Lighting a tent scene at night

[paul_rankin]

I need to take a photo of a tent that has some built in LED lights at night. I also need to be able to see a few people in the tent and a little

of the setting outside the tent. The LEDs can be added back with photoshop, but getting the people and tent well lit and still being able to

see the tent and shadowy meadow/trees is giving me trouble. Any suggestions?

 

Paul

[leicaglow]

I think it helps sometimes to draw the scene and assign exposure values to each area. It's difficult to envision exactly what you want, but it probably involves a longer exposure for the surrounding area, and lighting the tent separately. Not knowing what control you have of the setting (unless it's purely for a photograph), I'd probably use some sort of flash setup with warming gels over the flash from inside the tent. The exposure of the LED is going to be the same whether in daylight or nighttime, so you could set them at the distance you plan to shoot them and play with the exposure. This is probably a shot made much easier with a digital camera system. When I shoot complex scenes like this in medium or large format, I often use a digital camera to test my theories about exposure values to see if they're close... much like Polaroid film in the old days. But then again, you didn't say what system you're shooting with.

[philip_alvarez]

You might want to try using two off-camera flashes with manual settings and remote triggers. Place one flash (bounced, baffled, or direct) inside the tent and a second flash outside. (Does a "little of the setting" include "shadowy meadow/trees"?) The master should be where you want the emphasis. You'll need to play around with the flash levels until you get the proportions right. For the LEDs, take a second shot without people, and with the flashes off or cut way back, then overlay the LED shot with your people. Good luck. PA

[nathan_stiles]

I'd do most of it in photoshop *shrug*

 

Assuming it's to be shot outside, I'd set the camera on a tripod so that I can stitch/overlay the images easier. I'd

shoot the the people right around sunset, and add a strobe so that fall off would have the background darker.

 

After that, I'd wait about 30m for the sun to be under the horizon, and shoot the led's-- they'll have greater contrast w/

the ambient light being lower now.

 

Combine the two layers and you can play w/ the blend options (in the same menu as layer styles, or by double

clicking the layer's name... I think) to control the clipping of the blend how you want it. There's a Podcast tutorial on

this from "Photoshop Killer Tips" earlier this year. You'll probably need to use 3 or 4 layers, and some layer masking

in addition-- easier than it sounds if you've never done it. If you have HDR plug ins, this may also help, but be careful

not to enter the fakey looking zone of HDR.