[bryankknight]

was wondering if a quick tutorial can be added for this following sanerio:
I am in no way a professional but I have an understanding of the basics of photography.
But one part of my shooting keeps me baffled.
A perfect example is in this image of what problems i encounter time and again.
compensating the dark interior towards the bright window.
Time after time when i shoot something like this the window becomes over exposed with a good
exposure inside but I cannot seem to get the window portion and the interior space to be a good
exposure hand in hand. I always end up with this (see photo).
NOW what I do is:
Meter off the window (bright portion): I under expose the interior
meter off the window (bright portion) and compensate a step or 2 up or down: interior is under exposed still.
meter off the interior dark spaces: I over expose the window (bright portion)
Meter off the interior dark spaces and compensate a step or two up or down: Window still is over exposed.
While changing ISO's is still over exposing the window
Also I am NOT using flash in this situation. The photo below is too large for a flash to fill the lobby.

I think it has something to do with the metering but i swear i cannot get my hands around it.
Am I at least on the right track?
Should I be compensating more steps? Am I even using the right approach to metering this shot?
Thanks for all of your comments

Attached Images

 

[manishved]

Try HDR

[einstrigger]

Shoot on a tripod, meter for the interior, use bracketing mode with +/- 2 EV and 3 or 5 exposures, then combine the images in post. You're dealing with highly contrasting elements between the dark interior of the lobby and the bright window. Since you don't have any moving subjects, I think bracketing and combining (a la HDR) would be your best bet in getting everything properly exposed.

[D4rknezz]

For triple threat : HDR

[bryankknight]

HDR eh. I will try to merge them together and see how it looks.
Im not a big fan of the built in HDR feature on the body so ill use
all the shots I took.

would that really be the only way? Or are there others that mainly professionals will be able to pull off?

What if I did have movement in the scene? HDR would be messy wouldnt it?

Also I did use a tripod in this shot( although now that I look at it closer its
a bit blurry).

thanks

[manishved]

Yes, HDR is not that easy unless you have the K-5. With the K-7 it will take multiple images and then process them. There is a possibility of camera shake.

[D4rknezz]

HDR eh. I will try to merge them together and see how it looks.
Im not a big fan of the built in HDR feature on the body so ill use
all the shots I took.

would that really be the only way? Or are there others that mainly professionals will be able to pull off?

What if I did have movement in the scene? HDR would be messy wouldnt it?

Also I did use a tripod in this shot( although now that I look at it closer its
a bit blurry).

thanks

Ok: Your options.
- With REALLY big budget lights up the lobby. That is, several ranger packs all around the darker areas.
- With a single camera and a tripod and on a schedule go HDR
- With a single camera and a tripod and not on a schedule wait for cloudy skies
- Grab a neutral image , single exposure, then do a 1 picture HDR toning.

If you can bracket your shots, then you wont have to have much movement in the shots. If you need to change your exposures manually then yeah, you will get people miling about.

But in general, you are correct, which is why most HDR images doesnt involve moving elements.

[tackyat.2]

The way I would do it (besides HDR, though I would try that second) is using Lightroom.

Because the K-7 sensor has relatively decent shadow dynamic range, you could probably push the shadows pretty easily. Meter off the windows and go one stop over. Don't know if it's a surefire solution, but it is one way.

Either way, in order to capture all the detail in the scene, you need to do some post-processing. No way around it.

[sgtkashim]

For not terribly much money you can get some cheap radio triggers and some all-manual flashes. Put diffusers/stofens on them (for the bare bulb effect) and light the room. Unless you're gonna piss off the others in the lobby...

It works better in smaller spaces, but it's certainly doable. Attached pic is 2 cheap flashes (Viv 285HV and YN560) and some Cowboy Studio radio triggers...

[wshi]

Pretty much everything's been covered, but I'd say that with a space that huge there's no way to reasonably expect to be able to overpower the sun with strobes. It's just not going to happen unless you've got them set all over the place and suspended from the ceilings.

There's no getting around the fact that the inside and outside are many stops of light different. So what I'd do is take two exposures, one of the inside correctly exposed like you have here (although corrected for white balance, which you haven't really done), and one of the windows correctly exposed which would of course leave the inside totally dark. Then in post, use layer masks to selectively show and blend the two together.