Category Archives: Module 5

Project Development

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The College Chapel, The Queen’s College

While I have received permission to photograph the stained glass windows within the chapel, I am yet to receive permission to use them!  Notwithstanding, for this purpose I feel happy posting the edited image.

This window, to the right of the East Window illustrates an event in the life of Christ: The Ascension.  In keeping with all of the chapel’s medieval glass, the colours are bold with the people overshadowed by the swirling clouds and angels.  The lunette above the main scene (precluded from this image) depicts St Luke, The Last Supper and St John.  Located within the circular apse, the window is gently bowed, resulting in the seemingly curved horizontal tie bars within the image.

In addition to the usual corrective work, it seemed appropriate to remove the many repaired breaks within the window.  The before and after comparison is vivid:

Queens

Dominic Price (2019) The Ascension [Abraham van Linge, 1635 – The College Chapel, The Queen’s College]

EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
  • 85mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/40sec – 1.6sec

The image is the result of the exposure blending by hand of 19 separate images.

Project Development

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Term begins

The start of a new academic year is always frantic, but an increase in my timetabled teaching combined with an increase in me evening duty responsibilities will prove restrictive in the development of my project.

However, I am still afforded time off each Wednesday afternoon and on most days I am free after 8pm – time that will have to be spent very wisely!

Stained Glass Suit Design

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Alexander McQueen’s Autumn/Winter 2013 Collection

In his first London Menswear Show, the fashion house Alexander McQueen produced a series of suits with fabric reminiscent of stained glass windows – a bold and unexpected statement.  Interesting to see stained glass pervading fashion houses.

Suits 01

Stuart Wilson/Getty Images (2013) Models walk the catwalk during the Alexander McQueen show at the London Collections

Suits 02

Stuart Wilson/Getty Images (2013) Models walk the catwalk during the Alexander McQueen show at the London Collections (detail)

iPhone 11 Pro

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Apple Event – September 2019

I have been using Apple phones since the era of the iPhone 4 (2010), but only rarely put the camera to use.  However, the improvements to the cameras within the iPhone X (2017) resulted in me using the feature more routinely – particularly when doing ‘serious’ photographic work as a means of capturing the true colour and saturation of a location.

Content with my iPhone X, I was confident that this evening’s Apple Event would hold nothing of interest for me: the iPhone 11 came and went offering little more than that which is found on the iPhone X.  The reveal of the iPhone 11 Pro did highlight a some stand-out features that were appealing – all centred around a the addition of a third camera, with an ultra-wide lens (0.5x zoom) and an improved telephone lens with a half stop improvement in low light gathering ability (now f/2.0 compared with the previous f/2.4 aperture).

iPhone 11 Pro

12MP regular camera | 26mm f/1.8 | Optical image stabilization
12MP ultra-wide camera | 13mm f/2.4 | 120-degree field of view
12MP telephoto camera | 52mm f/2.0 | Optical image stabilization

Beyond the improved hardware, impressive developments have gone on in the supporting software.  Night Mode uses adaptive bracketing to capture and fuse multiple exposures with different shutter speeds.  This helps reduce blur with moving subjects and reduces noise in the static scene elements.

Not available until after the launch is Deep Fusion.  Hailed as Apple’s AI photography, this is a feature takes 9 photographs in quick sequence (including one long-exposure shot).  The device’s neural engine then analyses the collection to create an optimal end photo that borrows the best elements of each image, assembling it “pixel-by-pixel” into a higher resolution 24MP image.  To me, this sound akin to exposure blending and might prove to be a sensational tool for capturing the wide dynamic range found in stained glass.

I definitely do not need a new phone, but I am tempted: the combination of improved optics together with software features that might come close to mimicking my research, piques my interest!

Project Development

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Corpus Christ College revisited

My initial visit to the chapel revealed that the surround to the altarpiece (which contains a copy of Ruben’s Adoration of the Shepherds) obscured partially the bottom of the window.  However, it seemed likely that the enclosed gallery at the west end might afford a better view.  Sadly, that gallery formed the entrance to the College Library, which was closed during the summer holiday until early September.

This follow-up visit proved that the sight lines from the library entrance were prefect – indeed better than the floor level in the chapel, from which my original photographs were captured.  However, being separated from the chapel by a large glass window was less than idea, particularly as the chapel side of the glass was far removed from being clean!

It seemed sensible to photograph the bottom portion of the window in sections, so three batches of images were captured at higher resolution than the original edited image.  Once edited an resized, this highlighted a surprising level of softening at the edge of the original image, since the newly edited text (photographed at the centre of the frame) was substantially sharper than the original fragments of text.

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Section of original edit, with partially obscured text

615 - CROP Corpus Christi - St Christopher and the Christ Child

Newly edited text

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Full width before and after new edit

The east window depicts St Christopher and the Christ Child by the artist Henry A. Payne and is the only example of Arts and Crafts glass in Oxford.  Completed in 1931, the window is a memorial to the Revd Charles Plummer (1851-1927), Fellow from 1873 and Chaplain from 1875 to his death.  The figure of St Christopher reflected Charles Plummer’s charitable work among the children of the Poplars School in Cowley, a school built by the Oxford Poor Law Guardians of whom Plummer was chairman.

