ALL of the previous suggestions are good ones.
I recommend exposing for the dark side (as one guy suggested) - and
mixing that thought with another guy's thought: put it on manual and
vary the shutter speed and aperture settings until you get enough light.
Flash will flare on that big window - especially at night - when it
makes the best backdrop - so shoot at an angle - angle of incidence =
angle of reflection... you remember... physics,... but a little fill
flash will help. But angle the flash so the flare reflects off the
glass and front panels away from you, and providing softer light
reflecting back at you.
Work the angles.
Other ideas are to tape a piece of plastic milk bottle over the flash
lens as a diffuser. If your flash angles upward, then let it bounce
off the ceiling. Or bounce off a white card - point the flash up and
let the card angle the light down to the equipment. Instant diffuser.
Step back... see where the flash flares and check the angles - often
stepping back, and cropping in later works better than getting close for
details - as the flash will be more evenly spaced over the whole scene -
no "hot spots".
Another idea is to kill the flash, but use a tripod and let it have a
long time exposure. Then use your Photoshop editing software to correct
for any white balance problems. Flash tends to be nice and white,
while inside lighting is more incandescent (different lighting has
different temperatures) and the color will be different (yeah... I know
about auto white balance in the camera, but I am confident it will be
different with and without flash no matter what...)
Use a tripod and use a large white card (poster board) to reflect any
bright light coming towards the camera back onto the subject. Try this
day and night and see which lighting combination works best.
Best way, of course, is "specular" lighting - that which comes mostly
(but not all) from the strict sides of the subject. That will toss
some shadow on the stuff, and give it greater depth perception. Example
- light up a coin from the top and it all looks flat, like a drawing...
but light it from the side, and even the little ridges and cuts cast a
bit of a shadow and it now looks 3-D. You need some from the front,
but if there is plenty from the sides, or from a hard angle, you will
get more depth.
Play with the angles ! It is all in the angles. Light... depth of
field ... distance... these can be either friend or enemy depending on
how you mix and match them all.
================ James -K8JHR =========================
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