Often used in the motion picture industry, where layering several different exposures isn't an option:
ND (neutral density) film applied to the windows. You can buy ND film in rolls, of varying density, for not that much. Sure it's kinda a hassle to cut it to fit the window, but it's easier and cheaper to reduce the sunlight than it is to increase the room light.
You can also get filters that combine ND with color correction, moving the (blue) sunlight range into the (amber) interior lighting range.
Realize this is probably more elaborate than you are looking to do, but hey, you never know when some know-how might come in handy!
edit: this is a somewhat more targeted solution than the ND filters Mac on a Mac mentions above, which are lens filters with a gradient (the assumption being that you are dealing with broad, parallel areas of bright and dark, ala sky and land).
I have had some success with this kind of picture by setting the EV down by 1.0 or 2.0, and then using fill flash to light up the room again. . .
Flash fill is terrible IMHO. It always looks artificial. Items in the room have no natural shadows and light gradients. The only gradient is due to distance of objects from the camera lens. The closer they are the brighter. Ugh. Me no like. Look at how nice the photoshop composite is with natural lighting. You can do what you suggest the hard way, by adding bright lights around the room Hollywood style.
Flash fill is terrible IMHO. It always looks artificial. Items in the room have no natural shadows and light gradients. The only gradient is due to distance of objects from the camera lens. The closer they are the brighter. Ugh. Me no like. Look at how nice the photoshop composite is with natural lighting. You can do what you suggest the hard way, by adding bright lights around the room Hollywood style.
I usually do it with bounce flash - the direct flash from a point and shoot looks terrible, I agree.
I once lit the room with outdoor 150w flood lights, and it made everything a cool yellow color. It really matched the scene, which was people dancing.
Often used in the motion picture industry, where layering several different exposures isn't an option:
ND (neutral density) film applied to the windows. You can buy ND film in rolls, of varying density, for not that much. Sure it's kinda a hassle to cut it to fit the window, but it's easier and cheaper to reduce the sunlight than it is to increase the room light.
You can also get filters that combine ND with color correction, moving the (blue) sunlight range into the (amber) interior lighting range.
Realize this is probably more elaborate than you are looking to do, but hey, you never know when some know-how might come in handy!
edit: this is a somewhat more targeted solution than the ND filters Mac on a Mac mentions above, which are lens filters with a gradient (the assumption being that you are dealing with broad, parallel areas of bright and dark, ala sky and land).
heh. pull up any Michael Bay film (The Rock, Armageddon, BadBoys2, even the upcoming TheIsland). There isn't a bloody sky scene in those movies which doesnt have some sort of gradient thingy on it, especially look at how always the sky gets darker (!) as it approaches the top of the film frame. Michael Bay and his D.oPs love those gradient thingys
I don't know the eye's physiology, but I suspect it has a greater dynamic range than either film or digital cameras. In addition, I understand there is a lot of image processing that goes on in the brain.
I think its very very important to bring in the fact that, yes, the eye's dynamic range is awesome.
But remember that there is a TON of algorithms going on in the brain that 'cheat' the image. It's like imagine a digital camera, okay it takes a sucky shot of inside and outside. Our brain actually looks up a whole bank of millions of images from experience, cultural memes, genetic memory, etc, and fills in a lot of the gaps. that's how our brain/eye thing does some fantastic "on-the-fly-post-processing" with image stabilisation, focus, white-balance, motion blur, gamma correction.
Until the time comes when we can start to cleanly obtain the signal sampled at 5 megapixels or more coming from the eye via the optic nerve BEFORE it reaches the brain, it's still of a fuzzy area how much 'post-processing' occurs in the brain.
I've probably been talking out my ass here, but in any case there are probably several kickass labs around the world doing this sort of visual perception research...
heh. pull up any Michael Bay film (The Rock, Armageddon, BadBoys2, even the upcoming TheIsland). There isn't a bloody sky scene in those movies which doesnt have some sort of gradient thingy on it, especially look at how always the sky gets darker (!) as it approaches the top of the film frame. Michael Bay and his D.oPs love those gradient thingys
Gradient + piercing guitar lead + slow motion running + blossoming orange explosions = $10 and 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back ($50 concession stand tab optional).
Oh man, I love this stuff. I used to be pretty heavily into photography. I've always had a big fascination with the intricacies of the human eye(what an amazing thing!) But, at the same time, eyes make my squeamish. Oh well.
