Post your favorite March 2025 shot
- Thread starter Marilynne
- Start date
Clovishound
Senior Member
Blue439
New member
A Carolingian crypt brought back to life (2025)
In March 2025, I finally managed to obtain all the authorizations (I’d been working on them for more than six months!) necessary to photograph the Merovingian (I date it from around Year 500) crypt of Saint-Domitien (Domitian?), on the grounds of the abbey of Saint-Rambert (Ragnebert?), somewhere in the pre-Alpine Bugey mountains of France.
Being out-of-bounds to the public, the crypt is almost not lit at all. It is darker than the back wall in the photo below and one has to use a headlamp or flashlight to more or less see where one is going in most parts of the crypt. Really felt like an Indiana Jones movie in there, minus the snakes of course. Having been told about the darkness, I did bring two of my own flashes, both in order not to have to pose each shot for a couple of minutes, and to maintain color consistency and accuracy throughout the shoot. For this photo I set up a Godox AD600 Pro II (about 10 times the power of a cobra flash) on a light stand to the left, lighting the axis of the crypt up to the altar in a semi-harsh, Sun-like manner (using a silver beauty dish). Then I walked around with an AD200 Pro II (about 3 times the power of a cobra flash) which I popped here and there at the ceiling in various other parts of the frame. The AD200 was equipped with a dome-shaped diffuser so as to make the light soft and even. All those shots were then composited in Photoshop.
Nikon Z7 II, Micro-Nikkor 45mm, ƒ/2.8 D PC tilt-shift macro lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, K&F Concept geared head. Multi-flash lighting.
In March 2025, I finally managed to obtain all the authorizations (I’d been working on them for more than six months!) necessary to photograph the Merovingian (I date it from around Year 500) crypt of Saint-Domitien (Domitian?), on the grounds of the abbey of Saint-Rambert (Ragnebert?), somewhere in the pre-Alpine Bugey mountains of France.
Being out-of-bounds to the public, the crypt is almost not lit at all. It is darker than the back wall in the photo below and one has to use a headlamp or flashlight to more or less see where one is going in most parts of the crypt. Really felt like an Indiana Jones movie in there, minus the snakes of course. Having been told about the darkness, I did bring two of my own flashes, both in order not to have to pose each shot for a couple of minutes, and to maintain color consistency and accuracy throughout the shoot. For this photo I set up a Godox AD600 Pro II (about 10 times the power of a cobra flash) on a light stand to the left, lighting the axis of the crypt up to the altar in a semi-harsh, Sun-like manner (using a silver beauty dish). Then I walked around with an AD200 Pro II (about 3 times the power of a cobra flash) which I popped here and there at the ceiling in various other parts of the frame. The AD200 was equipped with a dome-shaped diffuser so as to make the light soft and even. All those shots were then composited in Photoshop.
Nikon Z7 II, Micro-Nikkor 45mm, ƒ/2.8 D PC tilt-shift macro lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, K&F Concept geared head. Multi-flash lighting.
W O W! This is absolutely gorgeous, Peter! How does the DX Tokina lens perform on the D610? Other than some vignetting, do you find the images are really nice? I remember Don Kuykendall used to say how much he liked using Tokina lenses.
My long exposure really captured my interest. I am looking to take more long exposure images but for longer lengths of time than just 1-second. I used a 10-stop Neutral Density filter for this so have a lot of leeway to lower my ISO and increase my shutter speed. This was taken during an afternoon so sunlight really isn't a factor for the 10-stop ND Filter.
Peter7100
Senior Member
It can only really be used at 16mm on FF but for the price I feel it is a real bargain but obviously there are much better wide angle lens out there.
I have the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR and really need to make more use of it. My Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5G lacks VR but is incredibly lightweight with tack sharp images. But it isn't weather sealed. I don't think I've used it since getting the 16-35mm. The extra 2mm on the wide end does make a difference.