Shooting Stained Glass?

[PhotoJunkieJen]

I've never shot stained glass before. And unfortunately, this is for a wedding invitation. I'm not going to have a lot of practice time beforehand to experiment.

Any Tips?

I'm guessing a low ISO with a bit of a longer shutter would be my best bet?

[dcclark]

Actually, I would bet that a slow shutter won't be necessary -- at least if the day is moderately bright, you can get away with a fast shutter, because there will be lots of light coming in through the window.

What may cause trouble is using an auto metering mode. Your camera will probably see the light from the window AND the darker areas around it, and think that you need a longer shutter speed so that you can see the darker areas. That will result in a slow shutter speed with shake. If you switch to center-weighted (partial) or spot metering, and put your focal point right on some of the glass, the camera will probably choose a faster shutter speed, and expose correctly for what you want.

Finally, you will want to be sure you're shooting the window straight on (if possible), or at least using a fairly large aperture (f/10, f/16 perhaps) to ensure that it's all in focus. If your camera is oriented so that it's pointed directly at the window (not angled UP), then the whole window will be in focus. If you have to angle your camera to get it all in, you'll have to be very careful with the focus.

[sk66]

My best tip is to make sure that light is coming THRU the stained glass. This means either from inside towards the sun (if possible), or from outside lit from within.
Try to shoot from a reasonable distance so you're not pointed up severely, and expect to have to fix perspective(tilt) in post. That means leaving extra width in the FOV for cropping after fixing the tilt...