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Comment by redis_mlc | Hacker News Reader

FYI: Wedding photographers deal with the contrast between white dresses and black suits/tuxedos every day, for the last century.

Some notes:

- the eye can handle the dynamic range, but there's no correct exposure for that photographic combination, so they play with lighting, exposure bracketing and dodging when printing

- it's recommended that brides wear off-white (like cream) or other colors of fabric if they're concerned about the photos

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Isn't the solution to this to take 2 photos and merge them later?

A RAW photo (raw input from the camera sensor, without processing) can often be used in post production to get more range out of a photo than would be possible with a JPEG. One of my desktop backgrounds I often use was actually quite overexposed due to the sun shining through trees. I was able to correct for it in Lightroom and it's now one of my favorite shots.

That's exactly what (exposure) bracketing is for. You take three photos at different exposures and merge them. This is also how a lot of HDR photography is done.

If nobody moves - go for it.

That's one way, but a lot of work for more than one photo. Going from setting adjustment to photoshopping is a huge step-up up in terms of labor and cost.

And that is why you pay a wedding photographer instead of just asking uncle Herbert to take some pretty pictures with his DSLR.

Mind you, the hobbyist uncle may produce great photos an may be a wizard with lightroom and photo shop. But a lot of hobbyists try to compensate with gear for skill, or more charitable may not be even aware of related skills an possibilities. So in the end the snapshots your friend Andy took with his 2 year old iPhone might look better (have better automatic processing) than those photos Herbert took with his expensive prosumer or even pro kit.

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