The finished image is the result of the manual exposure blending of 23 photogrpahs.  EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L II USM
  • 120mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/20sec – 8sec

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Dominic Price (2019) St Christopher and the Christ Child [Henry A. Payne, 1931 Corpus Christi College Chapel]

I was interested to learn that the glass window through which I was photographing is due to be replaced in the coming months by an etched glass window.   The etched design is being limited to the periphery of the glass so that a view of the chapel’s stained glass window is still afforded from the Library.

On the back of the work I have currently done, I have been asked if I would return to photograph the new window once installed.

Project Development

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The Chapel of St John the Baptist, Merton College

With so many images to edit, I am spending every evening working through the growing backlog.

The East Window featured here is a mix of different aged glass, with the elaborate tracery dating back to thirteenth century.  The large figures within the more central four lights (each cut down), date from the late fourteenth century and were originally in the transept.  The smaller figure panels are from the early fifteenth century transept glazing.  The rose centre features the arms of Henry III, Edward, Prince of Wales, and the family of Clare.  In the outer quatrefoils are the figures of Archangel Gabriel, holding the annunciation Ave Maria (left), and the Virgin Mary (right).  The three rows of shields were brought together from elsewhere in the college in 1934.

This image comprises 14 separate photographs, exposure blended by hand. EXIF data:

  • Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
  • Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L II USM
  • 100mm | ISO-50 | f/8.0
  • Exposure range: 1/30sec – 0.6sec
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Dominic Price (2019) East Window [Thomas Glasier, ca. 1295 – The Chapel of St John the Baptist, Merton College]

Project Development

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Traveling light

On a beautiful later September morning, it was a pleasure to walk into town travelling with only a tripod and camera fitted with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L lens.  Todays visits were both chapels without stained glass and were almost immediate neighbours, separated by about 50m.  Neither had I seen before, although I was very much aware of the huge Blackfriars site.

St Benet’s Hall

What a stunning small chapel, just of St Giles’ – on of the main roads in the very centre of Oxford.  This was very much of the size I have become accustomed to, and it seemed rather typical of a Friary or similar.  The lighting, while bright, was perfect as I had no need to photograph any stained glass.

St Benet’s Hall is a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford.  Established in 1897 by Ampleforth Abbey, it is a Benedictine foundation whose function was to allow its monks to be able to study for secular degrees at the university.

For seven years (1897–1904) St Benet’s Hall was established at 103, Woodstock Road. For the succeeding eighteen years (1904–22) it occupied 8- 9 Beaumont Street, where now is the Oxford Playhouse.  Its current location was previously occupied by a boarding and day school for girls, run by French Ursuline nuns.  The school opened in 1909, with the chapel being added in 1911.  The community of nuns returned in 1922 to Versailles and the site was purchased from them by the Benedictines of Ampleforth Abbey in the summer of that year.

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Dominic Price (2019) Chapel, St Benet’s Hall

Blackfriars

From the main road, Blackfriars has always looked big, but I was amazed by the size of its interior… it is vast, with a choir larger than most of Oxford’s chapels.  I was given the choice of photographing from floor level, or from a gallery at window level.  The latter lent itself to a more pleasing composition and provided a much greater feeling of space.

First established in Oxford in 1221, Blackfriars is the home of a community of Dominican Friars.  The current Priory, designed by Edward Doran Webb and was established on 15 August, 1921, 700 years to the day after it was first established.  It fulfils the role of monastery, college, seminary and church. Since 1994, Blackfriars has been a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford.

The lack of ornate decoration is perhaps unusual for a Catholic chapel, but the simplicity of the Priory Chapel forms a perfect stage for the visually impressive drama of Mass.  The plain glass throughout bathes the space in light, with the seven-light liturgical East window (faces west) framing beautifully the foliage within the Priory garden.

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Dominic Price (2019) Priory Chapel, Blackfriars

Project Development

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Chapels and wild strawberries

The Convent of the Incarnation

With my teaching ending at 10:20am, it was going to be a mad rush to get across Oxford in order to meet The Reverend Mother, Clare-Louise of The Convent of the Incarnation at 11am.  Not only did it require sympathetic bus times, but also a very fast walk across the centre of Oxford between the two bus routes, while laden with a very full camera bag and tripod.

I arrived a little late, but where better to ask forgiveness?!  The Cowley Road / Iffley Road area of East Oxford was home to me for my four student years and yet I was unaware of the various convents and friaries that seem to congregate there.

My arrival at The Convent, known as Fairacres, was critically timed: just a few days later the site was to be closed temporarily for several months while it undergoes extensive renovations and some rebuilding.  The present chapel dates back to 1923 and its comparatively simple, bright appearance contrasts with previous dark oak collegiate seating together with more ornately decorated walls.

