To achieve a balanced interior photo, take two 2-stop underexposed shots, one for the inside and one for the outside, and merge them in Photoshop or suitable free HDR software. Luminosity masking is crucial for ultimate control and quality, and ColorEfex is a great tool for bringing back contrast in an impactful yet refined way.
Plan the shoot beforehand to ensure that lighting is the main feature in interior spaces. Use a tripod and take two shots, one for feature lighting and the other for exterior lighting. In Chapter 1, learn about exposure, exposure triangle, reciprocity law, and exposure value. In Chapter 2, learn how to expose your subject.
To capture stunning interior design photos, learn how to use light, understand exposure, contrast, lighting, angles, and more. Adjust the interview setup so the chair and subject never cross the window, and grab a plate exposed for the exterior to mask in. Professional photographers use techniques to get a perfectly exposed interior when the room is dark and there is a bright view through the window.
In situations like this, strike a delicate balance between the interior and exterior light levels to avoid glare. Switch on all lights in the room, set the ISO to 400, point at the interior, not the window, to set the shutter speed, and set the shutter speed.
Using a tripod and taking two exposures, one for the inside and one for the outside, and blending them together in your editing tool can help you achieve a well-balanced image. Remember that three main camera settings are essential for interior photography: aperture (or f-stop), ISO, and shutter speed.
📹 GET THE PERFECT EXPOSURE every time
My name is Simon d’Entremont and I’m a professional wildlife and nature photographer from Eastern Canada. In this video I’ll …
How do you shoot interior rooms?
Interior photography is a challenging art and science that involves capturing the essence of a space and conveying its mood, style, and design. It is essential for both professional photographers and DIY enthusiasts to master this art. Key tips include using natural light, creating a balanced scene with composition and lines, showcasing the essence of the space, diversifying angles, and refining the end product. Mastering interior photography is crucial for homeowners, business owners, and individuals showcasing new living room designs or elegant hotel suites.
In today’s digital age, the importance of presenting spaces is even more important, as people prefer visual content in all aspects, including real estate and interiors. Platforms like Airbnb, real estate websites, and design portfolios have fueled this preference.
How to know if exposure is correct?
A technically correct exposure is a photo that contains detail in shadows and highlights, and a good tonal range. Many photographers strive for this, but this article explores the balance between technical and creative aspects of a correct exposure. Some genres benefit from technically correct exposures, where enough light hits the sensor, preserving detail in shadows and highlights, and allowing a broad range of tonal values in the scene. This balance is essential for capturing high-quality images.
What are the three settings to properly expose an image?
Starting a photography journey requires understanding the three key camera settings: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These settings are crucial for proper exposure, which determines the light or darkness of the photo. Understanding these settings can help you navigate through the confusing array of buttons and options on your camera, making the process of photography more manageable and effective.
What are the 3 C’s in photography?
The “3 C’s” framework is a tool designed to help photographers create visually creative and impactful photographs that communicate meaning in their images. These three C’s are Content, Concept, and Composition. Content refers to the subject matter found within an image, such as people, places, or things being photographed. It is often established first before going out and shooting, but may change during the creative process.
Concept is the message you want to express about your subject matter and the purpose for creating your images. This can be confusing for students to verbally communicate, but it is essential. To differentiate between the two, ask students about their type of photography and their theme. This helps them establish a more comfortable dialogue that helps them communicate their concept or idea in their photographs.
Composition is the art of seeing, selecting, and arranging elements and subjects in an interesting and pleasing way, achieving clear communication. Utilizing composition effectively is the focus of the Intermediate Photography course, which focuses on studying rules on constructing framing, such as perspective and balance, and various compositional design elements like line, pattern, texture, and color. The goal is to find ways to construct framing and design to make pleasing photographs and help express our meaning.
For example, if a photographer decides to photograph street photography, their content will be street scenes, such as Chicago street photography. This is still content, but it is more specific and detailed. The title “The Sterile City” is a concept that helps give criteria for what and how to shoot the project. In contrast, “The Urban Jungle” shows the chaos that can often exist on busy city streets of Chicago.
Determining the “3 C’s” helps establish WHO or WHERE, the WHAT and WHY, the concept they are communicating, and the HOW, the composition they are using. By practicing the “3 C’s” framework, photographers become more visually literate and develop their abilities to communicate more effectively through their photographs and the bodies of work they create. When integrating all of the “3 C’s”, viewers not only see their photographs but also experience them.
What is the best focal length for interior photography?
For interior and architectural photography, investing in a tilt-shift lens with a focal length of 19mm or 24mm is essential. This lens allows the camera body to remain level while changing the focusing plane, allowing for accurate capture of tall buildings. A sturdy tripod is recommended, especially in low-light situations where slower shutters may be needed for exposure bracketing. This saves the photographer from constantly crouching or bending down.
Tethered photography is beneficial for both the photographer and the client, as the small screen on the back of the camera allows for zooming into different areas of the image and determining if adjustments are needed before moving on. This ensures that the camera remains in the same position during exposure bracketing.
What aperture should I use for interior photography?
The aperture in a camera controls light permeability and depth of field, ensuring most of the scene is in focus and preventing diffraction issues. The ISO setting on the camera adjusts the sensor’s sensitivity to light, with lower values indicating less sensitivity and higher values indicating increased sensitivity, resulting in brighter images. Both factors are crucial for effective interior photography.
What is the best time of day to shoot interiors?
