Shooting lights and chandeliers: a question

[Egy_lover]

Hi, I dunno if this is the best place to post this question or this forum is for lighting equipment only, so I apologize if it is the wrong place...

I'm obviously new and I have a question : when I shoot lamps, lights and chandeliers like in the photo below the light are burned out and light looks diffusing out of the lamp...I tried using a small aperture and an ISO of 800 but it doesn't work..





Can anyone please help?

[OsmosisStudios]

They're over exposed and the light is "bleeding" into surrounding pixels.

With something like this, you have 2 options: get the lights looking the way you want (lower your exposure) and get the chandelier itself properly exposed. You cant have both.

[Egy_lover]

thnx for replying...but to be honest I'm kinda disappointed I can't beleive there isn't a way to overcome this! BTW. I'm NOT talking about correcting the situation on the computer, I'm asking about how to AVOID this "bleeding of lights into suroundings" before taking the shot, what settings should I use? Just in case I wasn't clear in my question...

P.S. And I apologize for the large image "didn't know that 600 px are that large!

[candleman]

you cant.. basically.. its an exposure thing.
you cant expose for a highlight and a shadow without trickery.

OK. its is possible.. but:

you will need to use flash to fill in the shadows, and basically fill the room.
OR
take several exposures of the same scene, and do some exposure blending. (youtube it)
OR
you can put the over and under exposed images through a program like photomatix and create a hideous HDR

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Egy_lover

'm asking about how to AVOID this "bleeding of lights into suroundings" before taking the shot, what settings should I use?

Lower the exposure, so either shorten the shutter speed or stop-down the aperture (or, preferably, lower the ISO). The background will go black, but the lights will look proper.

If you have the time to set up a tripod and frame things, take 2 shots like Candleman suggested and mix/match sections.

[Egy_lover]

Candlemanand Osmosis studios...thnx alot guys...I'll try the HDR and exposure blending thanks alot