Historic and religious buildings

Learning goal

Before entering a mosque, a church, a synagogue or a museum, you will be able to learn the conditions for photographing there from the signs at the door and from the attendant. You will know that flash, a tripod or commercial use can call for separate permissions, and you won't confuse a building's permission with the permission of the people inside it. You will mind that moments such as prayer, a service or a funeral are not a scene to be photographed but worship being lived; you will learn lowering the camera at those moments not as a technique but as a form of respect. To photograph a dim interior without flash and without a tripod, you will decide in advance the highest ISO value of the camera you will accept, and use a wide aperture, stabilization and a support point together. In a place where window light mixes with the warm light of chandeliers you will keep a face in the right color, and close the architecture track with a selection.

The question

Your friend comes under the dome they photographed from the hill opposite, into the courtyard of the centuries-old mosque. Inside, the noon prayer has just ended; a few people are still sitting on the carpet, one is reading the Quran. Beside the door, shoe racks; in a corner, headscarves; on the wall, a small sign. Looking inside they see a dim space: light filtering from high windows, glints on blue tiles, the warm lamps of the round chandelier hanging from the ceiling. With the camera in hand, they hesitate at the door; how far can they shoot, whom can they photograph, can the flash be used? Photography in a mosque, a church, a museum?

Context

In the portrait lesson we talked about a person's openly allowing their photo to be taken and used, that is, consent, being something renewed throughout the shoot (Lesson 16.1). In the law section you examined that photographing a private space for commercial purposes can call for a separate written permission from its owner (Lesson 29.2). On this track you also found with two meter readings why a high window turns into a detail-less white in a dim room (Lesson A.6).

Historic and religious buildings gather these three pieces of knowledge under the same roof. They are both the richest examples of architecture and places where people still pray, mourn or sit in silence today. A photographer is there as a guest. This lesson takes up the rules of that guesthood and the technique of shooting without flash in low light together.

Simple explanation

From whom is permission asked?

House rules are a building's conditions regarding photography: they may be written on a sign at the door, an attendant may say them out loud, or they may be announced on the page of the institution that runs the building. In some buildings photography is fully free, in some only flash is forbidden, in some a separate permission is asked for a tripod, and in some sections photos aren't taken at all. Museums often forbid flash both because it disturbs visitors and because some works are sensitive to light.

If you don't know the rule, asking the attendant is the shortest way; they often tell you the calmest hour too. If you are shooting for a commercial job, a publication or an advertisement, a separate permission may be needed from the building's management. The building's permission doesn't cover the permission of the people inside it; if a recognizable person will appear in the frame, their consent is obtained too.

How is respect shown?

A moment of worship is the time when a prayer, a service, a supplication, a funeral or a confession is going on, when the building is lived not as a scene but as a place of worship. At these moments the most respectful choice is often to lower the camera and wait; even a frame shot from the side, from afar and without showing anyone's face can distract the person worshipping.

The visit itself speaks a language too. In mosques shoes are taken off and women are asked to cover their heads; in some churches covering the shoulders and knees is expected. Silent shooting, which turns off the camera's shutter sound, moving slowly, not passing in front of those praying and standing not in the middle of the carpet but at its edge make the photographer a part of the place. These rules change with every faith and every building; in a place you don't know, looking at how the people there behave is a good guide.

How do you shoot without flash in low light?

ISO ceiling is the highest ISO value you allow the camera to rise to in a shoot; this value is found in advance, at home, with a test shoot, according to how much noise the camera carries and what you accept. When auto ISO is used together with this ceiling, in a dim interior the camera keeps the time at a safe limit, raises the ISO as much as needed and stops at the ceiling.

If there is no flash and no tripod, the rest of the light is gathered from elsewhere: an opening close to the lens's widest aperture, stabilization turned on, and leaning the camera against a column, a pew or a sill. With a wide-angle lens, stabilization and a good support point, times several times longer than the safe handheld time can stay sharp. Here too the high windows are much brighter than the inside; for brightness blowing out on stained glass or tiles, the bracketing from the window lesson can be tried, even without a tripod, with a quick burst.

The color of the light is mixed too. Daylight coming from the window is cool, the light of chandeliers and oil lamps warm. If a face stands between the two, whichever light the white balance was set for, the other side shows a color shift: light, freckled skin can look purplish and pale in the cool window light, while dark skin can look shifted to orange under the warm light. Looking at which light is really lighting the face and setting the white balance for it keeps it in its own color.