Photographing at dusk or dawn is ideal when the light outside matches the interior lighting. In summer, shoot from 7 to 11 am or 4 to 7 pm when windows are sunny. Avoid bright sunlight as it can over-exposed the photos and create high contrast shadows. Cloudy weather offers a soft look with less harsh shadows. Evening shots can be done, but ensure well-lit apartments and avoid taking photos on a phone in the dark. It is also important to avoid over-exposure and avoid using bright sunlight to avoid over-exposed images.
What does good exposure look like?
A well-exposed photograph should have a luminance histogram covering the entire range of values on the X-axis, with a few pixels at the ends and more pixels as you approach the middle. The histogram should be smooth, showing continuous growth and no spikes. For night photos, the histogram should lean towards the left side of the middle. For bright beach photos, the histogram should lean towards the right due to the bright tones.
An average contrast image will have vertical bars spread from darks to lights, with lower contrast bars more in the center and higher contrast bars distributed more widely. These principles can also be used for reading and evaluating in-camera histograms. A low-key histogram is also recommended.
What height should a camera be for interior photography?
It is generally recommended that cameras be placed between four and five feet above the ground in order to achieve optimal photographic results. Calgary Photos-based architecture photographer Rob Moroto posits that, despite the phrase’s status as a marketing tool, “shoot from the heart” is an effective approach for capturing 90% of properties. This height is considered to be optimal for the majority of properties.
How to get perfect exposure?
In order to achieve optimal exposure in a camera, it is essential to utilize a tripod, select the most appropriate f-stop for the scene, employ spot metering to ascertain a known tone, adjust the shutter speed until the tone is aligned, and employ bracketing to capture exposures for extreme scenes.
What aperture for interior photography?
In order to achieve the best results in photography, it is recommended to maintain a low ISO setting (approximately 100), select an aperture of f/4 or lower for portraiture and f/11 for wide-angle photography, and choose a white balance preset or custom setting.
📹 The KEY to Successful Exposure Blending For Stunning Interior Photography
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Simon your articles are the best I’ve ever used to improve upon the various aspects of my photography. Your explanations are straight forward and easy to understand. The impressive knowledge base you share is a tremendous asset to those of us who want to improve on our skills & enjoyment level. My wife & I will be in Canada June of 2023 on the western side of your beautiful country riding the Rocky Mountaineer train on a 2 week trip through the Canadian Rockies and look forward to capturing this wonderful scenery. Please keep these great articles coming as I enjoy them very much!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share and educate on this topic. I’ve been a hobby photographer for a few years and am self taught. I have read and viewed so many books and articles on how to understand this concept and how the different pieces work together, or against one another. You have explained it so beautifully. I feel I FINALLY understand!
This website is the most straightforward when explaining its concise and informative i really appreciate your articles! And he also link out articles that are related to the topic! For example he’s explaining how to use the exposure triangle, he links out articles explaining purpose of each one and the use of it! Thanks simon!
Saved this article to watch again and again! I got my start with photography as a teenager decades and decades ago when photography was “analog” and required all sort of films and chemicals and ISO (here in the States) was ASA! This article is so informative for this old retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer (shooting with a now-venerable Sony A58 (heyyy… it’s only 10 years old, but in digital photography, that’s almost prehistoric!). Wife and I are traveling to Japan again (my eighth trip), so I’ll try to take some better vacation pics using it (that smartphone always seems like cheating!). I really enjoy all your articles, BTW! 😀
Very informative, as a newcomer to taking photos with thought rather than just pressing the button, I am learning a lot here. I have to own up to only owning a Sony Xperia 1 V phone rather than a camera but it has most of the same controls and I am able to put into practice a lot of what I see on your articles.
So glad you shared this, there are vids out there that say move the compensation meter to zero for the correct exposure without relating to the histogram. Unfortunately this is what I have been doing. Now understanding pairing the histogram with the comp meter I’ll be on my way to much better shots. Thank you!!
Even though we are in different genres your articles are amazing and can easily be applied to my work. They are teaching me things I may not have understood or had a different thought process on for years. This one is very eye opening, i thought it was the opposite and always shot dark so now I have some adjustments to make. Thank you for the articles. I have gotten a lot out of them, even 10+ years I know I can always learn and improve. This is helping me fine tune things.
I replied to a comment about monitor calibration. One of the most overlooked but important in the digital world of photography. Also colour space. I wonder if you would consider a article on these subjects. Without a properly set up monitor you will struggle…..well I did ha ha. Another really helpful article thanks Simon
so for aperture priority, when I use a manual lens, I select the “faster” auto ISO compensation to prioritize a higher shutter speed and bracket that shutter while setting the exposure compensation. I haven’t had much issue with that other than not being able to keep/adjust this setting in manual when I’m in a city and switching between human and building shots. I get some flexibility with IBS, but without a lens stabilization I’m really keeping that fast priority in the back of my mind.
Hey Simon, the topic is interesting and your explanation is spot on, but I think there are some extra recommendations that can help here. One is to choose a neutral as possible tone for your camera. The histogram is usually based on what the camera has set as final result, so it will differ between Landscape, Portrait, Vivid or whatever other modes the camera manufacturer chooses to name it. The other one is that the histogram will actually represent the data from the JPEG conversion the camera makes to show you the raw data on the screen. It is not representative for the raw data. Why does this matter? Well, based on the mode you choose to have your camera on, it might show you that the (JPEG) data is clipped, while the raw data from the sensor is not. Here, only testing can help, put your camera on a as neutral setting as possible, expose until the camera says it is over exposed and take some sample shots while exposing even more. This is how you find out when exactly the raw data clips and how much can you over expose until you start loosing data. The deeper rabbit hole is sensor technology and ISO invariance. This can maybe have it’s own article 🙂
This fundamental flaw in presenting histogram info on our camera screens has received very little Youtube discussion and absolutely no mention in our camera manuals or camera reviews. As a Canadian I would like to see this website grow because of Simon’s ‘cut-2-the-chase’ approach in presenting issues we all face in our photography journey.
