Project 6: Photography II Light Exercise 4: Daylight

Before the exercise on light, there was an optional task involving the histogram, which I chose to do and found very informative. The premise is that, left to its own devices, a camera will average exposure to the mid tone. This can be a problem.

First we took shots of objects of a dark, middle and light tone: I had a navy top, a grey top and a white sheet of paper. Looking at the histograms for these (the top row below), they were all similar, with a spike in the mid tone which quickly fell away on either side. For the second row of photos of the same objects, we were to set the camera to manual and use either the aperture or shutter speed to even out the histogram.

Having observed the difference, the exercise itself called for a number of photos exploring the quality of natural light. I decided to take a range of photos through the span of one day, beginning in the early morning and continuing until evening, in order to sample the way the light changes through the day.

I set the camera to manual and decided to use shutter speed to select exposures. I kept the aperture at the same f stop throughout in order to maximise the effect of changing the shutter speed. As it turns out, this was f11, which, perhaps, is not what I would have chosen had I paid more attention. However, it worked well enough. I decided to vary the shutter speed rather than the aperture (we were given the option) for the fairly pragmatic reason that the shutter speed dial encircles the shutter button on top of the camera, whereas to change the aperture I need to use buttons on the back of the camera, which is less convenient when using the viewfinder. 

This was taken about 1 1/2 hours after sunrise, 1/125s. The light was clear and sharp, picking out details such as the aerials on the roof as they caught the early morning light. The near side of the street was cast in deep shadow as the sun was low in the sky.

This was the same time of day but in the opposite direction at 1/25s. The sun is diagonally behind and to the left of the houses, and its light can be seen as it hits the trees in the background. The sky is so overexposed as to be invisible.

1/25s. This is mid morning, the sky had become overcast and there was a slight mist over the hills in the background. The light was much more low level at this point. This makes the colours of the landscape softer and less vibrant.

1/200s. In order to get the exposure right for the sky, I lost light in the landscape.

This is the same view at 1/60s. I have the right exposure for the landscape on this cloudy and overcast occasion, but I’ve lost the sky. I feel, having done the exercise with the flat colours, that I ought to be able to set my camera in such a way as to get the exposure right for both land and sky, but I haven’t figured this out yet. When I talked to my friend about it, he recommended getting a graduated Neutral Density (ND) filter in order to address this issue, especially because I take so many photos of the sea. I read a few articles online and established that this could be a good option. I also read about Circular Polarising (CP) filters, and they also seem to be good for more even exposure and for photographing water. Subsequent to completing this exercise I ordered a set of filters that has both of these, so I will experiment with those soon.

Another way to deal with this issue is to leave the sky out of the frame altogether. I tried this approach here, at a speed of 1/50s. I was pleased with this photo as it accurately portrays the overcast light. Some of this can be seen in the reflections in the water.  I am also pleased with the depth of field in this photo, the mid-ground foliage gives way to a more distant view of the colourful swing park in the top right corner of the frame.

This is also at 1/50s. The mid-tone foreground of the faded tarmac car park balances the sky, making its exposure more true to life except for right at the top of the frame, and this could easily be cropped out.

Here, under the trees, the light is more diffused. I used a faster shutter speed of 1/10s in order to capture the shade and the feeling of the light being screened out by the leaves. This made the more distant features in the bottom left of the frame a bit overexposed, but I don’t mind that because, when under an avenue of trees, the view of the rest of the landscape does tend to look very bright by comparison. 

My last mid-morning photo. Still struggling with the exposure, though this is a better exposure of land and sky. A shutter speed of 1/80s was most successful for capturing the dark cloud and the shade of the trees under which I was standing, opening out to reveal a view of the field and the fair that was setting up.

I went out again mid-evening, about half an hour before sunset. This photo, at f5.6 and 1/160s (I finally noticed that I needed to change the aperture!) was taken looking northwest, putting the road and houses in shadow in the twilight but with a brightness in the sky from the low sun being obscured by the houses. Again, I have sky issues, but the foreground does capture the slightly melancholy feeling of dusk.

Here I was facing northeast, with the sun roughly behind me and lightning up the distant hills whilst the foreground was more in shadow by comparison, but with a warmth to the light remaining, thanks to the setting sun. I took this photo at a slower 1/250s speed in the darkening street in order to capture more of the fading light.

I am interested in the gradations in light which are emphasised by this narrow crop of the scene. Zooming in has made these tall, narrow houses look even more tall and narrow, the light increases as we look from bottom to top of the frame, but in a staccato way rather than a gradual increase in light. In fact, the passage including the chimneys and shadowed part of the background is darker than the areas both below and above, breaking up the progression. It’s really a very interesting view and I keep looking back at it.

What follows is a selection of my winter photos. At this time of year, only a month before Summer Solstice, it’s not so easy to go out and about taking photos during the golden hours after sunrise and before sunset. The following are sunrise photos from December on two consecutive days, which I just took with my phone camera. On both days the quality of the light was exceptionally beautiful, and yet quite different in the second two photos (on day 2) than in the first two (on day 1). Nothing I saw on this summer day, when I paid so much attention to setting my camera for the light, can compare with these point and shoot photos from December. All the technique and expertise in the world can not compare with the force of sheer opportunity.