Comments
ND (neutral density) film applied to the windows. You can buy ND film in rolls, of varying density, for not that much. Sure it's kinda a hassle to cut it to fit the window, but it's easier and cheaper to reduce the sunlight than it is to increase the room light.
You can also get filters that combine ND with color correction, moving the (blue) sunlight range into the (amber) interior lighting range.
Check em out here: rosco filters.
Realize this is probably more elaborate than you are looking to do, but hey, you never know when some know-how might come in handy!
edit: this is a somewhat more targeted solution than the ND filters Mac on a Mac mentions above, which are lens filters with a gradient (the assumption being that you are dealing with broad, parallel areas of bright and dark, ala sky and land).
Originally posted by e1618978
I have had some success with this kind of picture by setting the EV down by 1.0 or 2.0, and then using fill flash to light up the room again. . .
Flash fill is terrible IMHO. It always looks artificial. Items in the room have no natural shadows and light gradients. The only gradient is due to distance of objects from the camera lens. The closer they are the brighter. Ugh. Me no like. Look at how nice the photoshop composite is with natural lighting. You can do what you suggest the hard way, by adding bright lights around the room Hollywood style.
Originally posted by snoopy
Flash fill is terrible IMHO. It always looks artificial. Items in the room have no natural shadows and light gradients. The only gradient is due to distance of objects from the camera lens. The closer they are the brighter. Ugh. Me no like. Look at how nice the photoshop composite is with natural lighting. You can do what you suggest the hard way, by adding bright lights around the room Hollywood style.
I usually do it with bounce flash - the direct flash from a point and shoot looks terrible, I agree.
I once lit the room with outdoor 150w flood lights, and it made everything a cool yellow color. It really matched the scene, which was people dancing.
Originally posted by addabox
Often used in the motion picture industry, where layering several different exposures isn't an option:
ND (neutral density) film applied to the windows. You can buy ND film in rolls, of varying density, for not that much. Sure it's kinda a hassle to cut it to fit the window, but it's easier and cheaper to reduce the sunlight than it is to increase the room light.
You can also get filters that combine ND with color correction, moving the (blue) sunlight range into the (amber) interior lighting range.
Check em out here: rosco filters.
Realize this is probably more elaborate than you are looking to do, but hey, you never know when some know-how might come in handy!
edit: this is a somewhat more targeted solution than the ND filters Mac on a Mac mentions above, which are lens filters with a gradient (the assumption being that you are dealing with broad, parallel areas of bright and dark, ala sky and land).
heh. pull up any Michael Bay film (The Rock, Armageddon, BadBoys2, even the upcoming TheIsland). There isn't a bloody sky scene in those movies which doesnt have some sort of gradient thingy on it, especially look at how always the sky gets darker (!) as it approaches the top of the film frame. Michael Bay and his D.oPs love those gradient thingys
Originally posted by snoopy
I don't know the eye's physiology, but I suspect it has a greater dynamic range than either film or digital cameras. In addition, I understand there is a lot of image processing that goes on in the brain.
I think its very very important to bring in the fact that, yes, the eye's dynamic range is awesome.
But remember that there is a TON of algorithms going on in the brain that 'cheat' the image. It's like imagine a digital camera, okay it takes a sucky shot of inside and outside. Our brain actually looks up a whole bank of millions of images from experience, cultural memes, genetic memory, etc, and fills in a lot of the gaps. that's how our brain/eye thing does some fantastic "on-the-fly-post-processing" with image stabilisation, focus, white-balance, motion blur, gamma correction.
Until the time comes when we can start to cleanly obtain the signal sampled at 5 megapixels or more coming from the eye via the optic nerve BEFORE it reaches the brain, it's still of a fuzzy area how much 'post-processing' occurs in the brain.
I've probably been talking out my ass here, but in any case there are probably several kickass labs around the world doing this sort of visual perception research...
Originally posted by sunilraman
heh. pull up any Michael Bay film (The Rock, Armageddon, BadBoys2, even the upcoming TheIsland). There isn't a bloody sky scene in those movies which doesnt have some sort of gradient thingy on it, especially look at how always the sky gets darker (!) as it approaches the top of the film frame. Michael Bay and his D.oPs love those gradient thingys
Gradient + piercing guitar lead + slow motion running + blossoming orange explosions = $10 and 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back ($50 concession stand tab optional).
Great discussion though.