I find your articles very iteresting! I’ve already set up my Sony to use back focus button instead of shutter button and I’m getting used to it, now (this is the second article I see of you with this suggestion) you’re getting me interested into Manual + Auto ISO. I sure will give this option a try, since up until now I’ve been photographing with aperture priority + manual ISO. Thanks for the great, insightful articles and beautiful photos! And since I am writing it in holiday season, happy holidays!
I started shooting “full manual” a couple of years ago … that is, setting all three parameters manually. I had found that I always had to set Exp Comp to get the best results, and decided I might as well set ISO directly instead of using Exp Comp to set ISO indirectly. On the Sony A1, I have three dials for the three parameters, and the EVF gives me a pretty accurate WYSIWYG preview. I have always been a little skeptical of ETTR because you can recover slightly underexposed images, but clipped highlights are gone forever.
As a retired photographer that shot film for 20+ years, and had to move to digital in the final years of business, making the transition to digital was quite a challenge. I wish I’d had the benefit of your teaching articles then. I have learned SO MUCH from you. The best instruction article’s on You Tube for clear explanation about exposure. Thank you so much! You’ve taken the stress out of taking pictures, and made it fun.
Timeline ⏱: 00:48 Exposure -The fundamentals 03:25 Revealing the histogram 03:56 Getting exposure right in Manual 06:10 Getting exposure right in A, S, Auto ISO 07:33 Getting exposure in Maual with Auto ISO 07:56 Troubleshooting – Too much dynamic range 09:00 Bonus tehnique – ETTR – expose to the right
Although I love your articles & definitely will keep perusal them, I think that you’ve made a mistake in this article – with the wave photo that you used as. a demonstration of Automatic Exposure Bracketing, did you actually shoot that shot with AEB? The time it would take to shoot three photos for AEB, even at 1/4000 using a high speed burst of say 40fps (with an electronic shutter), the droplets would have moved enough to make the HDR composition of the AEB shots blurred; how did you achieve the AEB?
Have to tell you again, how much I enjoy your articles. I’m looking for some guidance and hoping you can give it to me. I need help with printing my pictures. I want to print them for personal use but am finding that using some local online printing has not provided decent results. When I look at the pictured on an 18″ monitor they look great. But when printing 4×6 or 5×7 they are grainy and blurry. Do you think I have a false sense of quality based on my monitor or are there different grades of quality from print services?
I wonder if exposure bracketing can be enabled and stored in one of my camera’s presets? I have a Canon R6-II and a lot of settings do get stored in C1, C2, or C3 when used. I have been trying some of these techniques and find that exposure compensation works well for me with auto-ISO. I wish I could spend an entire day experimenting with the different ways of getting good exposure, but perhaps I will start keeping a journal in my phone or notepad in my pocket to record my results. Thank you!
Film ISO used to be a property of the film, not an adjustable camera setting (Besides to let the camera know which film is installed). Because digital cameras have a fixed sensor, they should have a physical chip based ISO-like attribute that describes sensitivity to light, but most manufacturers do not publish this. Because the true ISO for many digital cameras is fixed (iso invariance and no swappable sensor), camera manufacturers have a great opportunity to revamp how users set exposure. This will result in a lot of classically under-exposed photos but intelligent software can be used to auto-set gain in post, not before you take the photo. Classic ISO equivalence has a place in digital photography, its just that it should be a tool the camera presents to the user for enabling users to judge exposure equivalence across different cameras. It should be an informative piece of information to help the photographer, not a setting that the photographer can adjust prior to the photo. Aperature and shutter are the only real exposure adjustments possible in many cameras, so presenting a third setting adds unnecessary complication. Gain should be set after the photo is taken, not before. This applies to cameras that are ISO invariant.
I too like to think of ISO as the volume control on my stereo. When playing an LP (for those of you who remember!), turning the volume control up or down has no effect on the amplitude of the sound inherent within the grooves of the LP, just as changing the ISO has no effect on the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor. In a very soft musical passage, turning up the amplifier’s volume knob will also increase the level of the pops, ticks, and tape noise you will hear along with the music. If the level of music on the LP is very loud (you can actually see the grooves more widely spaced… analogous to having plenty of ambient light), you can turn down the volume and hear the music well without the surface noise of the LP being apparent.
