Shooting 360 room with massive windows

I'm shooting a 360 degree view of our new building today. My problem is the building has massive windows and there is ton of light pouring in.

I'm using a T1i, nodal ninja, and Panoweaver. If you're not familiar with the process, four images are shot with a fisheye and stitched together to create a movable 360 degree view. All four shots have to be shot in manual to keep the exposure consistent throughout the 360. Some of the room ends up being extremely dark, or light.

Any ideas?

Here is an example of a 4 shot series.

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Don't you guys use lighting when shooting? just a thought.

Well, right off the bat I can say that because you are exposing to reain detail for the bright outside scene coming through the windows your interior parts will be very dark (where they are not getting direct light through the windows). This is simply a matter of the limited dynamic range in the exposure.

For this type of shooting you have two common choices: one is to shoot multiple exposures and then run them through either HDR (High Dynamic Range) software or through a Photoshop-type app and blend the exposures by hand using layers and layer masks, or if you shot in Raw you can take each shot and boost the exposure to lighten the shadows and then do the same HDR/blending process.

If you did shoot Raw you could get results in a Raw processor using the shadow boost/fill process. You could try it with jpegs as well, or use a normal image editor with shadow boosting tools. It's just that Raw gives you more latitude with this type of thing.

Just for reference, you might want to check out our Raw Conversion thread to see what can be done with single images:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=684360

Here is a recent post that shows the possibilities:

https://photography-on-the.net …p=11257258&post​count=2718

Yes, you need to bracket the shots. I'm not sure if Panoweaver does HDR, but PTGUI Does..

I use it all the time for my 360's..
http://www.ptgui.com/

What lens are you using?

It's going to be tough killing those shadows from there as well no? Tough image to try to get.. Good luck..

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I really appreciate all your replies. I'm thinking the first place to start is to find a better time of day to shoot these. The sun was blaring right through the windows at the time.

ChuckingFluff, definitely need to play with some lighting. I'm new to this, and everything I have done this far has been indoors so it hasn't been an issue.

tonylong, your response went right over my head which is great. I'm looking at the items your talking about right this second. I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

-AP-, I'm thinking a better time of day would do wonders for the shadow problem. I'm using a Sigma 8mm 1:3.5

Yeah, you're probably right. Although the shadows could be nice too. While looking closer, maybe collapse your tripod a bit and do it from on top of the table. This will shorten the shadow of the set-up and make editing much easier. And while your there, if you not going to commit to the shot, try the bracketing and then demo PTGUI..

Now you're on the right track. Wait until the outside exposure through the windows matches the indoor lighting exposure. Think about whether dawn or dusk will work better for you.

And next time, give us a bit more time to comment?

PhotosGuy wrote in post #11316964
Now you're on the right track. Wait until the outside exposure through the windows matches the indoor lighting exposure. Think about whether dawn or dusk will work better for you. And next time, give us a bit more time to comment?

This os exactly what i was thinking. The light is too harsh, and adding lighting would be tough. Its great to add lighting to to interior shots, but those work best if they kill all ambient, or for fill. Morning or evenning light will be the way to do it.

Bright sunlight is going to make for a very high dynamic range. Therefore, the only way to capture it would be with bracketed shots. There are programs that will merge/blend 360 degree shots into one HDR image.

Or, you need to go back at (or after) sunset when the dynamic range is much lower. There are some shots that will be perfect right at sunset, and others will require you wait a little longer.