Visual evidence

Before going in, your friend reads the sign at the door: photography free, flash forbidden, no shooting during prayer times. They take off their shoes and introduce themselves to the attendant in the courtyard. The young attendant, with light skin and a freckled face, says there is an hour until the afternoon prayer and asks that the old man reading the Quran not be photographed.

They set the camera's ISO ceiling to 6400, which they tried at home, and the longest time limit to one thirtieth. From the edge of the carpet, with silent shooting, leaning against a column, they look at the dome and the chandelier at twenty-four millimeters; at f/2.8 and one thirtieth of a second the camera raises the ISO to 3200. The tiles are sharp, the chandelier's lamps warm points, the high windows bright but detailed. The man reading the Quran is outside the frame.

The attendant agrees to stand beside the window and be photographed. In the first frame the white balance is set for the chandelier; the light skin struck by the window light is pale and purplish, the freckles grayed. They set the white balance for the window light falling on the face: the pink in the cheeks and the brown of the freckles come back, and behind, the chandelier stays a warm glow. When the call to the afternoon prayer begins, they put the camera in the bag and go out to the courtyard.

Common mistakes

Summary

In historic and religious buildings, photography starts with learning the house rules, and the building's permission doesn't take the place of the consent of the people inside it; lowering the camera at the moment of worship is a form of respect. Shooting without flash in low light is done with an ISO ceiling decided in advance, a wide aperture, stabilization and a support point; in mixed light the white balance is set for the light lighting the face.

Mini assignment

This assignment closes the architecture track: you will build a six-frame selection that tells a single building or a street.

1. Choose a building or a street and produce six frames: a facade with parallel verticals, a frame in slanting light within the facade sun window, a detail or abstract frame, a spacious but unexaggerated interior, a room with window balance set or a dim interior, and a frame from an opposite vantage point or at blue hour.
2. If you shoot a frame that includes a place of worship or visit, first learn the house rules, mind the moment of worship and shoot without flash, with an ISO ceiling.
3. Under each frame write a short caption: which permission was obtained, if someone is in the frame whether their consent was obtained and which light their face was exposed for, whether a correction or combination was made.

Check yourself

• Do the six frames show different faces of the same building or street without repeating?
• Is each frame's permission and the people's consent clearly written in its note?
• Is the dim interior frame sharp, and is the face in the frame in its own color?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. How are a building's photography conditions learned by the shortest way?

• A) By reading the sign at the door or asking the attendant
• B) By looking at other visitors' photos
• C) By trying the flash
• D) By shooting and asking on the way out

2. What does a building's photography permission mean for the people inside it?

• A) It gives permission to photograph everyone
• B) It doesn't cover only children
• C) It doesn't take the place of the consent of those inside
• D) It is valid only during prayer times

3. At the moment of worship, what is often the most respectful choice?

• A) Shooting from afar and without flash
• B) Lowering the camera and waiting
• C) Switching to silent shooting
• D) Photographing those worshipping from behind

4. Why is the ISO ceiling decided in advance?

• A) So the camera focuses faster
• B) So the colors are more saturated
• C) So the windows balance by darkening
• D) So that auto ISO doesn't go beyond the noise you accept

Answers

1. A — The sign and the attendant directly state the rule on flash, the tripod and the forbidden sections.
2. C — The permission given by the building's management doesn't include a recognizable person's own consent.
3. B — Even a frame shot quietly and from afar can distract the person praying.
4. D — The ceiling makes the camera stop at the limit you tested as it raises the ISO.

Summary card

• Learn the rule first: sign, attendant, institution.
• The building's permission doesn't replace people's consent.
• At the moment of worship lower the camera; shoot silently, stand at the edge.
• Without flash: ISO ceiling, wide aperture, stabilization, a support point.
• In mixed light, white balance for the light lighting the face.

Bridge to the next lesson

Going out to the courtyard, your friend steps into a small tile workshop in the arcade beside the mosque. The workshop's owner wants to sell their handmade bowls online, but in the photos taken with a phone the blues have slipped into purple, one bowl sharp, another blurred, each in a different light. Customers send them back saying "the color in the photo didn't come." Where is the power of the photo in e-commerce? The next track moves on to product and food photography, and in its first lesson takes up why a product photo needs to be sharp, color-accurate and consistent.