I think ETTR is a stupid term. It is just over exposure – not as much to blow out the whites, but more than the “correct” exposure. Have been using that in event photography for over 15 years. With 5D2 there was an interesting technique especially for event photography: Shooting at ISO3200 highlights could be blown out almost 1 stop and recovered in post. That was due to the tech how the sensor was build: ISO3200 was actually ISO1600 and the voltage-value was just doubled afterwards – the original value was still stored (or something like that). This does not work with new-gen sensors anymore, which is a pity 🙁 Of course the increased DR does make the images better anyway 🙂
This is a great tutorial! Giving you the like and sub as you deserve. Merci beaucoup. Recently, I’ve been trying to get my wife into basic photography (to increase WAF for G@S) and used the following analogy for exposure parameters in layman terms: You’re trying to fill up a cup from a tap (faucet) – the size of the cup is the ISO setting, the amount you open up the tap/ valve is the aperture setting, and the amount of time taken to fill the cup up is the shutter speed. As she’s totally new to photography settings, I’ve omitted ISO as a parameter to reduce the learning curve – instead, I just let her play with the aperture (in AV) for understanding its relation to DoF; and further explaining that sometimes we want to ‘freeze’ a subject in a shot and that’s where Shutter Priority comes into play instead. I just want her to focus more on purely composition/ framing with DoF as the only parameter to ‘tweak’. At this point, I’m considering buying her a cheap pre-owned happy snappy compact from the yesteryears like a Lumix LX2 (my preference would be an LX1 but those are hard to come by here). It’d allow for basic AV/ TV modes with adjustable aperture and let her focus on just purely composing shots. This is only possible in the more modern digital age because the technology has come so far that high ISO noise is less of an issue (as compared to when we were shooting in film and ISO 1600 was considered overly grainy for most). It also helps that (Matrix) metering are significantly improved these days that you could nail exposure rather well even with backlight shots (e.
Simon never mentions the most accurate realtime way to nail exposure – histograms. Most mirrorless or live view DSLR’s have real time histograms. Just expose to the right just short of clipping highlights. Better, switch to RGB display histogram to insure that none of the 3 color websites are clipping to white. Then you will have a dead on exposure. Protect highlights. Bring up shadows in post. You can adjust manually, or in aperture priority, bias exposure with + or – compensation. Done. Easy. Accurate.
There is one more important factor, the lens. Not always easy or even possible to change but especially in dark environments switching to a lens with larger aperture can do wonders. You might need to move to anther position and/or crop the photo but you got the photo you wanted! Myself I often prefer my photos to be a tad on the dark side but then I often take close ups of flowers and don’t like post processing – getting the exposure right from the start is part of the fun for me.
Fantastic article. I use FV mode with Auto ISO. I mostly take still shots so I use the shutter speed first to brighten. If it is already 1/60, I use the exposure compensation. Sometimes I don’t go a little bright and darken in post. I am so used to my camera that I don’t look at the histogram but that is just me.
Perhaps a new article suggestion: targeted suggestions for those of us shooting wildlife using a zoom. I shoot with the R5 and the 100-500 F 7.1 So there is no F 2.8 in my gear! I do fairly well with exposure, but do struggle in the early AM due to lack of light. So perhaps addressing this type of gear, settings, and techniques. There are likely a lot of zoom lens shooters out there with slower lenses. Thanks.
The better post processing products, like Lightroom, get the less I see the need to obsess with getting ‘perfect’ shots in camera. Today I don’t worry – within reason – about composition or exposure, in-camera. We have the ‘Light’ sliders for exposure. Shoot ‘wide’ and crop for composition. IMO – ‘Focus’, including stabilization, and ‘lighting’ in getting ‘the’ shot are most important.
I really need to know how to figure out the correct shutter speed and Aperture settings. This is helpful I am trying to keep up with my spouse and trying to find the best descriptions of when we are out walking around to be ready. You have done a great job and I like having the histogram in the back to help me. I keep getting soft photos. Everyone says to shoot in raw but it is tempting just to turn to auto. But you do give me hope.
Some cameras have dual native ISO or dual gain amplifiers and so they are more flexible in terms of noise management and thus dynamic range. Also you should expose to the right to minimize noise ratio participation in your image – same added amount of noise in dark and brights areas means the same added luminosity and color shift by amount but not by propotion – it affects bright areas way less than dark ones because you really dont need that much information to scramble your dark pixels.
And, if you’re one of those rarities shooting a CCD sensor – take an initial test shot to generate a histogram. (Had to put that in because sometimes a couple of my cameras feel left out😪). Bonus comment sentence: thanks for the details re ‘Why ETTR’ – you filled a little gap in my brain. Have a good one, M. d’E.
Fantastic article and great tips, Simon. I want to personally thank you for the tip you gave in a prior article to assign emergency settings to one button. I used the “aw, crap!” button quite a bit over the weekend, and the results were fantastic. I swear, if my wife and I sell a calendar or some prints someday, we probably owe you a hefty sum in residuals. Thanks again!
Genius tips, I’ve never had it explained so thoroughly & easy to understand. I’ve been starting to turn my passion for landscape/urban photography into something more. I’ve struggled with this, sacrificing f/stops or shutter speed to get exposure right. THANK YOU!!! Can’t wait to check out more of your vids!
Hi Simon, I hope you are doing well. I’m in need of some advice. I’m heading to Alaska on a Cruise with my family(84 yr old Father and others). So unfortunately not a photo centric adventure. There will likely not be much time for me to take my time and wander around in search of the best photo locations. So I’m going to be on a run and gun mode. My equipment is a Canon 80D( I know it really well so adjusting settings is pretty natural). Lens’ are EF24-105 F4 IS(Everyday lens), 16-35 F2.8(non IS ver) and just purchased 100-400 II. I’m not planning on taking a tripod but will have a monopod with me. I’m concerned with shooting in Flat light(gray, rainy weather). I’ve been looking on You Tube for articles of how to make the best of this situation. Can you offer any advice or resources? As always love your website and the content is awesome. Thanks so much for your time.
Thank you Simon, I’ve been struggling with this lately as I’ve been taking pictures of my local SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets for fun. I use a refurbished Canon m200 and a 750mm kids telescope (Sarblue Mak60) attached with a t-adapter. My apperature is fixed at f/12, last night’s launch blew everything out with the bright flames. Trying to make adjustments with a fast moving rocket has proved to be quite challenging for me. I have auto-ISO set in manual, so I assume shutter speed is all I have going for me? The one over focal length rule has me at 1/800, I assume I need faster shutter speed to not have flame blow out? I know trying to take pictures with f/12 at night sounds insane 🤣 but it’s what I could afford.
