I want to take a picture of the kids by the Christmas tree looking out. I want to show part of the house with them in the window. well, that's a good question. It will depend on what kind of camera you're using. That lighting is tricky. Here are some tips. If you're shooting into the house through a window, you'll have to be careful of flash bouncing off the window back to your camera. you can avoid this by shooting at an angle. If you are going to do this at night (to get the christmas lights), you'll need to light your kids with lamps (out of view) so that they'll be clearly visible through the window. Your flash should be set on low power so that it will light the house exterior just a little. Since you have a digital camera, i suggest taking practice shots with various settings and reviewing them on your computer. Good luck with the shot. you'll have to go by trial and error a bit (that's why digital cameras are for after all).
still, maybe I can help with a general principle. You say that you want a bit of the house to show, so I assume a daylight photo. Meaning lots of light outside, and much less inside.
so first thing, try to help the camera - for example on a cloudy day you'll have softer daylight, which will make it easier on the camera. Or at twilight you'll still be able to see the house but the outside light will have weakened markedly.
then, it will depend what your camera can do. All digital SLRs, and most SLR-likes, and some compacts, will allow you to play with the exposure of the camera. In this case because the house is big and has lots of light, you'll want to over-expose by 2 or 3 stops, to adjust for the light coming from the window - of course nothing comes for free so the house will be over-exposed a bit.
Some of these same cameras will offer "spot" metering, i.e. you'll tell the camera to adjust for the light in a given spot (the window) rather than average over the whole frame.
Now if you go for twilight, or close to it, you'll probably need a tripod to keep the camera steady, and you'll potentially want a camera where you can select the exposure time manually (so again, a digital SLR, or an SLR-like camera). The trick will be to keep the children steady because if you start exposing for 1/10th of a second or even longer, even small movements on the part of the kids, will show.
Bottom-line: you'll possibly need 40-50 shots until you have a couple decent (or even good) ones. Be patient, this is not an easy shot to get right (how many such shots do you see on an average year, even from professional photographers? ;-)
Good luck |
