Question for architecture photographers

[Allthink]

What software, or manual method you do when you have at least 5-7 stops difference between interior and exterior AND, it's not an apartment that you can balance with flashes but a big spaces.
In case you are getting very real, close to real shot "look", what methods you apply?
All software I know of and i tried them all, don't give close to natural looks. On the other hand, manual methods are hard to blend as some interior elements of arc. that are close to exterior lighting have to be in almost same ~ lighting as exterior and not close to interior lighting, sometimes in between.
If you are creating realistic high DR arch. images, share your technique in brief.

 

[RAZKY]

are very convenient.What software, or manual method you do when you have at least 5-7 stops difference between interior and exterior AND, it's not an apartment that you can balance with flashes but a big spaces.
In case you are getting very real, close to real shot "look", what methods you apply?
All software I know of and i tried them all, don't give close to natural looks. On the other hand, manual methods are hard to blend as some interior elements of arc. that are close to exterior lighting have to be in almost same ~ lighting as exterior and not close to interior lighting, sometimes in between.
If you are creating realistic high DR arch. images, share your technique in brief.

Large spaces can be illuminated the same as small spaces - just takes more lights, and usually more powerful lights. Properly positioned, flashes are very efficient. Takes a lot of practice, but is pretty basic.

 

[Allthink]

Large spaces can be illuminated the same as small spaces - just takes more lights, and usually more powerful lights. Properly positioned, flashes are very efficient. Takes a lot of practice, but is pretty basic.

Thanks.
I'm familiar with using flashes.
Not possible to use them in public interior places ~50 meter length, like I mentioned before, where hundreds of people pass. NOT POSSIBLE.
And even if I was getting such an extreme weird confirmation to do so, i was still going to pass that approach.
Also, no light, even 4000w/s flashes, will not cover for 7 stop difference from exterior in such spaces.

 

[jeffashman]

Shalom cha! Howdy and welcome!

 

[Allthink]

Shalom cha! Howdy and welcome!

Thanks Jeff
Max

 

[Strodav]

The dynamic range of my Nikons is around 12 to 14 stops assuming base ISO. So a difference of 5 to 7 stops in a well exposed image can be easily addressed in post with the tone curves or just the highlight / shadow / white / black sliders. Another technique I frequently use is to bracket 3 to 5 shots at +/- 1 1/2 to 2 stops then take them into post. You can use the HDR app in your post processing software to merge the shots. If I don't like the result, I take them into PS and put them in different layers then blend in the best part of each of the shots.

 

[Allthink]

The dynamic range of my Nikons is around 12 to 14 stops assuming base ISO. So a difference of 5 to 7 stops in a well exposed image can be easily addressed in post with the tone curves or just the highlight / shadow / white / black sliders. Another technique I frequently use is to bracket 3 to 5 shots at +/- 1 1/2 to 2 stops then take them into post. You can use the HDR app in your post processing software to merge the shots. If I don't like the result, I take them into PS and put them in different layers then blend in the best part of each of the shots.

Thanks Strodav
I just "measured by eye" this 6-7 stops, maybe there is more, but it's not total 6-7 stops, it's 6 stops offset, so even from normal exposure I couldn't bring this range back within 1 good exposed(but also have brackets). I used D850, so it wasn't enough. HDR apps in sort of frozen stage, I don't see them improving over the years since 2017 when Aurora HDR came, but like others Photomattix and NIk all are not improved. I don't like their results and as you take them to post but blending brackets in good clever way without a masking in reasonable time(10 min per image) is a big challenge.

 

[407370]

Have a look at this thread from a few years ago..

Help Combining two shots

There was a 10 stop difference between inside and outside.

Take 2 pics on a tripod from the same spot. 1 pic exposed for bright bits and 1 exposed for the darker bits. If required add / subtract brightness and create a separate image for every 2 stops of range. Thats exactly what I did in this thread.

Layer the pics up in any application that supports layers and adjust each layer opacity to taste.

Hope that helps

 

[Allthink]

Have a look at this thread from a few years ago..

Help Combining two shots

There was a 10 stop difference between inside and outside.

Take 2 pics on a tripod from the same spot. 1 pic exposed for bright bits and 1 exposed for the darker bits. If required add / subtract brightness and create a separate image for every 2 stops of range. Thats exactly what I did in this thread.

Layer the pics up in any application that supports layers and adjust each layer opacity to taste.

Hope that helps

Thank you. Not sure I got it. 2 taken images(over, under) you align them in PS and then create 2 additional ones from those 2 and playing with opacity? Maybe there is some video on that, to see if I know the technique.

 

[407370]

Thank you. Not sure I got it. 2 taken images(over, under) you align them in PS and then create 2 additional ones from those 2 and playing with opacity? Maybe there is some video on that, to see if I know the technique.

Its actually really simple.

Take each image and create separate progressively lighter / darker versions as above.

For your scenario I would imagine you would end up with around 8 images in total. 4 images from the pic exposed for the bright part + 4 images from the pic exposed for the dark part.

The below pic was produced in Affinity Photo just by creating layers for each pic and playing with opacity sliders:

The Pic below was created by just importing the different brightness images as a new HDR:

There are a multitude of HDR parameters within Affinity.

I prefer doing this rather than doing bracketing in camera.

Hope that helps.

CHEERS
JBO