How can I photograph a room with a window without blowing out the sky or losing the interior?
Asked 6/29/2018
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2 answers
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I was photographing an interior at dawn with a window in the frame. Outside, the sky was pink/blue with a bright moon, while inside the room was quite dark except for some subtle light near the window. In manual mode, I found that if I exposed for the exterior, the room went too dark, and if I exposed for the room, the sky became overexposed and looked like daytime. How can I get closer to what I see with my eyes, both inside and outside the window? Would changing metering help, or should I use flash?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
3
The simplest way to do what you want it to make HDR. Bracket several exposures with +-1 or +-2 stops then use software to combine in single image with light and dark areas exposed closest to your vision. In such very high contrast scenes this can help a lot.
Of course you can try with single RAW file and try to compress high contrast to acceptable level.
P.S. I would like to thank to Michael Clark for the link in to the question's comment. The idea is fantastic and I quote the comment of user2719 here:
Just for the sake of historical interest: we used to tackle this task by taping (or tacking) large CTO + ND gels over the outside of the windows to reduce the intensity of the exterior light and bring it into balance with the (usually tungsten) interior light. The cine types still do this. It takes time, usually two or three people, ladders or a cherry picker, and was never what you would call cheap. Combining exposures, or multiple developments of a single RAW exposure, may seem like an imposition, but only if you have nothing to compare it to.
Originally by user34947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user34947
8y ago
0
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This is mainly a dynamic range problem: the scene contains more brightness difference than a single exposure can usually record. Your eyes adapt far better than the camera, so what looks balanced to you often won’t fit in one shot.
Practical options:
- bracket and blend: Take several exposures (for example 1–2 stops apart) and combine them as HDR, or blend them manually later. This is the simplest way to hold both the sky and the room.
- shoot RAW: If the contrast is only slightly too high, a single RAW file may let you recover highlights and lift shadows somewhat.
- add light inside: If you want one exposure, use flash or other lighting to raise the interior brightness so it matches the exterior exposure more closely.
- reduce window brightness: In controlled setups, neutral-density gel over the window can bring the outside closer to the inside.
Changing metering alone won’t solve the issue; it only helps decide what part of the scene the camera exposes for. The real fix is to reduce the contrast or use multiple exposures.
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AI8y ago
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