I am able to advance to a new level, now that you have explained how to use the histogram when shooting. I have turned on the blinkies! Back button focus, exposure compensation button/dial, and now with histogram info, I am off to the races…with some more practice, I think it will be more intuitive. Thank you so much, Simon
This definitely will help me. I primarily focus on motorsports and run into the issue of the race cars going from light to shadow which makes getting a consistent exposure a challenge for all photos for the day. A tip when adjusting outside of the camera, when adjusting the exposure, balance the contrast.
I’m lazy, I shoot in P (everything automatic) 99% of the time with auto ISO (limited to 3200 or 6400 because of my cheap m4/3 body). However, I exclusively correct with exposure compensation by perusal for blown out highlights in the important part of the image rather than the histogram. I have the histogram enabled but never look at it – maybe this is something I need to start doing?
Probably the best YT I’ve found on the subject u are awesome Simon. Wish I were ur neighbor. I would be professional by now. I’m retired now and looking to travel more. Thinking of buying a Canon T50 because it’s small and will allow me to do landscape and street. Not sure if it’s the best choice but it’s like a nightmare trying to get the best advice. On the Canon i think I understand getting the histogram but on the R50 is it possible to get the “blinkers”? Finally is there a way to bracket ur exposure if u are hand held? I really don’t want to lug a tripod around
Great article, again, Simon! Very useful advices! I’m happy to find that these tips helped me in many situations. I’m not a wildlife photographer, but I had a lot of cases when I had to use, for example, Manual mode+Auto ISO in many situations. Now, when I have to shoot indoor without tripod (museums, churches, cathedrals etc), I use to use Manual + Auto ISO. This mode gives me the advantages to set my own shutter speed (the minimum value I know I can shoot handheld) and the aperture value I want, and letting the camera to choose the ISO. Also I use this mode outdoor, in cloudy days for example, when the light and is not vary strong, and, using Aperture priority, my camera chooses a faster shutter speed than I know would be ok for handheld. For instance, my camera decides to use 1/200sec, even I know I can shoot with 1/100sec handheld very well. So, I switch in Manual (+ auto iso) and I set the aperture and shutter speed I want (1/100sec), letting the camera decides the ISO which will be smaller for a 1/100sec than for 1/200sec.
As you say at the beginning, exposure does not mean how light of dark the photo is (the technical word for this is ‘lightness’ rather than ‘brightness’). Lightness is the result of exposure and processing together. ISO only directly affects the lightness or darkness if you’re using in-camera processing, usually JPEG.So really using exposure to control lightness is really only directly applicable to JPEG shooting. ETTR doesn’t make any sense for a JPEG workflow – you’ll get the wrong lightness. It makes sense in raw. When you say ‘shooting a photo too dark and raising the exposure in processing’ (11.26) it’s rather confusing to people who haven’t a firm grasp on these things. A photo doesn’t have any intrinsic lightness (or for that matter ‘brightness) until it’s been processed. Also, you can’t ‘raise exposure in processing’, it is, as you said the amount of light, and that’s fixed. You’re not ‘raising’ the lightness, or for that matter ‘brightness’ in processing the raw file, you’re establishing what it is. ‘Shooting too light and lowering the brightness in processing’ is less confused, but still is ambiguous about what processing a raw file actually is. It’s not a good idea playing around too much with the lightness of an already processed (e.g. JPEG) file, because that has had a load of the original information removed (especially in the shadows) and is also non-linear. I know you already know all this, IMHO, it’s just important to not jumble terminology (we all do it!) when helping people grasp basic concepts.
Another option for dealing with very high dynamic range you did not mention is using a graduated filter to reduce the brightness of the sky. Of course, only useful in very specific landscape scenes. I am a fairly experienced photographer of a certain age but am learning such a lot from your website. Thanks.
Superb articles! Greta tips I always learn something new, I have a question though, if you shoot for example a flying bird and you could probably freeze it at 1/2000 and you use a faster shutter speed, unnecessary higher is it only the lack of light that penalyses the image as my images gets darker therefore less data, and the use of higher Iso .. more noise. Thanks
Simon… Since you do a great deal of your photography near the ocean, would you consider giving some tips about how you care for your cameras/lenses after exposure to the elements of salt spray and sand? As you have experienced, the seashore is an extremely caustic environment for photographic equipment. Thank you.
I use the palm of my hand to get the correct exposure, as long as it’s in the same light as the subject. Take a reading from your palm and then increase the exposure by one stop. This will give the correct exposure and will work with all ethnicities. It’s convenient because you always carry your hands around with you and it’s free.
thanks for this Simon. i fly drones and my small ones have fixed f1.7 so it’s shutter and iso i have to use. just wanted to ask, does ettr also apply to article? i find a slight lack of detail when shooting low light article and lifting up shadows when editing. it’s a small 1/1.3 sensor so needs all the help it can get and maybe this ettr method will do the trick. also your article on iso a while back opened my eyes to using higher iso in golden hours and it has helped me from then on. it just shows all the misinformation out there. really appreciate you sharing this info.
