St. Mary’s, Yonkers NY

Church of the Immaculate Conception

This one took a lot of work, but it was a labor of love.  This is the altar of the church of my youth, Immaculate Conception Church in Yonkers, NY.  Unofficially but universally, the Church is known as St. Mary’s.  It is a large, beautiful church.

The photo took a lot of work for a few reasons.  First, I did not have a tripod.  Second, I should have taken at least a 7 shot bracketed set to cover all of the range of light needed, but I only took 5.  Third, my usual HDR program, Photomatix, did a terrible job of rendering the HDR image.  It introduced a lot of noise, much more than the ISO of 2000 would have suggested, and the colors never seemed right.  The HDR processing built into Photoshop CS4 also failed to produce a satisfactory result.

Fortunately, the folks over at The Windy Pixel mentioned another useful HDR program called Bracketeer in a post from 2 days ago (the same day this image was shot).  I gave it a chance, and it produced much better results.  Even then, I had to manually mix in separate parts from different exposures to get all of the elements to show correctly, using an adjusted version of the lowest exposure to show the stained glass windows, and a similarly adjusted version of the brightest exposure for the darkest elements, such as the murals in the top right of the image.  I gave it all a light application of Lucis Pro and some noise reduction for the final result.

As it happens, today is the Solemnity of Mary in the Catholic Church.  God Bless you, and Happy New Year to everyone.

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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. Doug Pruden

    1 Jan 2010

    The effort was well worth it. Beautiful rendering. I use photomatix and hydra on the mac for hdr. I have never heard of bracketeer. Does it run on a mac?

  2. mark

    1 Jan 2010

    Thanks. Yes. Bracketeer works on a Mac, which is what I use. It is available here. My initial impression, subject to change after more use, is that (1) as the Windy Pixl folks claim, it yields very realistic, less overdone HDR results than Photomatix and most other HDr programs, (2) it is a little weak in pulling in the most extreme elements of light and dark, and offers less control than does Photomatix on this point.

  3. Justin Kern (aka The Windy Pixel

    4 Jan 2010

    Mark –

    So glad you benefited from the post! I am also thrilled Bracketeer worked out for you, I really like this program, and I’m working hard to come up with a useful tutorial document that explains how to overcome some of these issues that you mention.

    AND WOW! I love the image – perfect tones and, though I’ve never been there, I can tell you’ve perfectly captured the serene and dim lighting in St. Mary’s. I love visiting these old haunts – so many memories. Cheers!

  6. Lisa Bettany

    5 Jan 2010

    stunning shot. lighting is perfect.

  7. Msgr. Hugh J. corrigan

    6 Jul 2010

    Dear Mark,
    Yor photo of our church is wonderful. We are developing a website for the church .Would I be able to use your photo?
    Rev. Msgr. Hugh J. Corrigan(Pastor)

  8. mark

    6 Jul 2010

    Msgr. I sent you an email. I would be delighted to have this image on the parish website.

  10. Gene

    28 Nov 2010

    I hope you don’t mind but I am putting this wonderful picture with a picture of my late father who attended church here as a child. You have done a marvelous job – I am confident you have pleased many people by your efforts. May God bless you.
    Thanks Gene

  11. mark

    29 Nov 2010

    Gene, not only do I not mind and am pleased to hear about it. I am sorry for your loss, and send my condolences, in particular if it is recent. Thank you for letting me know about your use of the picture.

  15. Mary Batich

    5 Jul 2014

    Loved this . I went there too. Was Catherine your sister? I think we were in school together at St. Mary’s.

  16. Treasured Moments by Mary

    5 Jul 2014

    Loved this . I went there too.

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