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Posted on 28/11/25 08:42:44 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7087 Reply  |
Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
I visited Norwich Cathedral a few months ago, and was surprised to discover this curious art installation suspended above the nave. Normally I'm open to being challenged by all varieties of modern art, but this one really has me stumped. Apart from its inherent ugliness, does it really need that much scaffolding to hold it up? I'm sure you can come up with a better piece of artwork than this to decorate what really is a very splendid cathedral. High res is here.  |
Posted on 28/11/25 10:45:29 AM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3411 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
And that's it for me. |
Posted on 28/11/25 11:29:27 AM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 699 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Interesting you picked this one Steve. A friend of mine has just spent 9 years documenting the ceilings of all the cathedrals' in Britain & France for a book to be released next year. He finished yesterday. |
Posted on 28/11/25 12:50:12 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
The scaffold is standard lighting truss. Universally used for outdoor stages and lighting rigs. It's easily available to rent. It's a modular system that can be quickly assembled to make just about any kind of rig. It's been around in the same basic form for years. I can remember using it on a couple of occasions in the late seventies and early eighties when I was involved in the lighting for televising some of the gigs at the old Capital Knebworth festival. It would have the advantage in this situation of being completely free standing without touching the cathedral structure itself. Looking at this I would say that the whole top structure can be raised and lowered by internal winches in the four columns to allow access to the cube. You can file that along with all the other stuff you never needed to know. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 28/11/25 2:54:46 PM |
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Ant Snell
Specular Specialist Posts: 593 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to attend a “Concert by Candlelight” at Southwell Minster. Not being a normal churchgoer, I was a little apprehensive, but I must admit it was very impressive. Since then, I have been trying to book a Pink Floyd by candlelight, but due to their popularity not yet been able to get tickets.  |
Posted on 28/11/25 3:40:49 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Oh Steve you naughty boy! I have just spent an hour trying to track down a picture of the end of the knave of Norwich Cathedral that might allow me to remove the cube from your photo. I couldn't find anything that remotely resembled your photo. On Norwich Cathedral's website I found a virtual tour of the interior and explored all of it. I still couldn't find anything like your picture! Indeed the whole Cathedral is in a very solid Norman style quite unlike your picture that looks more like Early English. I was completely baffled. Why couldn't I find it? So then I researched the cube installation itself and found Peter Walker the sculptor and, through him, eventually found what I was looking for. It's not in Norwich Cathedral at all! It's in St Peter Mancroft Church! You got the Norwich bit right .................. but ............ at least I caught the goose. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 28/11/25 4:03:42 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Loyd. Last week Ben posted "Frying Pan to Fire". Might that apply here? Ben, it seems you found the right church long before me. I take it this was inspired by Luke Jerram's Gaia installation. Ant, another good giggle. Thank you. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 28/11/25 6:58:57 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4079 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Aaaaah so that’s why I couldn’t find it😱 _________________  |
Posted on 28/11/25 8:40:54 PM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 699 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Ben, it seems you found the right church long before me. I take it this was inspired by Luke Jerram's Gaia installation. I photographed the Photokina balloon during our last visit to the show in at the Koelnmesse trade fair center Cologne in 2012. The world map is made entirely of photographs. Photokina was a major, world-leading international trade fair for the photography and imaging industry, historically held in Cologne, Germany. Sadly, the event, which started in 1950, was suspended indefinitely after the 2018 event due to a decline in the photo market and industry upheaval. |
Posted on 29/11/25 00:47:26 AM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 699 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
David, I used Google lens to track down the church  |
Posted on 29/11/25 02:50:09 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3183 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Like Ben I used Google lens to find the right church nave. It's about the first thing I use on all Steve's challenges. It saves a lot of time. |
Posted on 29/11/25 08:58:58 AM |
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Ben Boardman
Printing Pro Posts: 699 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
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Posted on 29/11/25 10:43:42 AM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4079 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
http://vimeo.com/1141615095?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci _________________ |
Posted on 29/11/25 11:52:33 AM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Thank you all for suggesting Google Lens. I am, in fact, well aware of it and use it a lot. It's incredibly useful. I didn't think to use it in this case because it would return me lots of pictures of the cube and I wanted the empty knave. Had I done so I would, of course, quite by chance, have discovered the church/cathedral mix up and would have known to go searching for the knave of St. Peter Mancroft. But I wasn't looking for where it was. I already knew from Steve's description that it was in Norwich Cathedral - so that's where I looked! Time to drown my sorrows in a compensatory cocktail. Cheers!! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 29/11/25 12:07:37 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
I am well aware of Photokina of course but I hadn't heard about the globe. Interesting. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 29/11/25 1:39:40 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3183 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Steve, why do the organ pipes seem to be floating in the air? |
Posted on 29/11/25 2:23:57 PM |
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Frank
Eager Beaver Posts: 1815 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral - The Hologram
Lovely job on that bible entry Ben. Had no idea where to go with this so the hologram emerged from somewhere.  |
Posted on 29/11/25 3:16:48 PM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3183 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
I think I have got it. It's a weird surreal banner dangling between the pillars. Strange. |
Posted on 29/11/25 9:13:27 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 5921 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
Wasn't quite sure what I could do with this one so I have gone off on my own tangent. Seemed to me that the best thing to do with this ugly cube was simply to get rid of it and the coloured glows and restore the church to its pristine state. I am guessing that all of you tried the new AI remove tools, as did I. All the various AI remove options did a pretty good job and Nano Banana did an amazing job of removal but didn't get rid of the blue colour cast. (I did ask). The problem in the case of a historic church is that they all have to invent stuff and, however convincing it is, it's not St Peter Mancroft. If I am to be picky, which I am going to be, the end result should be the real thing. So I decided to have a go at doing it myself, and to make the restoration as accurate as possible in terms of the real church. To make it really challenging I made a rule of no AI assisted tools of any kind. I had to do two 'patches' of part of the rood screen and the window borrowed from other photographs of the church. Everything else is me, clone, cut, paste, and paint. Just as we would have to have done a couple of years back. As a wide shot it stands up well but if you zoom in and start examining it doesn't stand up (mind you, neither does a lot of the AI if you do that). It took six hours and was pretty exhausting. The difficulty is when to say "when" as the closer you get, the more the tiny errors start to jump out. I'm feeling a lot more sympathetic to the AI tools now. But I still draw a line. I'm happy for it to wash up and do some of the simple boring prep, maybe even some of the basic cooking, but I don't want it to write my recipes! 
_________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 29/11/25 9:21:16 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4079 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1082: Art in the Cathedral
David Just pointing out that I didn’t use, or even consider, any AI to remove the cube and recreate the background. I did it all by hand; and very finicky it was too involving lots of small selections and masking.😳 Not perfect but far more satisfying than AI🤮 _________________ |
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