees one thing, the camera another.

Both Lightroom and Photoshop have perspective controls. Lightrooms’s are far easier to use, and Photoshop’s are far more robust. In this case, Lightroom adjustments were a simple fix.

All I did was slide the vertical transformation slider until the vertical lines looked vertical. The rest of the adjustments were highlight, contrast, and sharpening.

Important Tip

Bear in mind you will lose detail at the sides for sure, and either the top or the bottom of the frame depending on which way you tilt the camera.

Compare the feature image to the one above. Check the left side and right side cropping. There are three columns on the right side. Only two remain after the perspective change.

Give yourself room to crop if you want to correct the perspective.

Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre

I just recently identified that image from a post on the Incredible Stained Glass of St. Vitus Cathedral.

This image was even more problematic. The contrast was awful as I was shooting straight into the afternoon light. Bright overcast is best, if not outright cloudy days. I horrendously underexposed the shadows.

With a tripod, this is a trivial setup. There is no wind and nothing is moving. You take a few frames and blend them. In this case, I did not even have a pew to balance my camera on.

I selected under-exposure rather than over-exposure. The latter is impossible to fix. The former results in muddy-details. Newer cameras have better dynamic range. These images were taken with an EOS 5 Mark II. I now use a Mark IV. In between was a Mark III and a 6D. The latter was a far better but less expensive camera at least as far as shadow detail goes.

Perspective-wise this was an even more severe crop than the feature image.

Equipment List

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

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Top 100 Nature Photography Websites

Feedspot just featured me in their list of Top 100 Nature Photography Blogs & Websites To Follow in 2018.

There is a nominal charge of $2 per month to track whatever sites you wish to follow and see new sites as they come on board. I consider it worth it.

This post was not about nature, but the tips apply.

Prague Posts

1. Prague, Czech Republic: Charles Bridge and Prague Castle at “Blue Hour”
2. Prague, Czech Republic: Subway Tunnel Near Charles Bridge
3. Prague, Czech Republic: Old Town Square, Týn Church, Orloj Astronomical Clock

Coming up next: Final set of Prague images. Then it’s back to landscape images in the US.

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock