Exercise: Light through the day

The aim of this exercise is to look at the way a view changes as the sun moves and the light changes.  Again as this is November in England it is difficult to find a very clear day to undertake this exercise.  I decided to opt to take these images over a series of days during periods where the day is clearer. 

During the time these scenes were photographed, sunrise was approximately 7.40am and sunset 4pm.

There is some cloud cover in the images.

All images shot at aperture f/11 (unless stated) and ISO 200

1/160s

 8am during the Golden Hour

The light has an orange/reddish hue to it.

1/250s

9am after the Golden Hour

There is a yellow hue and the scene is much brighter.

 

1/400s

10am

The scene is bright and there is still some shadow detail in the fence in the left foreground.

1/160s f/9

Midday

The light is pretty 'white' with little or no shadows to be seen but plenty of contrast. There is less drama in the scene.

1/160s

2pm

1/60s

3pm

The sky is very bright.

1/60s

3.15pm

1/60s
3.30pm

The scene is beginning to get darker as the sun is lower in the horizon.  The sun can still be seen shining on the left hand side of the building.

1/30s
3.45pm

The images are taking on a pale blue/violet hue probably due to the clouds.

1/20s

4pm

With the sun below the horizon we are entering twilight and there is a dark and blue hue to the image. The light can no longer be seen shining on the building.

This exercise demonstrates the effect the light has on a particular scene.  The weather and time of year have greatly affected my ability to capture a clear sky and sun which would illustrate the changes and effect of the light moreso. 

However, in saying that it is clear that there is more drama in the images taken around the golden hours whereas the images during the day with the white light makes for a harsh scene especially when it is a landscape. 

My favourite would have to be the images taken around sunset and sunrise.



The time of day

Dawn to dusk
It is common knowledge that the best times for shooting landscapes is at sunrise and sunset where the sun is low and the light brings out all the shadows and character in the scene. 

There isn't much as photographers that we can do about outdoor light only to wait for it to change or for a more desirable time of day to shoot.

Although most amateurs tend to take their images during the day, midday presents us with an unattractive light.  Because it is over-familiar it is not as special as the light at sunrise/sunset. 

The Golden hour is when the sun is near the horizon - before sunset or after sunrise - giving us an intense golden light to work with.

Exercise: Judging colour temperature 2

For this exercise I have to decide what correction a scene needs. 


The first part of this exercise would have produced better images if I had changed the white balance to Shade for the one in the shade or maybe taken it on Auto to make a comparison. 

Likewise seeing as the subject was a person I would have looked at using auto for the image where the sun is low on the horizon.  However, if this was a landscape I would have preferred to keep the yellowish hues. 

To look at ways in which adjusting the white balance can correct the image I have taken these images again using a different subject using the following settings:

• Direct sunlight
• Shade
• Auto

I used a white bear as the subject for these  first shots due to a lack of volunteers.  Plus the teddy bear works well for Moose's infamous teddy bear exposure compensation test. 

Direct light

Shade

Auto

White balance

The white balance feature on digital cameras deals with the differences in colour temperature.  This adjusts the overall colour in a scene so that the very brightest parts are captured as pure white and without a colour tinge from the light. 

The settings on my camera are:

• Auto
• Incandescent
• Fluorescent
• Direct sunlight
• Flash
• Cloudy
• Shade
• K - where you can set your own white balance.  This can be done by using a grey card. 

Exercise: Judging colour temperature 1

For this exercise I have to take 3 pictures of a friend in different daylight situations.  One in full sunlight during the middle of the day, one in shade during the middle of the day and one when the sun  is close to the horizon. 

For the best results I needed a clear day.  However, this is November and England and getting a day with any sunshine is a rare treat. 

All images were taken with the White Balance set to Daylight.

Full sunlight during the day

This image is very bright.   

Shade during the day

There is a blue hue to this image reflected from the light blue in the sky.  If the sky was bluer then this could be more noticeable.

Sun low in the horizon

The sun was not very bright for this shot but you can see a faint yellow hue in the shot. 

The colour of light

Sunlight is our natural source of light.  During the middle of the say it appears colourless - we refer to this as white light.  This is what we regard as normal light. 


Light becomes colour when a part of the spectrum is missing.  Daylight normally has two colour directions. On a good clear day, when the sun is lower in the sky it becomes yellow, then orange and if you have a good sunset red by the time it reaches the horizon.


The reason this happens is because all the particles in the atmosphere scatter some of the light and there is more atmosphere between us and the sun at sunset.  The blue wavelengths have been scattered leaving the yellow/orange colours to come through. 


On a sunny day in the shade the orange/yellow is scattered making the light coming from the sky blue.


The colours of daylight can be seen on a scale that runs from red to orange to straw-coloured to white and then blue.  This is called the colour temperature scale. The temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin.
Generally the cooler the Kelvin temperature the warmer the colour and the warmer the temperature the cooler the light.

Exercise: Higher and lower sensitivity

This exercise required me to take shots at different ISO settings. 

Firstly I had to look for marginal situations and take one picture at normal ISO setting and then one at a higher ISO setting. 

I chose to take these pictures near sunset to make shooting conditions more challenging.

ISO 100

I was able to shoot at f9 with a shutter speed of 1/60s which is really the limit for handheld.

ISO 400

I was able to shoot at 1/250s at the same aperture by increasing the ISO which is apporx 4 times faster.

ISO 100

I shot this at a low aperture f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/6s of a second which is too slow for handheld.  You can see the image is slighly blurred close up.

ISO 400

This allowed me to shoot at 1/20s at the same aperture without creating too much noise but making the pictures less blurred for handheld.

ISO 100

Again this was shot at f5.3 at 1/10s which blurred the motion of the car but also the blurred the buildings

ISO 400

I was able to shoot at 1/40s by increasing the ISO.

ISO 100

Shooting at a low aperture of f5.6 at 1/8s

ISO 400

I could shoot at 1/20s

ISO 100

shooting at f5.6 and 1/5s

ISO 400

Allowed me to increase the shutter speed to 1/20s

ISO 100

I was restricted to shooting at 1/15s which was too slow

ISO 400

I was able to shoot at 1/60s which is acceptable for handeld.

Shooting these marginal scenes in lower light proved troublesome handleld.  Increasing the ISO sensitivity allows you to increase the shutter speed which in some of the cases made for acceptable handheld shooting. 

In the other cases above I should have increased the ISO further still in order to get a less blurred image. 

When I looked at the images up close those shot at ISO 400 were a little noisier but not so much that it took away from the image.  Increasing the ISO above 400 to perhaps 800 might have made for a faster shutter speed to use but it may have compromised the image quality a little too much. 

My preference for shooting these kind of situations is to use a tripod to get the optimum.  However, I know that this is not always possible and this exercise shows the effect ISO sensitivity can have on difficult to achieve exposures.