exposure between a very bright window and a dark interior is a major problem that be devours the church of a photographer. It was difficult with film to get right and not much better in the early days of digital. This shot of a Gloss de Cathedral was taken in 2009 and it shows the problem. The window is so overexposed it cannot be corrected in post-production. If I had taken it today I would hang my head in shame. Thankfully, over the last 12 years or so, sensors and software have greatly improved. Now, I'm not talking about HDR. I have tried it and I find the colours artificial. These windows in balechingly church that's in Surrey by the way look more painted than stained. I can exercise greater control by combining my photographic skills with Lightroom or Photoshop. Oh, and by the way, I do not regard myself an expert in either. This shot of Heriford Cathedral illustrates clearly the problem. The window is much brighter than the interior, so I metered for the window allowing the interior to go dark, which I corrected in Lightroom, but being careful not to burn out those annoying highlights on the pillars. I have often used this shot of a Lincoln Cathedral in my productions and it is not hard to see why. The exposure of the East window has been balanced with the crystals in post-production. Because the difference in exposure between the window and the crystals was huge. Now, compare post-production with the image out of camera. So, what did I do? And it's not just a question of making about in Lightroom. One has to be careful about the photography, the way I took the picture in the first place. I took it with post-production in mind, something I've done many times. The most essential technique is spot metering aided by an electronic finder. With experience helped by my eyes and not graphs or numbers I search for the correct metering point and lock it by half-depressing the shutter button before moving to the required composition. But it won't look correctly exposed at this stage. A spot meets at near the window but not on it. That would have rendered the interior grossly underexposed, risking an increasing noise when lightened in post-production. The window is still overexposed, but that can be corrected in Adobe Lightroom, a technique more difficult a few years ago. Knowing how much you can overexpose the window and underexposed the interior is only gained by experience and not from page 56 of an instruction book. Enter Adobe Lightroom. Now first I changed the profile Adobe Color 2 Adobe Landscape. This briefs up the colours of it. I do this practically for everything. Now next I take the highlight slider, RADAM! This restores colour back to the window. It now looks a little underexposed, but that will be corrected in a moment. Next I lighten the interior with shadow and black sliders. Don't overdo this, otherwise noise would occur, so be careful! And be prepared to backtrack if necessary. As the interior is still a bit dark, I increase the exposure and take the whites right down. But a high-fi gone a bit too far with exposure. So back it comes just a tad. I adjust clarity and vibrance for a bit of push. That's about it. So I pop it back into Photoshop to check before saving to JPEG. Keeping the raw files with the adjustments. Don't get rid of them. You might want to come back to this later on and perhaps change your mind. And I might be accused of doing everything incorrectly. But my final judge are my eyes. And if it looks okay, I use it! It is more difficult to get the photography right. In post-production, when working with raw files, I can backtrack, change my mind and even start again. For this reason, I never tie my hands during photography by changing a setting or adding an accessory that I cannot backtrack from. Now that just leaves the single issue of getting the exposure right. And given time and patience, you too was soon discovered where to spot meter from.