During my recent road trip through the Capital Cities of the Southeast, I photographed many interiors. When I approach a building to photograph the interior, I always take a look at the sky. Many times, I'm taking pictures inside a room with windows on an outside wall. The direction of the sunlight can greatly impact the dynamic range of the exposure inside the room. I usually prefer a cloudy sky for the diffused light it provides--especially when shooting inside Capitols and churches. Here are a couple of examples of this:

Alabama State Capitol

As I was shooting pictures of the Capitol's dome from the floor of the rotunda, I noticed that a couple of the murals were practically blown out due to the bright light streaming in from the windows:

Inner domeInner dome from the rotunda floor of the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama on December 3, 2014

I tried a couple of approaches to deal with this. First, I spent quite a bit of time on the rotunda floor waiting for clouds to pass over to diffuse the light. Also, I tried bracketing multiple exposures to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. But, the light was so bright on the murals that there just isn't enough information to capture in that section of the picture--no matter how much I bracket my exposures.

I returned later that afternoon only to experience the same problem. I would have gone back at night, but the building closes before sunset. However, I did return the next morning and captured a much better image under very overcast skies along with a bracketed exposure:

Inner domeInner dome from the rotunda floor of the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama on December 3, 2014

Georgia State Capitol

I visited the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on a very bright, sunny day. My access to the House and Senate chambers was very limited. The doors were locked. I was fortunate that an employee opened the door to the balcony for me. But, I was only able to shoot for a few minutes while the employee stood by my side. So, I had to deal with the harsh sunlight without the option of returning for more favorable conditions.

This is the best image of the House of Representatives chamber that I could create under the circumstances:

Georgia House ChamberHouse of Representatives Chamber in the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2, 2014

Creating this image required bracketing seven exposures each one stop apart. However, the light coming through the shutters is still very harsh. On the other hand, the Old Supreme Court chamber is located in a different wing of the Capitol and does not receive this direct light. I find the lighting in that image to be much more appealing as the light is much softer and more even throughout the frame:

Old Supreme CourtOld Supreme Court Chamber (now the Appropriations Room) in the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2, 2014

Throughout the trip, I found that sunlight often had a big impact on the quality of my interior shots. While photographing churches, people would often mention to me how the church is most beautiful when the sunlight shines through the stained glass windows. While the stained glass windows certainly look nicer when they are lit, strong sunlight usually makes the windows too bright--removing most color and details from the glass. I prefer a bright and overcast day when taking photos inside most interiors with windows to the outside.