Thank you. I am new to all this and have learned today. I have just stared burden photography and small birds in woodland are very frustrating! Light conditions are sooooo variable. The birds move quickly from light to dark areas, partly obscured by twigs and leaves etc. A leaves can be really reflective of sunlight and confuse exposure, sometimes. It’s a great hobby. Thank you, again. Jonathan
There are cameras where the histogram is based on a jpg… Ergo you’ll be able to recover some in the histogram clipped highlights if you shoot raw… And you should choose a flat jpg profile, because the histogram is more realistic as in a contrasty picture mode. One way or the other, you’ll have to test it out to get best results.
GREAT article! I do have a question. I prefer my photos light and airy when given to clients. I tend to shoot ETTR on a Nikon in a particular genre of photography and am running into what I feel to be an issue. Horse Shows, where I shoot for 8-10 hours, 70+ riders, so it’s a bulk sports type shoot with on average 5k photos to share per day, and I like to have the photos as close to presentable as possible for proofing without any edits. As these clients purchase photos after they are taken, no one books in advance. Time to proof is very important in regards to the amount of people that purchase photos (the longer it takes to allow proofing, the less customers buy). I edit after payment and give to the clients to download or purchase prints then. To keep the shutter speed fast enough (1/2000) to stop the movement enough, I also have my aperture wide open (the 4.5-6.3 50-250mm lens is averaging allowing me to go to 5.6 at the lowest at the full zoom in these scenarios), I am having to bump my ISO (depending on the natural light, anywhere from 320-2000) to capture enough light in the photos. Question for this scenario: Would a better aperture lens make a large difference in the ISO requirements?
This is an excellent article. I had no idea I could add the histogram to the screen, I’ve just been using the meter. Which hasn’t been helpful because when the meter line is right down the center, my images end up too dark in LR. So I end up purposely overexposing. Maybe the histogram will fix this. Appreciate the great content!
Hi Simon, excelelnt article and explanation thank you. My question is probably going to get some slapping of the forehead from photographers, but hey, if you don’t ask, right? What do you consider to be the correct exposure for a photograph? My thinking, as a relatively new camera photographer thinking more about composition now, is that the photo should reflect exactly what you see wih the eye, in good light of course. If there’s less light you will probably want to not have a photo that is too dark, but I’ve always thought (incorrectly?) that the photo should reflect what you see through your eye. Is that even close to being correct? Be gentle please 🙂 … Mike
This weekend I was able to take some pictures of my grandchildren and it’s like shooting wildlife because they never sit still. A few weeks ago you talked about the new format Canon has “FV” and I decided to try it for the first time. This mode seems to be perfect because you can get to all the settings on one screen at the touch of a finger. Is there a downside of using FV? I also used CRAW because I play the game Simon says and I give it a try. Have a great week.
Aren’t camera histograms based on the camera’s JPG preview of the image? Lately I’ve been using zebras on my Sony to determine exposure as I understand these are taken from sensor data and not the JPG. I use a setting of ‘custom’ and lower limit 109+ and all you need to do is expose brighter (ETTR) till you see anything flashing and then knock it down one notch. This enables you to make full use of the sensor’s dynamic range and choose which specular highlights (if any) you are willing to blow out in favour of darker areas. If used correctly, the JPG histogram will keep you “safe” from blown out highlights, but you may not be getting the absolute most dynamic range from the sensor.
Please make a article on how histogram actually isn’t the right way to judge your exposures. Unfortunatelly histograms are based on the jpeg profile your camera is set to, while it makes sense to base the histogram on the RAW file i cannot understand why camera companies do not do that yet. it really blows my mind this decision. anyway the correct way to expose is to adjust your zebras and that’s the only way unfortunatelly. If you want to base your exposures on histogram you have to create a custom totally flat picture/jpeg profile with no contrast whatsoever and then make some tests trying to blow out your highlights while looking at your histogram and then check your RAW results in Lightroom. With some tweaking you can nail the profile settings to be accurate, meaning when you really see your highlights touching your far right side of your histogram to actually be blown out highlights so that you know exactly whats going on while shooting, Cheers
When shooting fast action like wildlife, mulch like you I shoot in manual, wide open, an appropriate shutter speed to freeze action and on Auto ISO. I have the “blinkies” turned on and will use exposure compensation to adjust for blown out areas. When shooting something more static like landscape I will use much the same but set my exposure for the depth of field that I want, usually around f8, and set ISO at 100. Then to fine tune I will adjust whichever variable is most important for the shot.
Wow, your website is growing quick. I remember not long ago when you were under 50k subs and I knew right away you would get the recognition you deserve based off the first article i saw of yours. you explain things extremely well which is what makes an amazing teacher. you also keep your audiance hooked throughout the whole article! congrats on your success on Youtube!
Thank you for another great and informative article. I’ve been a hobby photographer for years and when I transitioned to digital I’ve normally slightly under exposed to preserve highlights. Thank you for the ETTR tip and info! I will be giving that a workout from now on. I can’t wait to see how it affects my images when I post process!
Have been hesitating for a few weeks on making the transition to a more expensive full frame camera + lenses rather than the old beginner APS-C I’ve had for years. Discovering your website these past few days has gotten me so excited about photography again that I’ve finally made the decision to go ahead and order everything! Thanks Simon!
Simon – Once again a numero uno article. Your tips are priceless. I remember there was another article of yours where you educated us about Auto ISO. I used that setting(Auto ISO) in M mode and cranked up the speed to around 1/2000 with f stop (cannot remember the number now) sometime last year and shot speed birds (aircrafts) taking off from Montreal airport. The pictures in my view were outstanding. You should consider creating a photography course (for intermediate users) and I would be your 1st patron if you do that. Many thanks for this priceless article, Simon.
