Lighting small rooms

[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.

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



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/produc..._Lamp_500.html

-Dan