Ok I’m not asking anything too personal here! When you’re photographing interiors its always a bit of a dilemma whether to have the lights on or off. Last week I was photographing the interior of the Music Room in the Royal Pavilion, as part of a bigger project I’m doing at the moment. The Music Room has 9 spectacular lotus-shaped chanderliers with extraordinary detail. However when they are on they lose a lot of that detail because of the brightness of the bulbs inside them, but when they’re off the room loses some of its warmth. I’m a lights-off man in this situation however my friend Trish Baker, functions manager at the Pavilion, is more towards lights-on! Have a look and tell me what you think.
3 Comments
Lights off definitely shows more detail but lights on is actually more welcoming so I am moving from your side of fence to Trish’s.
I prefer lights on, much more welcoming.
I have been baffled by this for some time. To me the lights off photograph looks awful and the beauty of the lights is totally lost. I rarely turn lights off. For me its about priorities, what are the most important things in the scene and I expose for those. The fill in with auxiliary lighting. I small spot of blown out bulb is like a specular highlight, accepted and adds sparkle to the photograph. I am defiantly a lights on man.