Hi Simon, loving these articles! I am a new photographer and I was wondering, what’s the difference between the Light Meter and Histogram? What are the use cases for each, and what are they actually meant to be used for? I always thought the light meter was used for exposure. Thanks! Keep up the great work!
My favorite exposure method is by using an grey card to get a parameter of what my camera is reading of the available light, and then, depending on what I am shooting, I decide if I need to under or overexpose a bit. For example: I always photograph my cat in the couch, which is pretty close to a big window, reflecting a diffuse lateral light; my cat is orange and white, the couch is black, so if I expose to the whites, they blacks get so dark; if I expose to the blacks, the whites get so bright – in this case, I prefer to keep the white details while having.a beautiful pure black background, so I rather prefer to underexpose a bit to get my cat well exposed while I don’t mind losing details in the blacks and some shadows.
There isn’t such thing as the right exposure, it will be right or wrong depending on what you are trying to achieve. Very often, even the best sensors don’t have nearly sufficient dynamic range to compress the scene, so you have to decide whether you want the blue skies or details in the shadows. HDR may help.
Hello Simon! Im an amateur photographer and your articles help me a lot. I have question and i will be glad if you can help me. My camera is an old Nikon D3200 and the problem is that i cant make the ISO change by itself. The camera tells me that the auto mode in ISO is not available. I would appreciate if you can help me with this! Thanks
I mainly do Landscape photography, when its a dull day I always use Exposure Bracketing and merge them afterwards, I have been told that this makes me a bad photographer and should only be taking single shots then edit the photos in LR or PS afterwards. What’s your opinion on Exposure Bracketing. Another excellent article, many thanks
Hi! I’m a begginer photographer and I have a question. If I can’t capture all the dynamic range between the gold posts. There are for example for sony cameras Slog2 and slog3 flat profiles that are used in articlegraphy. They seem to have wide dynamic range after colorgradint. Why can’t I use these for this kind of photo? Why won’t it work? I assume it won’t work beacuse you didn’t mention about it 🙂
Hi Simon. I have a doubt about which exposure should I choose in the next situation: I need to take pictures of a huge boulder (around 2 meters height) from every angle. I’m measuring the light (I’m sorry my English) with the Sun behind me towards the rock. So I take a picture, two steps to the left, another photo and so on until complete the full circle around the rock. I’m doing it with the A mode, lockig in the first picture the exposure, then I just take the pictures around the rock but the ones I toke once the sun was in front of me are overexposed because the sun is just in front of the composition in those angles. (Make sense?) So, could you or somebody tell me an advice to get something right between the the whole photos in relation to the exposure? I’m using a fuji xt4. Thanks
Hi, i don’t want to sound like a nit-picker but I have to ask: 1) In this article you say brighter 9:20+ is better, less noise etc So I should go as far right as I can 2) Some time ago I saw you article about exposure compensation (youtube.com/watch?v=j8xQ8WiI7rk) where you say it’s better to slightly under-expose images So obviously: a) yay! for me for paying attention (or not?) and remebering (at least partially?) what you said b) what am I missing? I would like to bet “experience”. I do understand technical benefits of both approaches (is it contradiction, right?) and the best way is somewhere in the middle that you learn just by experimenting and trying your best. Thank you a lot for a great content to think about 🙂
Thank you Simon. I’m learning Back button focus. If I am shooting a white subject on the left in A mode, I lock it with BBF, then recompose. But then, the metering spot is now on a dark background in the centre. The picture is now overexposed because the auto ISO automatically has tuned up the ISO. What should I do? If I compose the picture first, then move the focus or metering point to the subject, it will be too slow and may not work if the subject is moving. Any advice? Thank you.
As a professional photographer with 35 years of experience, I can tell you, Simon is the best practical photography teacher I have learned from. He has real world experience and the keenest understanding of gear and how it works. He has masterful knowledge of photography both theoretically and practically, and clearly communicates how to use the gear we have to get what we all want: the perfect picture. In his articles, he covers everything from the foundational exposure triangle to the fine tuning of our images, both in camera and in post production using the “actually easy to understand” histogram. Through the years I’ve learned to master my craft in the classroom, from books, paid online courses, YouTube, and, of course, from working as a photographer. Of all the authors, teachers and professional photographers I have learned from, Simon IS the best!
Key point on flash vs ambient is that in Architectural modern designs light is part of the design so you always got a nice spread of ambient and fixtures in most rooms to work naturally. In real estate, plenty of properties with dark rooms and small windows, low ceiling etc, bad layouts etc – no chance making them look good without flash.
I follow Greg’s work since forever; and his use of Lumenzia in landscape photography. But lets be honest, for those who don’t want to invest in such a pannel, there are dozens of good free to use luminosity mask actions out there. And to achieve those transitions, you simply apply a levels adjustement to the masks and also use “blend if” when apropriate. Nice vid! Thanks 🙂
Hi. Very interesting technique and very well explained. Everything makes sense and the look is absolutely natural. I only wonder on how you deal with color, as ambient lighting brings in a ton of mismatches and, besides using color effects pro, what you think about the contrast/detail loss that comes with ambient bracketed lighting? The use of filters always scares me a bit and using color effects pro might make detail fake?!? maybe? Thank you for sharing your precious experience.
Very well presented and absolutely helpful article. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Actually I was looking for a article for “high end” architectural photography, that looks very natural. I would appreciate a more complex example, with a more contrasty interior (here the light floods in from almost all directions) and the use of strobe which, I think, is the only way to eliminate large reflections especially on the floor. Or not?
