overexposed lights (indoor photos)

[super6s]

I am a fairly new employee at an architecture firm and really enjoy photography. The firm hires "real professionals" for large and high profile jobs. I do a fair job of taking project photographs for small jobs not worth the professional fee. I love the opportunity to fill a void for the office. The office has a Kodak Professional DCS Pro SLR with a Nikon AF-S 24-85mm lense. I am still figuring this camera out. I have always shot with Canon.

What I am looking for help on has nothing to do with what equipment I use. I have gotten comments from the boss that the lights in my interior shots are over-exposed. He is right, they are pretty bad hot spots in the photos.

I have always had this problem, but I admit that I let the camera do the metering for me. I do not have/use a light meter. Does someone have a suggestion on a technique/trick to get the light input without actually blowing out the lights?

I am also OK in photoshop, but I would like to fix the problem on the front end, not the back. Any suggestions?

 

[Patrice]

Ususally a mix of natural or ambient lights and flash. Beg/borrow/steal a flash meter and experiment. You'll get really good at it in a very short while.

 

[Alex_B]

spot meter on what you want to have exposed correctly. if there are highlights around which are rather strong compared to what you metered on, give the whole shot some exposure compensation (- 1.5 EV or -2 EV). play around.