How Dark is Too Dark

Looking at it with my iPhone 14 Pro on full brightness it’s just a little too dark in my opinion. If I save the photo and view it it looks a little better but still a touch dark. It might would be bright enough if there was more of a glow coming through the windows.

I bet it would look absolutely sick printed though.

I struggle the same way with dark shots. If it’s something intended to post or share with people, then I’ll look at it at 50% brightness on whatever screen I’m using and brighten it until it’s how I want it to look. I think that takes care of most viewing situations in which people would see the photo.

However, If it’s something just for me I’ll make it as dark as it needs to be!

The thing I’m most drawn to in this photo are the two tiles in the front that are highlighted - really like how they are catching the light at a different angle then the rest of the floor.

With that being the first focal point, cropping could help as mentioned by some others. I actually wish though that the camera closer to the ground for a more dramatic angle and a different perspective.

I didn’t notice the person on the left until I had my lights off, so yeah maybe a tad too dark.

I get what you're doing with the composition here, but I feel like this would be a much stronger image if you cropped the bottom 15% or so, so like the first two diamond-shaped tiles off of the bottom. If you do that, you make the aisle look much brighter on average, which makes the image look brighter, which keeps you from having to bring up the darks as much.

That said, I do think that you need to be a touch brighter so that the geometry of the pews is visible, because all of those straight lines pushing towards the center will do some work in making the image look more interesting. I think there's also interesting geometry in the lights in the ceiling coming straight down, too.