Reducing window glare
- Thread starter pmillage
- Start date
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
I suppose the most obvious solution would be to expose for the highlights and then correct the overall brightness of the image in post. Are you shooting JPG or RAW and what are you using for post processing (assuming you are)?
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Well the problem here is dynamic range and if the shooting conditions have a higher dynamic range than what your D7100 can handle, there's not much you CAN do; at least not in-camera. Dynamic range is a frustrating limitation we all suffer with. I suppose you could learn to do some HDR, but I don't think that's the solution you're looking for either.
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Blade Canyon
Senior Member
If you expose for the outside, is your flash powerful enough to balance the interior with the exterior? Can the flash do high-speed sync with your D7100?
Using a higher shutter speed willl control the exterior exposure without compromising the light from the flash if you can do high speed sync. Just keep upping the shutter speed until the exterior is balanced with the interior. Flash should be set on manual, not TTL, so you can increase or decrease the flash power to balance the interior with the exterior. So if you take a shot on HSS and the interior is correct, but the exterior is too bright, increase the shutter speed only. If the exterior is too dark but the interior is correct, decrease the shutter speed only.
If your flash will not handle high speed sync, start at the highest possible shutter speed for flash, which on a D7100 is 1/250th sec. Adjust the f-stop and/or ISO to correctly expose the exterior at 1/250th, then see if your flash can generate enough light (in manual mode, not TTL) to balance the interior with the exterior. The reason you don't want to use TTL is because the camera will see the exterior light through the window and will not fire the flash bright enough to balance the interior.
Even if your flash does not officially high-speed sync with your D7100, some photographers say that it will sync with faster shutter speeds if you just set the flash for full manual output each time it fires. This is a way to force the flash duration to last long enough so it exposes over the whole frame as the shutter curtain moves across the sensor. I've never tried it.
Hope that makes sense...
Using a higher shutter speed willl control the exterior exposure without compromising the light from the flash if you can do high speed sync. Just keep upping the shutter speed until the exterior is balanced with the interior. Flash should be set on manual, not TTL, so you can increase or decrease the flash power to balance the interior with the exterior. So if you take a shot on HSS and the interior is correct, but the exterior is too bright, increase the shutter speed only. If the exterior is too dark but the interior is correct, decrease the shutter speed only.
If your flash will not handle high speed sync, start at the highest possible shutter speed for flash, which on a D7100 is 1/250th sec. Adjust the f-stop and/or ISO to correctly expose the exterior at 1/250th, then see if your flash can generate enough light (in manual mode, not TTL) to balance the interior with the exterior. The reason you don't want to use TTL is because the camera will see the exterior light through the window and will not fire the flash bright enough to balance the interior.
Even if your flash does not officially high-speed sync with your D7100, some photographers say that it will sync with faster shutter speeds if you just set the flash for full manual output each time it fires. This is a way to force the flash duration to last long enough so it exposes over the whole frame as the shutter curtain moves across the sensor. I've never tried it.
Hope that makes sense...
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Blade Canyon
Senior Member
Glad to help. Post a pic!
Whiskeyman
Senior Member
I just attended a presentation on architectural photography from Al Audleman (ASA Photo).
He covered this exact topic, and told us that we can do this however we want to, but he would take as few as two exposures: one inside (exposed for the inside) and another from outside, of the same outside scene. Layer them in Photoshop, and apply masks, and you don't need interior photo lights. If you have more than one color of lighting on the interior shot, take extra interior shots for each additional color temperature, and apply selective color temperature corrections and masks to the interior shot as well. His experience is that this is much easier and takes much less time than setting up the required lighting inside.
WM
He covered this exact topic, and told us that we can do this however we want to, but he would take as few as two exposures: one inside (exposed for the inside) and another from outside, of the same outside scene. Layer them in Photoshop, and apply masks, and you don't need interior photo lights. If you have more than one color of lighting on the interior shot, take extra interior shots for each additional color temperature, and apply selective color temperature corrections and masks to the interior shot as well. His experience is that this is much easier and takes much less time than setting up the required lighting inside.
WM
Blade Canyon
Senior Member
It's tough to see how that would work if there are sheer curtains or if the windows have any mullions or stanchions, but the white balance idea is great! I suppose you could just shoot one RAW shot and make multiple white balance JPEGS in post, blending them in PS. I'm going to try that next time I have mixed light.
I went to his website, and he clearly knows what he's doing, but I couldn't find any examples where it appears he masked in an exterior. There is one interior in his gallery where the window is blown out!
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Whiskeyman
Senior Member
He shoots everything in RAW and works it into ACR for Photoshop. From what I saw of his work, he shoots windows without dressings.
To get the white balance correct, he places white printer paper sheets, folded into tents and placed under the appropriate lighting and takes one shot with all of them in place for the white balance template. He then removes the papers and reshoots and has his white balance correction template and his main shot. He then makes the main shot into the appropriate numbers of layers in PS and uses the template for color correction for each section of lighting and masks layers as required for the final product.
Sorry, but he explained a whole lot better than I am doing. After hearing him explain it, my reaction was why didn't I think of that. But of course, I know why I didn't and Al did: he's a smart professional with many years of experience. I am lucky to have pros like that to share their techniques and knowledge with people like me.
WM
WM
WM
Blade Canyon
Senior Member
Don't forget he is a professional who is paid for his time. That white paper idea is also good. Something to keep in mind if you have a LOT of time to take one good photograph. As I said, his work is definitely good. Ideas like that are why he gets hired.