Dusty stairs

[Heinz]

Well i went to an abandoned house and saw these stairs and thought they looked pretty cool. But afterwards i noticed that especially towards the right of the image it is quite blown out in the sunlight, what would you reccomend to keep this properly exposed? Also what is your take on the composition of the shot? Thankyou


Untitled by HeinrichPrinsloo, on Flickr

[Heinz]

oh and these are the settings etc..

Camera Canon EOS 1000D
Exposure 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture f/1.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

[dlambert]

Keeping detail in the stairwell on the left is going to be difficult w/o blowing out the highlights on the right, as you discovered. You might have some luck with a graduate ND filter, or with post-processing to burn the stuff on the right and/or dodge on the left. This is probably a great candidate for HDR, in fact, because what you really want is to expose for shadows & highlights in a couple different photos.

As far as the composition goes, it's got promise. The stairs lead my eyes to the upper-right of the photo, though, and I found myself wishing there was something there to anchor that corner.

[Heinz]

Thankyou that was pretty helpful, i was considering getting somebody to stand at the top right however that would block the sunlight aha. But if i go again i'll definately try HDR or something, thanks.