I recently had the priviledge of refreshing the website photography for the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and St Mary’s church in Parnell. I’ve attended plenty of weddings in St Mary’s, as it’s such a popular venue for weddings, but I’d never set foot inside the Cathedral.
Holy Trinity Cathedral – a photographic challenge!
Technically this was quite challenging for me. The dark church and the bright stained glass window are opposites in terms of exposure, so I chose to use a method called HDR, or High Dynamic range. This basically means I take several photos of the same scene, each concentrating on a different level of brightness in the image, then combine them together using software afterwards. I don’t normally dabble in this, but it can produce some amazing results when done correctly.
The second problem I had, was the Cathedral was so big. Even with my widest lenses I couldn’t capture what I wanted. So I needed to create a panorama image, stiching several photos together. However each of those photos had to be the result of the HDR process to ensure that the overall image was exposed correctly, and captured enough of the scene to show it’s grandeur.
The Cathedral is renowned for its modern stained glass, including the unique window featuring a Polynesian Christ with vividly coloured Pacific motifs. A set of eighteen windows along the sides of the Nave, designed by Robert Ellis and Shane Cotton and dedicated in 2004, tell the Christian story using a combination of traditional and Polynesian designs. – Wikipedia
St Mary’s Church – One of the best wedding venues in Parnell.
This is supposedly the largest wooden gothic church in the world, and inside it’s absolutely beautiful. I’ve attended many weddings here and the atmosphere has been perfect every time. If you’re looking for a venue for a wedding, you can’t go wrong with St Mary’s.
