HDR Photography of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

The Basilica as a "Monet" (courtesy of Photoshop Distort/Glass/Frosted)

Yesterday, I went back to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I had been there once before in 2007 with Washington Photo Safaris. The Basilica is a huge, exquisite Neo-Byzantine and Neo-Romanesque structure that is the largest Catholic church in the United States of America. A national historical landmark, millions of tourists and pilgrims visit it each year (see video below of the pictures I took and this link for the gallery from which they came).


I would rate the Basilica as having very good photographic atmospherics. I called in advance and got told that bringing a tripod in would be no problem (which is a fundamental requirement for good photography in a relatively dimly lit structure). Unlike some tourist attractions, it was hardly over-run with tourists (just a handful wandering through). I concentrated most of my efforts in several of the chapels and focused mostly on the elaborate ceiling paintings as opposed to the stained glass and statuary (see photographs below).

A non-HDR View of the Basilica

A Beautiful Ceiling Painting

A View from the Entrance down to the Main Altar

Another Ceiling Painting

A View Back to the Entrance

An Even More Elaborate Ceiling

An HDR View from the Entrance with More "Effect"

Another Sweeping View toward Heaven

A "Realistic" View up to the Basilica Organ


A Representation of the Sun

As for the technical details, I used my Canon EOS 40D SLR and my Tokina 12-24mm wide angle lens. As usual, I touched up the pictures using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Google's Picasa2 program. I used the Photomatix Pro application to produce the high-dynamic-range photos of the place and the Noiseware plug-in to reduce the graininess of some of the images.