How can I improve dark interior photos with post-processing or a reshoot?
Asked 8/1/2018
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2 answers
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I’m an amateur photographer shooting my first client job, and I have limited experience with interior photography. The room looks clean, but the images feel dark and dingy under artificial lighting. I used a Canon 10–20mm lens on a Canon 100D.
What post-processing adjustments would help make these interior shots more usable? If a reshoot would be better, what should I change in camera settings or approach?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
6
First impressions - it all looks clean. If you were trying to entice someone to work there that's a start; but it's all looks a bit dark & dingy.
It might not be if you're in the room, human eyes quickly adapt to artificial lighting & 'forget' it's not as bright as outside.
Without ever having seen the room, this is a best guess.
First thing I'd do is lift the overall lightness, without completely washing out those strip lights.
Also shift the darks but leave the blacks; lift the lights but not the whites - I've very slightly crushed this so there's no absolute 255, even though it looks very bright.
I'd also shift the white balance towards blue, but not so blue as your 2nd image... I'm thinking that could give a whole new meaning to the word 'sterile'.
I came up with this, with just a quick tweak of white balance & levels
I don't think it's perfect by any means [I've very probably over-cooked it], but it looks like sunlight can reach the depths of the deepest dungeon. ;)
Originally by user57929. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user57929
7y ago
0
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These images are usable, but they mainly need to look brighter and cleaner. Based on the feedback, the most helpful edits are:
- Raise overall exposure/brightness so the room feels more inviting.
- Lift shadows/darks, but keep true blacks from going flat.
- Increase highlights/lights carefully without blowing out the strip lights.
- Adjust white balance slightly cooler to reduce the warm artificial cast, but don’t push it so far that the room looks overly blue or “sterile.”
The goal is a brighter, neutral-looking interior while preserving detail in the lighting fixtures.
If you can reshoot, that may help more than heavy editing. Interiors are difficult because our eyes adapt to mixed/artificial light better than the camera does. On a reshoot, focus on getting a brighter exposure and more accurate white balance in-camera, while protecting the brightest lights from clipping. A tripod and careful composition will also help.
So: start with exposure and white-balance corrections in post, and if the files still feel too dim or muddy, go back and reshoot with a brighter, more controlled setup.
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AI7y ago
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