Cathedral

Beautifully done. It seems you picked just the right time of day to subdue the outdoor light in the windows.

Hmmm... I think I like this better than the other one. Good work!

I have to agree with Sensanjay. This is a better composition then the one I saw earlier. The eye flows towards the alter easier. Maybe a little more detail on the alter.

I also prefer this composition to the scene photographed from a balcony. This is more comfortable, whereas the balcony image leaves me feeling that I am hanging somewhere in space.

How was the lighting handled? Was this a simple, straight exposure, or was it necessary to do things to balance out the lighting? Painting with light, subtractive lighting, etc?

Someone once said that images like this leave him feeling cold. Admittedly, buildings are big and domineering, but I still like photographs of grand interior spaces. The drama is tremendous, and I find them comforting.

This was a simple straight exposure, though the church was a lot dimmer than this photo would suggest. The altar was brightly lit, but the lights in the ceiling and the lights hanging from the vaults didn't provide too much illumination. It was a very gray, cloudy day, and most of the illumination was filtering in through the windows.

I posted a B+W shot from here too, and it is very cold by comparison. I think big gothic cathedrals do feel 'cold' (and more so the massive ones in Europe than this one). The reason is that they draw your eyes upwards towards the windows and the converging vaults of the ceiling -- they really do move your eyes upwards away from the realm of humanity. Other religious buildings I've seen are different -- the Zen temples in Kyoto and the Orthodox churches in Russia have so much decoration and iconography that it feels more intimate. So I think the cold reaction with shots like this is probably a natural effect of the design.