Advice on how to improve

[Steve]

I took a series of photos for my C&G evening class a couple of months ago, and need some advice on how I could have improved them.

The photos were of the interior of a disused theatre. It was very gloomy inside, but there were a few small lights on giving a small amount of illumination.

Due to the darkness, I needed a 15 second exposure at f14. Consequently the small lights are completely blown out creating flares.

I really don't know what I could have done differently. At the time I tried faster speeds with larger apertures and even whacking the ISO up to 6400, using flash but nothing helped. They couldnt turn off the lights for H&S reasons.

The lights were too small and positioned in important areas to crop them out of all of the compositions.

Is there anything I could have done, or is it a case of just having to live with it?

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Weetobix]

You could always try a HDR...

It is my pet hate when they're badly done, but in situations like these they should be ideal.

Set the bracketing to 3 stops and you should get a nice 6 stop difference between the highlights and the shadows

 

[leeallenphotos]

as said above HDR when done properly looks great... next time 3 or 4 exposures and try that

 

[London Headshots]

Blend multiple exposures together manually.

 

[Steve-T]

Blend multiple exposures together manually.

+1
Take an exposure for the lights, and take another for the room, or another two if you find it needs one for the shadows.
Shoot on a tripod, dont use a high iso because it will give you a noisy image 100ISO should be fine if you have a tripod.

You could HDR it because if it is done well it does not need to look awful like so many do. But better I think to manually blend, especially if you only have the lights to worry about. Use layer masks and brush out what you don't want.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the advice.

Will try the multiple exposures and blend