Interior shots, but view out windows washed out/over exposed

[KenandSusan]

We have started taking photos for real estate using a T4i with several lenses.   Our interior or exterior only shots are fine.  Interior shots trying to capture the view out a window or large opening has the exterior washed out or over exposed.  Have tried various settings and now thinking either a manual setting or combining to different shots (one for interior and one for exterior) are needed.   Any advice?  Thank you, Ken and Susan

[Waddizzle]

There is nothing wrong with the camera.  The camera can capture only so much dynamic range at one time, which is the difference in light in the darkest and brightest areas of a scene.  If you take one photo, some areas will be either under exposed, or some areas will be over exposed.

Fortunately, there are techniques for working around this problem.  Use a tripod, and take a series of bracketed exposures, which are later combined into a single shot.  This is called HDR, high dynamic range, photography.

The above shot is an example off a dark foreground and a bright background.  It is created from a regular exposure, an under exposure, and an over exposure to capture the details in the foreground.

[diverhank]

As Waddizzle says, you should bracket your shots (use AEB function) or take at least 2 shots...one with the interior properly exposed and one much darker so the view in the window is properly exposed.  You then merge the two (or more) in post processing.

You can use an HDR software or Photoshop HDR function to merge or you can just manually blend the two together in photoshop.  I prefer the latter.  Most of (dramatic) landscape pictures out there go through this process to a certain extent.

I don't have any interior shot to show you but here is one that would be impossible to take without blending.  Here I blended 3 shots together.  Without blending, the ceiling is very dark and the outside areas on the left and center would be completely washed out.

[ebiggs1]

That is a nice shot.  

[Mr_Fusion]

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@KenandSusan wrote:

We have started taking photos for real estate using a T4i with several lenses.   Our interior or exterior only shots are fine.  Interior shots trying to capture the view out a window or large opening has the exterior washed out or over exposed.  Have tried various settings and now thinking either a manual setting or combining to different shots (one for interior and one for exterior) are needed.   Any advice?  Thank you, Ken and Susan

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Shooting through a glass window often gives a lot of glare and/or reflection. That could be part of your problem, especially if you use a flash.

Assuming you are taking the pictures on a sunny day, adjust your camera for that. On the back, press "Q", move through the options and set your ISO at 200 or 400. Set your "exposure compensation" to "O". Set your "AWB" to to "AWB" (auto white balance) or to sunny / cloudy, depending on the conditions. I'd stay with AWB.

Turn your Program Dial to either Av or Tv. Press the shutter half way and see what the settings are in the viewfinder. You'll want an AV of between 7 and 11 and a Tv between 250 and 1600. Turn the scroll wheel until you get inside those settings. If you are still over exposed then adjust your "exposure compensation" down by 1 and try that. If you still are over exposed then keep dropping the exposure compensation until they look better. 

NOW, taking a picture inside the house will require totally different settings. You will want to boost your ISO to about 800 or 1600, bring your Tv down to maybe 160. Open the blinds and drapes as far as possible and turn on any lights. (I have had a poor experience with using a flash inside small rooms.) You want to keep an Av of 7.1 to 9.0 in order to keep as much of the shot in focus as possible while using a fast shutter. If you go below a Tv of 160, brace yourself against a wall or doorframe in order to avoid camera shake. 

Those are not absolute numbers and may be stretched as required. They do have a rational though and should give you decent shots. 

You will notice there are different values for outside vs inside. That is because there is so much more light outside. As good as a camera is, it is still stupid compared to our eyes. A camera can only process the image as an amount of light reflected through the lens. Our eyes do the same thing, however, they are attached to our brain that does a lot of translating that information into a picture inside our heads.

Good luck getting your pictures. 

[kvbarkley]

Mr Fusion:

The answer was already provided, use HDR. While your exposure advice was correct, it gave no indication about how to combine them into one shot, which was the real problem.

[ebiggs1]

What everybody is trying to say is, you have exceeded the dynamic range (DR) of the camera.  You will need post editing and software to extend the DR.  Totally possible and actually pretty easy to accomplish. Lightroom for example does a fantastic job.  If you are big time into real estate photography you probably want a robust editor anyway. Besides extending the capabilities of the camera it will provide a cool data base for your shots as the mount up.

[Mr_Fusion]

Real Estate Salespeople want to sell houses, not work on perfection in a computer program. Not that you are wrong, you are very correct. But I believe you are selling them a proffesional photographer's solution and not a newbie layperson's answer. 

If their level of expertise is such that they don't understand what Exposure Values are, I doubt they would find any photo editing program easy. If they did not already own a DSLR camera, I would have suggested they just use their cell phones. 

[kvbarkley]

You need to get out more. Nowadays you can do it in camera, no computer required. This is for my T6S, but other cameras have equivalents:

[ebiggs1]

"You need to get out more."

Absolutely!  It is silly to think anybody can not master HDR in a short time.  Now it is so easy.  Whether you use in-camera or post edit.