Assignment, Week 11: Large Dynamic Range scenes

Theme of the week: Shadowplay

This week's assignment is to experiment around with "large dynamic range" scenes, which are scenes that contain both very dark and very bright parts. These scenes are often difficult because today's camera are not capable of capturing the entire "dynamic range" from the brightest bright spot and the darkest dark spot - it can only compromise by capturing the bright area but leaving the dark area masked in black, or capture the dark area and leave the bright area in complete white.

This week is simply a "go out and experiment" assignment, but some things you might want to think about are:

Does changing my exposure compensation (bright or darker) help the situation? Which direction should I generally bias it towards?
Is there anything I can do with the scene to help the situation (change my direction, come back at a different time of day)?
Can I use the large dynamic range of the scene and limited dynamic range capabiity of my camera to come up with an interesting picture?

I've included some "large dynamic range" examples below.

~~Pac-Bell~~ ~~SBC~~ ~~AT&T~~ That ballpark the Giants play at, towards sunset

Wiltering under the sun

Impenetrable by light: The Anonymous Shamim P.

Tres Amici

All alone in Berkeley on a post-finals Christmas

Naked Winter Abominations

Ordinary Silhouette

Assignment Summary:

Find a scene with a large dynamic range - containing both very bright and very dark areas at the same time.
Upload images here: /gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=15025