The Campbell House This is an experiment in High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. If you've tried to take photographs that include the interior of a house, with windows open to the outside, you know that it is practically impossible to get it right. If the metering system on your camera responds to the light coming in the windows and sets exposure for the outside scene, then the interior of the house is woefully underexposed and dark. If your camera responds to the light inside the house and sets the exposure for the interior, then what you see through the windows is overexposed and washed out – little more than solid white. So what you do is take three “bracketed shots” - one with the best average of the dark interior and the bright exterior, one about two stops underexposed (which means that the exterior looks better while the interior is very very dark), and one about two stops overexposed (which means that the interior looks good but the exterior is washed out). Then you use software designed specifically for the job (I use Photomatix Pro) to blend the three photos into one in such a way as to combine the shadows and highlights into a pleasing whole. One important note: because you are blending three shots into one, it is absolutely essential that you take the three shots with your camera mounted on a tripod. It is practically impossible to combine the photos otherwise.
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= Dan Campbell November 2009
D0910211616_1_4: Our office, as viewed from the family room. There is a “pony wall�, or half-wall, between the office and the family room. Photo by Dan Campbell (October 21, 2009)
D0910211623_18_21: The family room, which adjoins the kitchens and offers a view of the lake immediately behind our house. Photo by Dan Campbell (October 21, 2009)
D0910211630_25_28: The kitchen and family room, as seen from the family room. Photo by Dan Campbell (October 21, 2009)
D0910211637_3_5: The builder designed this room, which is right across the entry hall from the office, as a dining room. We didn’t need a dining room, so we made it a library. Photo by Dan Campbell (October 21, 2009)
D0910211645_1_3: Our master bedrrom, with a fine view of the lake. Photo by Dan Campbell (October 21, 2009)