Great articles with tons of knowledge., Thanks., I was wondering what your thoughts were when blending 3 images with Layer Blend Modes., Darken for the highlights and Lighten for the Shadows. Then the “Blend If” sliders to clean up the midtones? Also maybe a “Apply Image” luminosity Mask that I made into actions? Is there something fundamentally flawed with this kind of work flow?., Thanks
Looks good and Lumenzia looks great but I still think looks flat and unrealistic. If it had the outside crunched a bit to increase contrast I think it’d be much nicer. I guess it’s always subjective and everyone has their style. I like to desaturate the cyans and blues a bit on interiors so there’s no/less of a cast. I’m a flambient type of guy and yes, when you have large rooms or dark ceilings where you can’t bounce flash it is a punish and takes a lot more work. Saying that, thanks for the info and introduction to Lumenzia, I might give it a whirl! I’d love to see any other PS exposure blending methods you’ve used in the past. Thanks for the content!
Nice work, it looks a little Flat but it works as the base of edition. One doubt I have is How do you get rid of the bloom or “fog” when using long exposure? I’m tired of that, because that haze doesn’t let me use it as I need it. I had to buy an external light but that doesn’t optimize my workflow.
Agree on most of it but eliminating all flash fill can result with color problems when mixing lights like sun light, open shade and tungsten. Also important is to identify highlights and shadows that are not important to have a better final shot because over doing the dynamic range can look like HDR presets that look terrible. Also useful is the “Blend if” options on combining the layers, it really helps and using it is a game changer.
amazing article, thank you Anthony…I’m something doing real estate photography (not high-end architectural) using my Olympus omd-em1 mark III and 7-14mm f2.8 PRO lens which is a cropped sensor by 2. Im considering doing more design and architectural photography and I’m not sure if I can achive the same/similar professional results with this kind of sensor and dynamic range compared to Nikon 45mpx camera. I would love to see a article where you will borrow and use this Olympus setup and do the same picture and brackets using Olympus and nikon and do your workflow if the results will be similar or harder to achieve with a smaller sensor. Thank you, love perusal your content.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I’d like to ask you how you deal with mixed light sources when it comes to white balance? Because there is a main reason I’m using a “flambient” technique in order to “clean” the light. But I have to admit that setting the strobes and lightstands (sometimes) is time consuming, so I looking toward using some sort of HDR or exposure blending in the future.
THANKS for this article! Very well done as always. However, in making small adjustments to the verticals using auto synch, the adjust DO apply to each image BUT are NOT carried over to to the merged HDR. Tried multiple times, but the HDR does not see what I did to the verticals. Also, the merged image doesn’t look that different in the windows (still blown out). What did I miss? One of your articles did cover how the image may look the same, but I cannot find it (you have a LOT of articles! And that’s a GOOD THING!)
Anthony… Wondering about Color fx pro 5. I see you use it to finalize images and I am wondering if you could include a tutorial about that program. Also, I see you have created numerous “presets” that you have created. I would be interested in knowing about your settings there as well. Thank you in advance, I appreciate what you do.
This scene is helped by all the natural light. But the colors still look off due to color cast. Flash isn’t for adding contrast….no, it’s to capture accurate color of a scene without guess work. Data you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. If you’re skilled with flash it’ll take you 2 minutes tops to capture this scene and post processing it would also take 2 minutes or less. It’ll net a better result as well. Fussing with sliders and luminosity masks is exactly why I switched to flash blending.
Thanks Anthony! When trying this technique with Lumenzia, I have to use the feather feature to get anything like a proper blend between exposures. Somewhere around 300 pixels. I notice that you never need to do this. Curious as to what I am doing wrong. Also, I have never seen you blend more than 3 exposures. Do you sometimes need more in a very high-contrast shot? A complete workflow would be great when you have the time. Thanks again!
Thank you for this informative article. These techniques, however, are very similar to the techniques that printers and color separation houses would use to create duotones, tritones, and quadtones of b&w prints. Dot etchers also played a part in opening up shadows and color balancing color separations for printed color reproductions. The materials were different back then–film, kodalith, ink, paper, etc., and present day computerized techniques may be more precise and have greater usefulness, but the underlying concepts seemed to have changed little with the advent of computerization.
Anthony: I love your article tutorials very much. I am an ex-art director/graphic designer who has been transitioning over to photography, interior photography specifically. I have been using and trying to perfect the flambient method, as I find with the flash, true colors are more prevalent. I have Lumenzia and Greg’s course, though I have yet to dig in. I also own the Nix Collection with Color fx pro 5 and other apps from them. I would like to know how, using your method of exposure blending, you address the issues of color casts and softer shadows from ambient light compared to the flambient method. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you from San Francisco.
hey, this may be a weird question, but I really like the T-Shirt you’re wearing in this article. Since you look like tall person, I’d like to know which one exactly you’re wearing here (maybe you can send me a link?) I am 1,98m tall and very slim (91kg) and I didn’t find a good shirt yet that’s long enough, slim fit and not too wide at the upper arms. Thank you very much in advance. And also awesome article, thank you!
It’s not a bad looking image by any means but there is a certain “muddiness” to it. This is an HDR image via different method and it really looks like an hdr image meaning that it doesn’t have the clean colors of a flambient image. There is color casts all around, blue on the table,reflections also, the floor looks like a nice warm grey color butin the majority of the image it has a blue/purple color cast on it. I think the exposure in certain areas needs work and there is a lot of color correcting left to do. There is always a trade off in terms of time on site vs. time in editing. HDR is faster on site but requires longer in the edit room to make a clean image. Flambient is slower on site but fast in the edit to get to a clean image.