How to Better Light This Scene?

[astrostu]

Here's a shot from Thanksgiving last month in the kitchen. The problem that I have is that the room is extremely deep, and the lighting is fine for actually cooking, but it's horrible for photography.

Other than putting up giant lights around the room, is there anything I can do in the future for taking pictures in this room?

 

[mysteryscribe]

you could try bouncing a large flash off the ceiling to light the room reasonbly evenly. Other than that it is going to take more than one strobe light I think. Any additional strobe light will help with pictures.

 

[markc]

A lens with a wide aperture might do the trick, like the 50mm/f1.8. That way you can avoid the flash altogether. When the camera tries to expose for the super-bright flash up-close, the further back ambient light becomes nothing in comparison. You still might have to deal with some slow shutter speeds though, depending on how much light there is in there.

 

[mysteryscribe]

but a slow shutter speed with strob usually gives less movement blur... If you set your bounce in the middle of the room you should be able to avoid most of the burn of close up. Strobe is not a dirty word.

 

[shmspac]

In Photoshop, select the “Screen” mode in the Layers palette and you will see where the lighting problems are and how they could be solved. I am NOT suggesting “Screen” mode as a solution, only use to see that you have all the background detail, it’s just in the dark! You have track lighting on the ceiling that could be turned on, be sure to face the lights toward the wall, to attain “bounce/reflected light”, it looks now like the light fixtures are not facing the wall, which would result in other problems, if these lights are on a dimmer, all the better, then just try to find the right balance of ambient light. This will help distribute light and help reduce some of the harsh shadowing you will note with the “Screen” layer selected. There are lots of other things that you could do, but this is easy and costs nothing. Once you find a reasonable balance, you can fine tune with “Levels”, “Shadows/Highlights” etc using Photoshop.

 

[astrostu]

Thanks.

 

[myopia]

for this, i'd say a 28mm f/2.8 , 35mm f/2, or 50mm f/1.4 (primes) so no flash is used.
i think a wide angle lens would work well with the room also (with the given distortion of the WA lens), but fast WA lenses are mucho expensivo.

 

[Philip Weir]

Yours is an age old question, but you gave me a hint. I have often shot in restaurants where they have spent a lot of money with the lighting to get the right mode, as with your kitchen, the lighting has been installed for cooking. Don't destroy the effect by flash, apart from maybe a bounce flash to fill the darker areas. Put your camera on a tripod and shoot basically available light. You will be amazed at the difference.
www.philipweirphotography.com