best method for shooting indoors with bad light.

[Steve Pedersen]

hi folks,
first I barley know by butt from a hole in the ground where photography is concerned and I have had my camera for less then a week. I have been studying here and on other forums and have at least a weak grasp on iso, aperture and shutter speed not to great a grasp on the the way they interact.
I was volunteered to take some photo's of a relatives new apartment. I have what i think of as some good shots and a lot of shot's like the following


The over head light fixture is over exposed how does one deal with things like this ? i have other shots where one wall has a window that is like looking into search light but the rest of the room is fine.
i would really appreciate some general guidelines as a base line for me to experiment with.
my first thought would be higher iso,small aperture and a pretty fast shutter speed but that's really just a guess. these shots I took were all phd mode and the few experiments with manual turned out a lot worse, I have so much to learn :-)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[autofocus]

The over head light fixture is over exposed how does one deal with things like this ? i have other shots where one wall has a window that is like looking into search light but the rest of the room is fine.

Steve, you are dealing with a few reasons why this happens. Unless, you are spot metering, the camera's meter will take an average reading of all the light it sees, and adjust your camera's settings accordingly. And because of the camera's limited dynamic range it cannot correctly expose for the details in bright light while also showing the details in darker shadow areas. So, it's a bit of a compromise. Because of the human's eye/brain greater dynamic range ability, it can do this much better than the camera.

i would really appreciate some general guidelines as a base line for me to experiment with.

The best solution would be to add flash to the equation. While shooting in manual mode you could underexpose the ambient light by a stop or two, and have your speedlight set to TTL to add light and compensate for your underexposure. You also may need to bump up the flash output a bit. By doing this, you will often be able to see details back in your windows while illuminating the room

[autofocus]

Here are some examples of what I was talking about above from a recent real estate job we did (underexpose the ambient light and use of flash)


C_012 by vmontalbano, on Flickr


C_016 by vmontalbano, on Flickr

[shruggy63]

Why include the light? Move around, bend down, compose with your feet & your eyes!
Use trailing flash for truer colours?

[ccting]

I wander if we could do bracket, then combine them as HDR to improve the dynamic range???
I believe Autofocus is using Neilvn technique..am i correct?? from -1.7EV to -2 EV flash TTL.

Autofocus, any comment? Any filter that need to match the ambient light color?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by ccting

I wander if we could do bracket, then combine them as HDR to improve the dynamic range???
I believe Autofocus is using Neilvn technique..am i correct?? from -1.7EV to -2 EV flash TTL.

Autofocus, any comment? Any filter that need to match the ambient light color?

Yes, mostly correct about use of Neil van Niekerk methods. Basically, underexposed ambient, flash set to TTL and bounced off adjacent areas with no filters or gels. Here's the EXIF info for both shots above:

Camera	Canon EOS 20D
Exposure	0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture	f/7.1
Focal Length	17 mm
ISO Speed	200
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Flash	On, Fired

[SGToliver]

The technique mentioned by autofocus and used by Neil is so simple it's genius. Get the grasp of this and you will well on your way to creating the images you seek. You could try doing all sorts of fancy lighting setups using multiple light sources but this technique will eliminate the need for that (although not always). Bracketing, yeah you could do that but it seems so much easier to just get it right in the camera the first time around considering the ease of the technique.

[jimhuntphoto]

If all the walls are red then you have to adjust for that if youre going to bounce a flash off them. I would personally hdr it and be done. I might even blow a flash into the ceiling and throw that into the composite hdr to remove the shadow of the fan.

Note when shooting real estate. Your verticals must be vertical. Also Shruggy says bend down, you cant do that in this shot. In real estate photography you do not shoot the bottom of cupboards. Getting lower would do that.

The comp is pretty good but I would try to include a window.

[Nahum201]

Any filter that need to match the ambient light color?

[Steve Pedersen]

I am sorry, I never said thank you for your advice and help.
Thank you.