 Nancy Lyons |
Shooting Home Interior Shots I even went out and bought a bounce flash that is Quantaray QDC800 with Canon module to work with the camera. I thought that would help fill the room but it didn't. That may be partly due to my lack of knowledge on how to use the settings with the flash. So I end up using the built-in flash on the camera because they seem to come out better with it than the flash I bought. I don't know if this is enough information or not, but do you have any suggestions on how to shoot these rooms so that I can get a "daylight effect" without making without making the portion of the room around the windows dark? This is a great forum and I have learned a lot. Thanks.
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BetterPhoto Member |
Nancy- I have done a lot of architectural photography, and your problem has solutions, but you may not want to go there. First, the difference in brightness from outside the windows and inside the room is so extreme that film cannot handle it and digital has a tough time as well. That is why we use portable strobes, umbrellas, spots, and boxes. We can then bring the light level of the room up to the brightness outside. That is the part where "you may not want to go there." Second, avoid the windows altogether and use the window light (out of camera view) to brighten the rest of the room and maybe use your flash as a fill light. Are you shooting digital? If so, you can preview the image brightness and it will make your job much easier. Get away from setting P and so on. Put your camera on a tripod, set the camera metering/exposure for manual, set your f/stop at f/8, and adjust the shutter speed for the proper exposure. Adjust your settings until the picture looks good.
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Nancy Lyons |
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Nancy Lyons |
Sorry the question has been submitted 3 times. I was trying to upload my photos and it won't let me because it keeps asking me to add my camera. I have done that in my add camera page and it is showing it on that page but won't let me choose it. I have not gone past that page so I don't know why it has submitted the question each time I tried. Sorry about that and I will make sure I am more careful. Thanks again for the help.
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Jon Close |
Re: lighting - Bounce flash and/or using a diffuser such as the Sto-Fen Omnibounce should help even out the lighting from the flash so you don't get "hot spots" and reflections, but only if the flash is powerful enough (I can't find specs on the Quantaray 800). Bouncing takes at least 2x more power than direct flash, and if the ceilings are tall or the room too large then you just may not have enough flash power to use the flash as the main light source. Because of this I second the suggestion to use the flash but with a tripod and either Av or M exposure mode. These will give a longer shutter speed so that you get good exposure combining the light from the windows and flash. Setting smaller aperture of f/8 will give a little greater depth of field (more near/far objects in apparent focus) than the P mode, which usually sets the aperture wide open. Re: splicing images to get full room view: This works and probably gives you less wide-angle distortion than using a wider angle lens. But if you want to save post-processing time, then consider a wider angle lens. While seemingly a small difference from 18mm, going to 15mm or 14mm will make a large difference (add another 10° +). A 14mm non-fisheye prime will probably have less distortion than a zoom. Canon and Sigma each make a good 14mm f/2.8. Sigma has a 12-24 f/4.5-5.6 EX and Canon has just introduced their EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 USM, which looks pretty good.
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William Koplitz |
There are a couple of tricks here, but the simplest is with digital photography: Camera on a tripod, one exposure for the room, lit correctly, one exposure for the window with the room lights off. Both photos into Photoshop layers, erase the burned-out window to reveal the correctly exposed window on the layer below. In film, we had to do this on the same piece of cut film, and it became a carefully orchestrated, nerve-wrecking double-exposure photo experiment. You can make one exposure with professional studio strobes if you have a good direction shooting out of the window. Southern-facing windows are the toughest - many times you can balance a north-facing window.
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Jim Zimmerman |
Nancy - This may not be an available option, but consider shooting the pictures at night (using flash to light the room) or shooting late in the day/early evening when less light is streaming through the windows and you can get a closer balance between the interior lighting and the window light. It may take a long exposure because there is a lot less light, but the balance will be there. Jim
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Ken Henry |
It's easy. Unfortunatly digital only sees 2/3 of what film cameras see thru the lenses. For maximum full view the Sigma 12-24 lens will give you an equivalent of 18mm to 36mm on film cameras, which is good. I don't use anything wider than a 17mm lens film camera. I also use Canon TSE lenses and converted Nikon PC lenses. Here is how easy it is when I use my digital camera. It sounds like you are trying to capture the exterior and interior. Your camera on a tripod in manual mode. At this time you will see a dark room thru your monitor. Near me I have a 250GN Mono Flash on light stand with a 48" silver umbrella. Plugged into the flash is an SSR receiver to pick up the signal from the camera flash. Now I make my first exposure. If the flash is to high I change the power on the flash until I get the correct exposure. If there are other dark rooms or hallways, etc, in the picture you'll have to close those doors or set up additional flashes. Regards, Ken
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Nancy Lyons |
Thanks for all the great advice. I am scheduled for some more photos this weekend and I will use the advice to help my lighting problems. Thanks.
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