The ceiling shot

Zulumika

New member
The situation: You walk inside a cathedral, the light is insufficient and you have to shoot the ceiling.

The set: There are 20 other persons with you who have a camera and want to shoot that same ceiling in that same cathedral.

The problem: All of you have a point and shoot camera with a tiny flash and a super noisy Hi-ISO, no one has a tripod and, for the purpose of this exercise, long exposures is not an option.

What to do?

I would say, go to the gift shop (there's usually one close to the entrance) and buy a post card.

OR

Do a group shoot! Ok this is a (mega-super-extra) long shot but I think maybe it could work. Ask everyone to point their camera to the ceiling and to shoot at GO; exactly at GO. 1-2-3-GO. Sync everyone so that they shoot at the exact same time. I realize that it's impossible to get everyone to shoot at the exact same time, but I figure that with 20 persons trying to shoot at the same time, chances are that there could be 3 or 4 shot/flashes that could be close enough and benefit from the other flashes, from other cameras therefore giving just about enough light do pull the shoot with the right exposure...

What do you think - could that be done - as anyone every tried such a shot?
 
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Joseph Bautsch

New member
With most tourist groups that I've been in you would have a whip and a chair to get that kind of cooperation. :D Electronic flash fires at around 1/1000 sec. even with a point and shoot. Your chances of "catching" another flash with yours is about nil and none. Another problem is that a point and shoot flash doesn't have much power. Just enough to light up a person that is 8 to 10 feet away. So even if you could catch a couple of other flashes with yours you would not generate enough candle power to get very much in the way of a picture. I think just about then I would remember the brand new Nikon D7000 with the 35mm, f1.4 lens, I forgot I have in my back pack :rolleyes: whip it out, point it at the celling and turn on the video and start shooting. Then I would have every one shoot at the same time. Then you just might have a good shot in one of the video frames. :D Then when you got home you could blow it up to a 16"x20", enter it into some national photo contests and win all kinds of first place prizes. ;)
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
I had a very similar issue while in Rome and Paris this summer. The best I could do was get down on one knee, snap a lot of pics, and hope that the pictures weren't too blurry. In some cases they were too blurry, but in others, like with Notre Dame, they didn't come out bad at all:
DSC_0596.JPG
 

Zulumika

New member
With most tourist groups that I've been in you would have a whip and a chair to get that kind of cooperation. :D Electronic flash fires at around 1/1000 sec. even with a point and shoot. Your chances of "catching" another flash with yours is about nil and none. Another problem is that a point and shoot flash doesn't have much power. Just enough to light up a person that is 8 to 10 feet away. So even if you could catch a couple of other flashes with yours you would not generate enough candle power to get very much in the way of a picture. I think just about then I would remember the brand new Nikon D7000 with the 35mm, f1.4 lens, I forgot I have in my back pack :rolleyes: whip it out, point it at the celling and turn on the video and start shooting. Then I would have every one shoot at the same time. Then you just might have a good shot in one of the video frames. :D Then when you got home you could blow it up to a 16"x20", enter it into some national photo contests and win all kinds of first place prizes. ;)

I love you reply... ! I very well know it's a long shot but I had to ask :cool: - it's just this little thing I thought one morning and so ... Anyway... ;)

The only way I found to shoot a ceiling as such with good results is to set my shutter speed to 1 sec or 1/2 sec, around f/8, no flash, 2 second delay shutter mode and lay the cam flat on its back (on a bench or directly on the floor) pointing at the ceiling. Depending on the light condition I try several shutter speeds and after 4-5 tries, I get something decent.

CHeers!
 
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