While photographing my laundry remodeling project last summer, I discovered that there are two situations that are extremely difficult to capture in digital photography: light fixtures, and indoor spaces with windows.
Recently, I wanted to photograph our dining room with a homemade chandelier turned on and a bright, snowy scene showing through a set of windows. I wanted detail in the room, in the light fixture, and in the outdoor snowy scene.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to have it all in a single shot, no matter how much special lighting you have. As you can see in photos 2, 3, 4, and 5, you will lose detail somewhere in the photo no matter what exposure you choose.
The solution to indoor/lighting photography?
1. Set the camera on a tripod.
2. Take three or four exactly placed photos at different exposures: one to capture the detail outside the window, one to capture detail in the light fixture, and one or two to capture detail in the rest of the room.
3. Mash all four photos in Photoshop.
Recently, I wanted to photograph our dining room with a homemade chandelier turned on and a bright, snowy scene showing through a set of windows. I wanted detail in the room, in the light fixture, and in the outdoor snowy scene.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to have it all in a single shot, no matter how much special lighting you have. As you can see in photos 2, 3, 4, and 5, you will lose detail somewhere in the photo no matter what exposure you choose.
The solution to indoor/lighting photography?
1. Set the camera on a tripod.
2. Take three or four exactly placed photos at different exposures: one to capture the detail outside the window, one to capture detail in the light fixture, and one or two to capture detail in the rest of the room.
3. Mash all four photos in Photoshop.
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Signing UpStep 1: How to Mash Different Exposures
To mash photos with different exposures, you'll need an image editing software that works in layers. Photoshop is one of several that do so, and it is the software used here.
Before you "mash," or combine, photos, be sure to make COPIES of the photos you wish to mash. DO NOT work with originals.
Next, layer the photos as follows from darkest to lightest.
1. Open the second darkest photo, select the entire photo with the selection tool and copy.
2. Open the darkest photo and paste the second darkest on top. The second darkest photo will appear above the darkest photo in the layers sidebar.
3. Repeat with second lightest and the lightest photos, pasting them on top of the darker photos. All photos will now appear in the layers sidebar stacked from darkest to lightest.
Before you "mash," or combine, photos, be sure to make COPIES of the photos you wish to mash. DO NOT work with originals.
Next, layer the photos as follows from darkest to lightest.
1. Open the second darkest photo, select the entire photo with the selection tool and copy.
2. Open the darkest photo and paste the second darkest on top. The second darkest photo will appear above the darkest photo in the layers sidebar.
3. Repeat with second lightest and the lightest photos, pasting them on top of the darker photos. All photos will now appear in the layers sidebar stacked from darkest to lightest.
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Light is light. It is called "flash" because the duration is so short but it can be modified with the exactly same methods as any light.
With the light fixture you could either change some serious bulbs in them and only burn them for the time you really need to, not as general illumination or you could screw in one of those E27-socket slaves. Even if you use hot lights in the sockets, the heat will not harm anything if the burn time is short enough.
Balance the exposures. You are the photographer, you do the light. The only lighting level you cannot control is what is outside, what is inside is up to you. I do not know if any digital camera can do double exposures but with film things like the lighting fixtures could be exposed for a much longer time providing the outside light can be somehow shut out.
Digital or film does not matter, the camera is only a tool to capture the light. The same lighting works, the same filters, colors, physics... the thing that differs is that with film you get continuous tones with grain, with digital you get a finite number of tones with pixels.
Do not be fooled into thinking that the "old-fashioned" camera books contain information that cannot be used with the new-fangled digital. Look at pictures by Adams, Cornell, Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Hurrell, Leibowitz and a bunch of others and remember that they are not made on a computer, they are real. Recreate the scene and take the picture with your digital and you get the same result.
Photography is about vision and light, it is not about cameras and materials. Think about computers, is it the computer or the person between the keyboard and chair that does the work; the same applies to photography: camera or photographer?
Study the light and you will eventually become one with the scene, study the paints and you become one with the canvas.
Open photoshop.
File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR
Select your images and follow the prompts. It will do everything for you.
Thanks again for the tip.
I once downloaded GIMP, the free photo editing software, but never learned enough about it to do what you did. It does work in layers and probably would do what you have done.
Yes, I think GIMP works in layers and is free. Too bad there are so few tutorials on how to use it. Perhaps that's what keeps people away.
:)
As an example with flash; outside lets say 1/125s at f/8 while inside the available light would sit at approximately 1/30s at f/8. Now add flash so that the flash exposure would be at f/8 with the shutter set to 1/125. Or flash to f/16 and shutter at 1/30 just as f/4 and 1/500 would have the same effect bearing in mind that on real cameras only leaf shutters can go up to 1/500 and still sync.
The first thing to remember is to stay within the flash sync speeds, that is not to use a shutter speed that is faster than the maximum sync speed. The other is that electronic flash exposure is only affected by the aperture, not the shutter speed.
This could also be done with hot lights but the problem would be the massive amount of light needed to balance the high noon outside.
P.S. I need a DSLR. Bet the options would open up over a regular digital.