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Dominic Price (2019) Chapel of The Convent of the Incarnation

The Friary

Just a short walk from The Convent of the Incarnation lies the previously visited Chapel of St John the Divine, within The Friary.  Today’s revisit served two purposes – it allowed me the chance to compare my edited image of the East Window with the window in situ, but also afforded the chance to photograph the ‘signature’ wild strawberry that confirmed the window as being one by Ninian Comper.

For this purpose I was traveling with the Canon Extender EF 1.4x III, to give my 100-400mm leans an extended reach of 560mm – sufficient, I hoped to identify and capture in high resolution the signature images.  To my surprise, I was able to identify two wild strawberry plants within the window, each located below a shield.

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Dominic Price (2019) East Window detail: 4th shield – Pemberton, Chapel of St John the Divine [Ninian Comper, 1907, The Friary]

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Dominic Price (2019) East Window detail: 15th shield – Unknown, Chapel of St John the Divine [Ninian Comper, 1907, The Friary]

From 1903 Comper signed his windows with a wild strawberry, in memory of his father, an Anglican priest who died suddenly while distributing strawberries to poor parishioners.

St Stephen’s House

My third port of call for the day was a considerable distance nearer the centre of Oxford, but on a pleasant autumn day, the walk was rather enjoyable.  Being the location of three chapels, I was doubtful that time would allow for the photography of the College Chapel: St John the Evangelist and its stained glass, as I had to return to teach in the mid afternoon.  Purely by chance, the College Chapel and the House Chapel share a link with The Friary – both featured work by Ninian Comper.

St Stephen’s House is an Anglican theological foundation established in 1876, and has been a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford since 2003.  In 1980 it moved to the current site, formerly the mother-house of the Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE), also known as the Cowley Fathers.  SSJE was founded in 1866 with the building of the Mission House on Marston Street under architect Clapton Crabbe Rolfe.  In the attic of the Mission House lies the small, simple yet beautiful Founder’s Chapel.

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Dominic Price (2019) Founder’s Chapel, St Stephen’s House

The main body of college was designed by the English Gothic Revival architect George Frederick Bodley.  Built in 1899, it is his largest work on a single site.

To the north-east of the site lies the House Chapel, which still features original stalls and screen.  It was expanded between 1937-9 by Ninian Comper to include two short transepts and two sacristies.  Comper’s vision for this building was restored with the reinstatement of an eastward facing altar in 2009.

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Dominic Price (2019) House Chapel, St Stephen’s House

Project Development

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Designing New Glass

In mid-2020, the Chapel of St. Nicholas will undergo much needed refurbishment.  Ostensibly this will be no more than a deep clean and re-paint, but it will see the existing vinyl flooring replaced with something more fitting and an attempt to improve the acoustics of this rather dead space (acoustically speaking).

At the West End, below a mezzanine layer, there are three plain glass windows in  a rather bleak area of the chapel.  Having photographed an number of the stained glass windows within the chapel, I have been approached with regard to producing a series of three windows to replace the plain glass.  These would have to fit harmoniously within the chapel and have a design that is contemporaneous with the pre-existing Henry Holiday windows.

Frustratingly, the windows are landscape in nature – indeed, panoramic in aspect ratio, with a width of about 150cm and a height just under 50cm.  However, with thirteen other stained glass windows on-site, there is plenty of assorted grisaille and rinceau designs upon which to base the work.

The first vidimus borrows components from the Chapel of St Nicholas as well as Dorneywood House, the country home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and former home of the 137th pupil at Summerfield (in which the Chapel of St Nicholas is located).

615 - Chapel of St Nicholas - DCP Glass

Dominic Price (2019) Vidimus of the proposed central West Window

To have three windows produced using traditional methods would be eye-wateringly expensive.  However, a sympathetic solution can be achieved using digital ceramic printing onto safety-toughened glass – a rare process with Washington Art Glass being the only UK practitioners.

The Architect has now received the vidimus, and if approved, must supply the precise dimensions of the glass (including the necessary margins).  This may result in a minor change in aspect ratio, but my design is such that it can absorb quite significant change (if necessary).  I will then start work on a design that will be shared by the other two windows.

Increased Dynamic Range

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The promise of near-limitless highlight capture

The poor dynamic range found in normal cameras that so restricts the quality of stained glass window photography was the primary obstacle I had to overcome in my research.  However, a recent publication by German researchers from the Institut für Mikroelektronik Stuttgart (HERE) reveals a pixel design for massively increased dynamic range.

Existing CMOS chips ‘clip’ when they become saturated with light.  However, their ‘self-resetting pixel’ resets and has a circuit that counts how many times it has had to reset during the exposure.  It also contains a conventional analogue-to-digital conversion circuit, so it is also able to measure the remaining charge at the end of the exposure.

Such technology would mark an end to the need to limit exposure to protect highlight data.  Instead, optimal exposures for capturing the subject could be set, safe in the knowledge that this will not result in blown-out highlights.

CMOS.png

Realised CMOS tests chip: (a) the packaged chip, (b) the layout

Currently the work is focussed on video for industrial applications and is at a fairly early stage.  However, it should be transferable to still photography and would greatly improve the dynamic range of cameras, making it easier to photograph the interior of a church while maintaining the vibrant appearance of the stained glass windows.