Lighting small rooms

[Ed Richards]

I like to shoot historic buildings, which I do with natural light. But I have been looking at some historic homes where the rooms are not huge, but the light is dominated by one or more bright windows. I would like to up the room light a bit so that things are not blow out by the windows, which must be in the shots because the room is small. I am looking for a portable solution. I may ultimately decide to do these with digital because of the expanded portable lighting options, so suggestions there would be welcome as well.

[Corran]

A simple flash aimed at the ceiling should be plenty for a small room.

[Merg Ross]

Assuming that you are shooting b&w film on a tripod, you could make multiple pops with a strobe as fill-light. I mention b&w because of the mixed lighting problems with color. That would be a "portable" and simple solution for a small room. I am not familiar with digital, but I am sure that you will get good answers on that subject.

You have some really fine work on your website.

[vinny]

strobes. outside. through diffusion frames. and what bryan said too as long as the walls aren't white but the ceiling is.

[lenser]

To add to what Meg said. Multiple pops yes, but not during one continuous exposure as would be the typical way to accumulate light in a room without windows or a night time shot. If your windows are in frame during daylight, that would only keep them exposing throughout the entire open shutter cycle and totally blow them out.

You've got to calculate an exposure for available light exterior through the windows. Then calculate the exposure for interior based on how many pops it will take to meet the chosen f stop for the outside view. Then you come back and take the total time needed for the exterior and divide that by the number of pops you will need for the interior to arrive at a corrected shutter speed.

In other words, if your outside exposure is 1/60 sec. at f11, and you need 6 pops of the flash to get f11 inside, you will have to reset the shutter and fire it a total of six times at 1/500 to balance the outside and inside exposures. The six firings of the shutter at 1/500 is the equivalent of 1/60 sec for the exterior exposure and the six times firing the flash adds up to f/11 so the exposures match.

The big trick here is to be incredibly sure that you don't shift the camera even a millimeter during all those shutter cocking and firing cycles or you will get overlapping images.

[lenser]

To elaborate just a bit, if you have power available, the easiest way is with a more powerful flash that allows a single pop to light the room and balance the exterior exposure at the same time. You can drag the shutter to expose more of the interior by window light and to lighten the outside exposure as you wish.

[Kirk Gittings]

Power is always a problem in historic houses with strobes of any significant power-blowing fuses. Opt for large battery powered strobes if they are available. Bring two prong adapters. Multiple pops with strobe bounced off the ceiling if it is light in color is almost the only option on tiny rooms.

Alternatively shoot the interior at twilight when the exterior light dims to the level of the interior.

[jp]

Bring a dSLR along to test. I use an old white lightning strobe with a sheer umbrella on it to increase the light in the room softly. It doesn't use much power. They make battery packs for such things now.

A zero power option would be a shiny reflector. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7359184014_a8586a0324_z.jpg I used a 5-in-1 reflector to light the hallway so it wasn't all backlit. This is at the Olson House of Wyeth fame.

[Ed Richards]

Power is not an option. I like the big reflector idea. That could work really well when the problem is too much window light. Waiting for dusk or heavy overcast would leverage a small strobe.

Are there battery powered continuous light systems, perhaps with leds? That would let you use a long exposure at dusk, or at night, with a strobe pop outside for window light.

[neil poulsen]

I think that it's possible to put together an array of high wattage resisters to slow the charging of a pack. I don't use my flash much, so I occasionally "condition" them using some resisters connected in parallel that was recommended by a Dynalight technician.

Perhaps a similar solution could work in historic buildings? But before trying this, I'd check it out with someone who knows power pack electronics.

[C. D. Keth]

The other option is to not light the indoors but rather darken the outdoors. ND the windows you see on camera.

[Leigh]

ND the windows you see on camera.
Chris beat me to it. :D

You can do this in two exposures on the same frame (LF being the obvious choice):
1) Expose for bright outdoors (will grossly underexpose the interior; flag any indoor reflections or bright spots).
2) ND the windows to produce desired indoor light level, with reflectors or fill as needed, and shoot the interior.

Bright outdoor light is important in step 1 because you want a large SBR.

- Leigh

[Kirk Gittings]

The other option is to not light the indoors but rather darken the outdoors. ND the windows you see on camera.

I assume you are talking about gelling the windows? Do you have much experience with that? I do-a ton. The gels have a short life as they are a huge PITA to keep clean or to keep them flat enough so as to not introduce odd ripple refections. I wouldn't touch this without a really decent budget.

[brian mcweeney]

Use as high a sync speed as your LF lens will allow. That way you can utilize a more moderate f-stop which will make it easier for a small powered flash to fill in.

[Merg Ross]

I assume you are talking about gelling the windows? Do you have much experience with that? I do-a ton. The gels have a short life as they are a huge PITA to keep clean or to keep them flat enough so as to not introduce odd ripple refections. I wouldn't touch this without a really decent budget.

And an assistant!

[Daniel Stone]

problem to w/ ND'ing the windows is that YOUR CONTRAST RATIO DOESN'T CHANGE.

You'll have to add supplementary lighting inside to balance out the contrast ratio to a manageable/desirable level.

Here are some good tips, from one of the masters, Mr. Dean Collins


http://youtu.be/ekRet4v2LR8

cheers,

Dan

[Ed Richards]

This is personal or public service work, meaning a negative budget and no help. Back to small strobe and big reflectors.:-)

[C. D. Keth]

I assume you are talking about gelling the windows? Do you have much experience with that? I do-a ton. The gels have a short life as they are a huge PITA to keep clean or to keep them flat enough so as to not introduce odd ripple refections. I wouldn't touch this without a really decent budget.

