exposure - How do I properly expose dark scenes containing bright light sources?

I'm new in photography, however I have some basic knowledge of exposure, aperture, etc.

I own a Nikon D7000. The issue I've found in number of pics I've taken (in P mode) is that whenever the scene is relatively dark and there is a bright contrasting lighting source (bulb or sky), then I get too dark of a picture overall. Here is one example.

What I can do to make light source be darker and the rest of dark scene be brighter?

Answer

You're asking the right question, "How do I properly expose...?" Put the emphasis on the "I" part of that. If you are using "P" mode then you are not determining the exposure. Your camera is. And your camera thinks it is taking a snapshot of your Aunt Mathilda at Christmas, and has no idea that you are trying to do something creative. So in cases like this you need to take control, meaning switching to "M" manual mode, or at the very least, playing with camera features like "exposure compensation" or "exposure lock" or "spot metering". Look these up in your camera's manual.

Generally, you want to look at a scene like this and decide what parts of it you want to be be the well-exposed. Presumably in this photo you wanted the worker to be be a little brighter, so you could see more detail. These could be done a few ways:

1. Take a photo like you did, then examine the results and maybe the histogram and take another shot with positive exposure compensation.


2. Zoom in so you are excluding the brighter lights


3. Meter the shot when centered below the person, with the lights excluded and then either use exposure lock (if your camera has it) or set that exposure manually after reframing the shot the way you want it.


4. Enable spot metering so your exposure is determined by the very center of the frame, giving less weight to the lights on the side.



5. Bracket your exposure, so you automatically get shots 1 stop faster and slower. This also allows you to do some post processing, even HDR.