We were contracted to shoot a series of night time lighting shots for a leading outdoor lighting company.  The focus of this shoot was custom Christmas time lighting.

This presented a very unique set of problems.

First, because NO CAMERA* can capture the full dynamic range  of bright to dim values that the human eye can, we had to shoot multiple photos of each setting (3-5 exposures).

What our eyes see in this setting, is actually a combination of three major sources of light, each of which has a very different ‘color temperature’.  We have to ‘digitally develop’ these individual exposures to correct for the ‘temperature’ of light that is illuminating that exposure.

For example, 1) the sky  and grass is illuminated primarily by the sun whose light is being reflected by the moon. 2) The homes are illuminated by a combination of tradition light bulbs (tungsten light) and colored LED bulbs. 3) And the outdoor colored lights are primarily LED bulbs which have a very narrow ‘bandwidth’.

Then, using a computer, we combine those various ‘color corrected’ exposures into one final ‘photo’. That tedious computer process can take up to an hour for EACH photo.

It’s a very ‘manual’ process to get images this beautiful.

However, the payoff is well worth it, especially for a company that will use the photos to sell ‘lighting’.

* Well, maybe NASA has a camera that can?