Taking shot inside, daytime, without flash, trying capture interior and exterior view

[tebuild]

I am trying to capture interior and exterior view in the same shot without flash. I either seem to to get interior with the exterior to bright or the exterior with the interior to dark.
I am shooting with a canon 60D 18-135. I enjoy natural lighting.

[steve40]

You are going to have to bracket your shots, and use a tripod. Take three shots one at the meter reading, one at one ot two EV+, and one at one or two EV-. You will need to merge these shots in a program like Photomatrix or PhotoShop, and create a HDR image.

This is the only way to get an exposure, with that broad of latitude. Otherwise you will keep getting the interior to dark when exposing for the outside light, or the outside burned out when exposing for the interior.

One other alternative would be to split the difference, and go -1EV from the interior meter reading. Then use the Highlight/Shadow tool in PhotoShop, to correct the highlights and shadows as much as possible. But your best results will still be obtained doing a HDR.

[FrankMi]

Hi Tebuild, welcome to CiC! Perhaps you could update your profile with your first name so the conversation doesn't have to be so formal.

I also shoot almost exclusively with natural light. For this type of scene you need to take multiple exposures in order to capture the wide range of exposure values that are present. The following picture was shot using a tripod and three exposures, one at normal, one at +2EV and one at -2EV. As my camera doesn't have Auto-Bracketing, the EV settings were done manually. Owing to the contrast range, I should have done 5 exposures at -4EV, -2EV, 0EV, +2EV, and +4EV but I was just starting to learn the process.

I shot this one in JPG but have since learned to shoot in RAW mode and use Lightroom to convert them to JPG. I then used Photomatix to combine them into a single JPG. There are always bits and pieces of cleanup needed to be done to specific parts of the image so the next step was to open the JPG in Photoshop for that. For this type of image the color balance can be a nightmare as outside, the color temperature can be from about 5500-7500 Kelvin; inside, it can be anywhere from 2700-4000 Kelvin. It takes some time in Photoshop to get the shadows, highlights, and color balance looking reasonable.

If you don't have Photomatix (there is a free 30-day trial), you can combine the images in Photoshop, Elements or any post processing software that supports masking and layers.



Let us know if you have any additional questions.

[rpcrowe]

Neil van Niekirk writes in his "Flash Photography techniques"

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-pho...hy-techniques/

"As photographers we’re always looking for perfect light.
And yet, the quality of available light isn’t always ideal. It is rarely perfect.

But I feel that in using flash wisely, I’m able to enhance or over-ride the available light. With careful use of flash, I am more in control of light, and hence the way my photos will look – than if I had just accepted the existing ambient light.

Instead of waiting for perfect light, I use what I have …
and add flash to make the best of the situation...

...These pages were originally written to help other photographers who struggle with on-camera flash. But they were also written as a reaction against the snobbery of the purists who insist on using available light only – even when it looks terrible."

(IMO) Flash is simply a tool and it is a tool that a photographer needs to learn to use if that photographer wants to be well rounded and to be able to shoot in various venues. As Neil mentions, flash can look natural but, bouncing is the secret.

[tebuild]

Thanks for the tip!

[tebuild]

Thank you for the tips and taking the time to reply!!

[Donald]

MOD Edit

Same question posted in two new threads in two diffeernt sections of the site.

Threads merged so that everyone engaged in the discussion is part of the same thread.

[Shadowman]

i've found that shutter speeds and even aperture vary just by the position of the sun.

[Dons]

Hi Tom, maybe you can try using bracketing mode also...