Exposure Troubles. Interior Bathroom Vanity Lights Close to Reflective White Tiles

[Jontz71]

Hey guys, any one have any tips for shooting real estate baths and exposures issues when shooting bright led vanity lights mounted close to white tiles ?

Have watched some of the f Stoppers videos on this but still running into trouble. Shooting with Canon 5D Mark IV. EXii speedlight.

Normally I set the ISO to 400-640 in darker interiors. Wide angle Tokina 2.8 lens set at F7.1. I then put the camera in AV mode to get a Shutter Speed to jump from. Shoot the Ambient, Shoot 3 stops below and 3 stops over. I then set back to Ambient and do some flash pops in areas to blend in photoshop later.

Check out my sample shots of in progress and let me know if there are better or easier ways Shooting on Site or mixing blends between the Ambient and Stops below ?

Where am I going wrong ? Hopefully something really dumb and easy to fix ?

See sample shots here:

3 Stops below. Tried to Expose for Wall Lights:

Ambient Shot with Flash:

Too much contrast between the images to blend the wall:

Cut out fixtures ( still going to level them ) . Started painting in new tiles behind the Fixtures

 

[480sparky]

Try lower wattage lamps. Or a dimmer.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

With such a big range of contrast, perhaps a combined shot HDR method is needed?

Some models can do this in camera to save time in post.

 

[ac12]

This will ALWAYS be a problem when there is a bright light source in a dim room.
As I see it these are the options

• HDR
• use enough flash to almost overpower the lights
  
• turn the lights OFF when you shoot, and just use your flash
  
• dim the lights (not an option if there isn't a dimmer on the lights)
  
• put in a LOW wattage bulb (but you have to carry a bunch of bulbs for different lamps, and you can't always change the bulbs)

 

[tirediron]

This will ALWAYS be a problem when there is a bright light source in a dim room.
As I see it these are the options

• use enough flash to almost overpower the lights

The key.... there are a lot of things you can do, and techniques such as HDR can help, but they're not perfect for every job. Showing up with a big box of random incandescent bulbs probably isn't practical either. One speedlight and a basic modifier (heck if it's all white, you might not even need a modifier) will make this problem all go away. Additionally, don't be so quick to rack that Tokina (11-17 I assume?) all the way out to get the shot in one frame. You've made the cabinet look like it's about 12" wide and 12' feet tall. A four image pano at a more modest 40-60mm FL would yield much less distorted results.

 

[480sparky]

Another option is to carry theatrical gels that are neutral colored. Remove the decorative shades and cut & fit the gels to cut down the lamps output, then replace the shades.

 

[smoke665]

Or as mentioned above shoot with lights off, then light the globe's. Use a layer>camera raw filter>brush to create the light, or use the Render Light method Add lighting effects in Photoshop

 

[Braineack]

how long was the exposure? how much are those light contributing to it?

this shot screams for bounced flash exposure, then overlay a shot with those lights on.

 

[Jontz71]

how long was the exposure? how much are those light contributing to it?

this shot screams for bounced flash exposure, then overlay a shot with those lights on.

1/20 shutter and using exii canon speed light to bounce toward top of ceiling. no modifier on light.

would using a stronger power flash over power the existing fixtures so they would not cast such a blow out on the tile directly behind them ??

 

[480sparky]

Would it be possible to take a shot with an open shutter, turn the lights on long enough to 'correctly' expose them, then fire off the speedlight multiple times, then close the shutter?

"Light painting".

 

[Jontz71]

Would it be possible to take a shot with an open shutter, turn the lights on long enough to 'correctly' expose them, then fire off the speedlight multiple times, then close the shutter?

"Light painting".

How to know how long to leave the Shutter Open without blowing out the lights ? Trail and error ?

 

[480sparky]

Would it be possible to take a shot with an open shutter, turn the lights on long enough to 'correctly' expose them, then fire off the speedlight multiple times, then close the shutter?

"Light painting".

How to know how long to leave the Shutter Open without blowing out the lights ? Trail and error ?

Shutter is always open.

Shoot at night with no ambient lighting to worry about. Set up camera on tripod. Focus & compose. Set aperture. Turn off the lights. Open shutter. Turn lights on and off. Then, with JUST the speedlight, fire off mutliple flashes until it matches the exposure of the lights. Close shutter.

Yes, there's some trial and error. But you should be able to nail it by first setting how long to turn the lights on, then another trial to get the light painting exposure correct. This shouldn't take more than 4-6 trial runs. Then you combine both exposures and check the results. Make minor adjustments if needed.

 

[JBPhotog]

Three stops under isn’t enough. Try more like five to six and blend via luminosity masks and apply image curves. Also, shoot using a flat or neutral profile, not sure if Canon has that mode, it will give you more DR for processing. Your base ISO by default also gives you the most DR, increasing it to 400-640 only drops your DR making it harder to get detail, I shoot this type of stuff at ISO 64.

Do you shoot in Raw, try Adobe Camera Raw to process the file, adjustment brush can improve blending too.