Settings for Backlit scene on Power Shot

[Need2know]

I have Power Shot S80. Took this picture in daytime The room was not dark.  Need to know what the camera setting should have been for a scene like this.

[Need2know]

What about shooting mode, ISO settings, flash on or off with ISO settings???

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

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@Need2know wrote:

What about shooting mode, ISO settings, flash on or off with ISO settings???

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As we have said, your camera cannot capture this image because it cannot capture the range from the bright outside to the dim inside. Any change to settings can only move the captured brightness range, not increase it.

The only way is to take multiple exposures and combine them in post. In this case it would be relatively easy to cut out the window from an exposure that properly exposes it, and plops it into an image that properly exposes the rest of the room, no HDR software required.

[Need2know]

Thank you for your help

[Waddizzle]

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@Need2know wrote:
Thank you for your help

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Your [eyeball] can see a WHOLE LOT MORE dynamic range than your camera sensor.

Just to follow up and confirm, do you understand what HDR photography actually is?  The B&H superstore in NYC releases tutorial videos from time to time, and so does Canon USA.

https://youtu.be/SBlE7_E4YyE 

When KV alluded to "brightness range" on his most recent post, I want to briefly explain what that means.  I am going to use [some] totally made up numbers just to illustrate the concept.  Imagine a vertical scale, which goes from 0 to 20, measured in Ev. [Let's call that the range of the human eye!}

Your camera is capable of capturing only 10 clicks of Ev, which is minuscule compared to the human eye.  Once again, I am using made numbers to illustrate the point.  The human eye can see from 0 to 20 Ev.  

In order to capture this scene [as the human eye would see it] you would need to capture multiple exposures.  The 1st capture might be from 0 to 10 Ev.  The 2nd exposure might be from 5 to 15 Ev.  The 3rd exposure could be from 10 to 20 Ev.  

The camera has now captured the entire dynamic range of the scene across multiple exposures!  There is more than one way to combine these multiple exposures into one final image with an expanded dynamic range.  I will [leave] those details for another thread. 

[Waddizzle]

CanonUSA has a YouTube channel.  They released a brief tutorial on how to create and HDR composite image 3 years ago using Canon's Digital Photo Professional 3 software.  

https://youtu.be/xlOksbrZ4P4 

It works the same way using the updated application Digital Photo Professional 4.

[Waddizzle]

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@Need2know wrote:

I have Power Shot S80. Took this picture in daytime The room was not dark.  Need to know what the camera setting should have been for a scene like this.

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No one can tell what exact exposure settings to use.  One would have to be there in the moment.  It was sunny outside when you took the shoot.  On an overcast day, a different set of exposure settings would likely be used.

I see your camera is an older model, well over a decade since it was introduced.  It does not feature an HDR mode, which means that option would have to be performed by you in post.