Sherborne Abbey

On our recent visit to Dorset, we spent an afternoon in Sherborne. We had visited the Abbey some time ago in really dark and rainy weather. This time we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies, which made the yellow stone glow. I don’t really do much traditional record photography, but I did think this subject was worth giving an architectural treatment.

The original Saxon Abbey of Sherborne was founded by Saint Aldhelm in AD 705 and it has developed into once of the most beautiful and grandest of Parish Churches. The statue is of St Aldhelm. The pictures are more a study of light inside the Abbey and it was the way the light was falling that determined my compositions to some extent.

Technical:

Some are HDR blends, others just tone-mapped in Lightroom. As the light became stronger, the contrasts inside the Abbey were greater and beyond the dynamic range of the camera’s chip. I actually took three hand held shots 2 stops apart, but if I had the opportunity to use a tripod I would have done at least one more exposure either side. As it is, I had to manage with what I had. In spite of the golden glow, the light levels were pretty low and I was using 1600 ISO as well as bracketed exposures. All images have had some noise treatment and verticals have been corrected in Lightroom after blending.