Next week I'm shooting a house that looks like a dark mountain cabin... lots of dark wood cabinets, wood beams over head. etc.
What is the best way to shoot and edits this. Last time I did a home with this architectural ( as seen in picture) I used flash and it was really hard. Beams tend to turn orange and the large rooms were really hard to light. I rarely shoot for HDR and am wondering if that method would be better in this situation. Please Help. It literally took me ALL day to photography this home.
Beth
Shooting rustic home
I've done a fair share of dark woods in the PNW, and you're right. There are a lot of limitations when using flash. It's especially difficult to hide the specularity. Even with large diffused light sources and a polarizer, there are only a few angles that work without hotspots.
Here's my production workflow: Compose, one shot with lights on, bracket 4-stops with lights off, then flash to taste.
To reduce specularity: It's best to think of light sources like billiard balls. The goal is to angle the bounced light away from the camera. Proximity to reflective surfaces also leak specular light. If impossible to avoid, blend two flashes from opposite angles to mask out the hotspots in post. Polarizers help a little as well.
It's also important to consider how much you're charging for the project and know when to scale back. I can spend over an hour in post on each photo this way. If that isn't economical, I'd recommend just sticking to a bracketed lights off, single shot lights on for dark woods.
Don't be afraid to capture as much ambient light as you can. Use moderate ISO and plenty of exposure.
I agree with both previous comments, but I especially liked the point about practicality. Yes, you want to produce the best shot possible, but you still need to make money. If this were my typical project, I would bracket the ambient light to even out the different light sources. Then in Lightroom I would add highlights to the areas that need to be pulled out. Yes, you could also flash certain areas during the shoot, but masking those in will take a lot of time and experience to do well. Time is money.
I recently shot a log cabin with dark paneling and not nearly enough windows. You can see the before and after photo sliders on my website photovideosound.com. I usually use flash, but with some of the rooms extending 60 feet, I opted to shoot every room HDR, and then dodge and burn. I think it turned out as well as can be expected.
Ambient light is the best solution without any flash.