Q&A Friday

I'm getting some good responses for the casting calls, but I'm still looking for some more! Please check the requirements and apply! See this post for details.

Time for another Q&A
Q: Photographing rooms. Sooo frustrating. I'm thinking my main problem is metering. The light coming from windows is just messing me up big time. How can I get a great, well lit picture? How can I specifically get a great picture of a whole window, without having my camera expose to the light coming from it and darkening the whole room? Arrrr.
A: Well, I won't claim to be an architecture or product photographer...there are things I do well and other areas that I'm not so polished in, but I do think I understand your overall question, probably because I've seen your awesome blog, so I know what you are trying to do! :) When you meter all over the room, your camera will likely try to meter off that window because it's so bright, so don't point your camera at the window. Instead, what you want to do is spot meter one of your walls, and then take your shot. If the whole room is overexposed, you'll want to adjust your exposure accordingly (up your shutter speed most likely so that you can keep your aperture to a good depth of field). This will blow out your window, but expose well for the room. It is OKAY to blow out your window if you are just trying to show off the decor in the room. If, on the other hand, you want to expose correctly for the window AND the room you will need to either bring in external lighting, and this gets more complicated. Or, you could take a couple of shots with different exposures and combine them in Photoshop.