Yeah, I'm talking about gelling. I do have quite a bit of experience doing it. You just have to be very precise cutting them and there is a certain touch to get the squeegee-ing just right. A tiny bit of dish soap in the water helps, too. I don't think it's as bad as you say. It's not going to be the best solution, or even a possible solution, for every shot but it's a possibility.

[Henry Ambrose]

Hi Ed,
Set up your camera (most likely you'll be in one corner or the other) and set up your light right by the camera with an open reflector, but higher than the camera and pointed into the corner of the ceiling and walls behind you, away from the scene you are photographing. Sometimes this will blow out the ceiling close to you. If so, aim the light down onto the walls more. You're all jammed up into the corner so just use it to your advantage and let the walls and ceiling be your light source. Keeping the light direction coming from camera position helps eliminate hard shadows showing (they're behind the objects that cast them, on the opposite side from the camera). Another technique that works well is to use a smallish "globe" light box set in the corner, same idea as before. This is what Polaroid was for. Now-a-days, you might try a digital camera as proof or just shoot it on digital. For color you might have a bit of extra correction work if you have a bunch of bright colored walls. If its one of those dark wood paneled places, bring some big white flats or reflectors to poke up in the corners to bounce your light off.

[Daniel Stone]

Ed(OP),

Is there ANY power outlets available? If so, why not get a few clamp-lamps from Wal-Mart(about $8 ea) with a few of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/74523-REG/Wiko_EBW_Lamp_500.html

-Dan

[Leigh]

You'll have to add supplementary lighting inside to balance out the contrast ratio to a manageable/desirable level.
I said that in post #12.

- Leigh

[Daniel Stone]

I said that in post #12.

- Leigh

I know you did Leigh, I was just reinforcing your/my point on the matter :)

-Dan

[Ed Richards]

> Are there ANY power outlets available?

Mostly, no. These are historic structures that include slave cabins, and old houses. Some are wired for period lighting, but that does not include outlets. Even when there is power, I will be getting permission from folks with in the US's dumbest bureaucracy. The parks people who run most of these are good people, but they are in a system that is hostile to parks and public interest, and punishes initiative. So I do not want to ask for anything but access when there are no crowds. I need a kit I can pack in a bag and carry in, that sets up pretty fast. I have a good hot light location kit, so I can probably just substitute strobes for the hot lights. I also remembered that I have a big Metz handle mount flash that I can as primary, with my Nikon SD 600 as a fill. (The Metz goes with my Technika when I a playing WeeGee.) Both are variable, which would give me a lot of flexibility. A little research showed that I could get a Paul Bluff 640 WS unit and battery pack for about $600. My guess is that it would put out plenty of light for even a fairly big room if I am just trying to open up the shadows.

[Thom Bennett]

Ed,

A couple or three of Norman 400B's can go a long way in adding supplemental lighting. They make a great little battery stand adapter that allows you to attach the battery pack to your stand so the whole thing is self-contained and the weight of the battery keeps everything from tipping over. They are fairly robust and there are lots of them on the used market.

[Kirk Gittings]

I know that works, but from the my POV as a working professional, it is untenable in terms of time and reliability. In these old historic buildings with unsolid wood floors the slightest movement can spoil the registration on the film wasting hours of work and then you only find out the next or more after you have developed the film. Then you need to get access again-from people who probably were reluctant to give it the first time. Any number of things can change or "settle" do to temperature changes etc. battery powered strobe fill or a twilight shot however is very predictable and from a working pro's point of view a method with a very "high probability" of success.

I remember once working on a shot in an old historic church on the high road to Taos. I had one chance to get access. The day was cloudy and my exposure was 27 minutes on a creaky old wood floor. No electricity to bump light levels for the big Norman strobes and way to large an area for my battery powered little flashes and not enough battery's either.. I couldn't move for 27 minutes. The one thing I absolutely knew was the reciprocity characteristics of my film and that I could probably stand still for that long. I got the image.

[Brian Ellis]

At the risk of making it obvious that I'm missing something here, is there some reason why you couldn't make two or three exposures, with a digital camera or film, and blend them in Photoshop?

[Ed Richards]

Kirk - for 27 minutes you could probably walk away and back again and the movement would too small a percent of the time to matter.:-) But that is my strategy as well, and some of the Katrina shots I did in closed, flooded churches did try my patience. Now I just read a book on my smartphone while I am waiting.

> is there some reason why you couldn't make two or three exposures, with a digital camera or film, and blend them in Photoshop

Sometimes that works, but often the flare from a bright window will blow out everything else in the shadow exposures. On an overcast day it would probable work pretty well.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Three bare #11 or #6 flash bulbs @ 2-1 ratio.

Use inexpensive pic stands. The whole. Setup is lightweight and easily portable.

[Ed Richards]

I don't think I want to use flash bulbs in fire trap historic buildings. :-)

[Sylvester Graham]

I don't think I want to use flash bulbs in fire trap historic buildings. :-)

Kino Flos, if you have the cash on hand. Or, you could make your own.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I don't think I want to use flash bulbs in fire trap historic buildings. :-)

I smiled when I read that. Soon I will be lighting a space for another photographer using flash bulbs. It is a large, cluttered wood shop. I've no qualms in that particular situation, but I can imagine a curator's horror when he considers a bulb exploding onto a precious item. It is no comfort even when the bulb is shielded.

Moving on then! :)