CLOUDY WEATHER AND RAIN

In this exercise  we note differences in pictures taken under different weather conditions. In Nigeria its wet season now and always cloudy. But i did manage to take pictures in sunlight and under cloud though in sunlight it was not 100% cloudless but enough to illustrate the point.

I must point out that this exercise on light appears to be the most challenging so far. What makes it more so is the fact that you have to wait for specific periods of the day to take pictures. And when that period comes, you hope for the right conditions required.  Realised also that i need more equipment like speedlights and tripods to perform some exercises. This made me fork out quite a chunk of money for a nikon flash. I bought the best available (sb-910) because for a serious photographer, its very important to get the best at all times if you can afford it to avoid upgrading constantly  thereby spending more than you should in the end.

Image 1:ISO 1000,70MM,0EV,F/8,1/5000M MAY 29, 1:32PM,CLOUDY

Image 2:ISO 1000,70MM,0EV,F/8,1/3200, JUNE 08, 8.22AM, NO CLOUDS

The two images above were taken on different days and at different times and in manual mode. ISO  was set to 1000 and focal length to 70mm. I used the the light meter from my camera to balance aperture and shutter speeds. With the same f stop of f/8, my shutter speed changed from 1/5000 in image 1 to 1/ 3200 in image 2.

AS stated in manual, when clouds cover the sun, the shadows are softer and the shadow edges less distinct. So the subject is more evenly lit but not so definitely defined as is obvious from image 1. Note the shadows under the kerb in Image 2 at 1/3200s as compared to Image 1 at 1/5000s.

This exercise in light is discussed even further in page 70 of "The Art Of Photography" by Bruce Barnhaum. He also recommends an exercise to improve our understanding and perception of light recommending quickly framing a scene and determining the brightest and darkest spot within the frame. As we progress with the exercise, we start to see things that were missed at first. While stopped at a red light on our way to work, we might frame a scene that includes cars, buildings, street signs and other common urban objects. One scene may be seen as been bright, but on further study another scene may appear brighter.

We can also speculate what would happen under other lighting conditions. On a cloudy day, there would be no glint of light off  a bumper. As we examine the scene, we start to envision it under alternate condition.

Image 3:ISO 500,86MM,0EV,F5.6,1/800, OVERCASR

I went out on an overcast saturday evening to take some photos and better understand the effects of clouds on light. As an aspiring photographer, you need an eye for the elements of design of which light is a part of. But also i have read about photographers like henri cartier bresson and his concept of the decisive moment in photography. So when I go out looking for things to photograph, am looking for an opportunity to capture the decisive moment like this photograph of a lady and a man almost in fisticuffs. These are common scenes in many big cities and i captured this one as shown in image 4. It was an overcast day with clouds moving very slowly across the sky and the evening sun gently breaking through. I thing if the sun had been overhead and bright, the lighting would have been harsh.

In the landscape photograph below the clouds can be seen in the upper part of the frame with the laterite excavated showing some pronounced relief. The clouds as seen typically affect light and its effect on photographs as opposed to clear bright skies.

Image 4:ISO 500,70MM,0EV,F.6,1/4000,OVERCAST DAY

Image 5:-: ISO 500,70MM,0EV,F5.6,1/2500

In Image 5, same location as image 4, the lady's face is uniformly lit due to the soft shows with edges less distinct. Indeed hard shadows are distracting though they bring out texture sometimes. The image is straight from the camera . I reckon i could make it even better with a little photoshop.

Image 6:ISO 1000,300MM,0EV,F6.3,1/640

Image 6 above was taken on a sunlit day and the sunlight accentautes the birds white feathers givi g it a fairly strong glow. This photo was taken with 70-300mm lens. Bird photography happens to be something am quite interested in and these days i more frequently venture to the backyards and sometimes the woods just to photograph birds and other wild species. Because a lot of the time, these birds burrow under the thick cover of leaves, the use of flash becomes inevitable to get clear pictures. Hence one ofthe reasons i picked up a speed light. But then I realised that is not where it ends. You still need a a flash extender (something like a better beamer) to increase the reach of your flash. phew! will have to get that and some lenses wuth further reach at some point. Photography is expensive. You need to combine good skills with fine equipment to get excellent results.


For the third part of the exercise, I went out to shoot on a rainy day. Its July and the rains almost never stop these days Its usually followed by an august break and then resumes again . My 70-300mm lens tended to hunt on this day because there was not too much light. So i increased the ISO to 2000 for faster shutter speeds.

Image 7:ISO 2000,210MM,F/8,1/1250s,RAINY DAY

In  this image 7 above, I composed the picture to capture the wild flower in the foreground for depth while man in the background holding the umbrella and the mist capture the true nature of the picture showing its inclement weather.

Image 8:ISO 2000,80mm,f/8,1/2000

The misty appearance to the landscape has set the picture apart coupled with the row of poles giving the image some depth.

TUNGSTEN AND FLUORESCENT LIGHTING

These exercises using tungsten and fluorescent lights were done in the evening just after sunset when there was only a little daylight left. I adjusted my eyes to light levels inside and outside the room. There is more appreciation of what these exercises are supposed to achieve so far. There was cloud cover when i carried this out, measuring exposure readings inside the room before taking the photos. I got shutter speed of 1.3s at ISO 1250 and aperture of 7.1. I also made reference to blogs of some course mates to see how they handled this exercise. Materials from the digital camera website was very useful in explaining the color temperature concept.

AUTO WB:ISO 1250,122MM,F/7.1,1/50

TUNGSTEN WB:ISO 1250,122MM,F/7.1,1/40

SUNLIGHT WB:ISO 1250,122MM,F/7/1,1/30

From the images, the Auto White Balance is very close to the Direct Sunlight white balance. The tungsten white balance has rendered the image blue giving it a different color temperature. In the course of trying to take my meter readings on the camera, light levels kept changing probably due to the changing sun angles. So readings obtained were the closest i could get to balance as possible.  I prefer auto white balance as it seems more natural.

PART 2: FLUORESCENT

I used my work area for this exercise because both the overhead  bulb and my COMPACT FLOURESCENT LAMP (CFL) emit the same light. Checking out my camera white balance, I discovered there are mant fluorescent white balances  listed as follows:

1. Sodium vapour lamps
2.Warm-white fluorescent
3.White fluorescent
4.Cool-white Fluorescent
5.Day-White Fluoresecent
6.Day-light fluorescent
7.High-temp mercury vapour.

I took three pictures in Auto WB, sodium vapour and cool-white fluorescent.

AUTO WB

SODIUM VAPOUR WB

COOL WHITE WB

CONCLUSIONS

The auto white balance is the best to use in this circumstance. Auto WB works in most settings except where light sources tend to be quite mottled. Hence care should be ecercised in selecting white balane.

The fluorescent light sources do not emit a full colour spectrum which tends to affect overall colour quality of the image.

LIGHT THROUGH THE DAY

The whole day was spent getting pictures for this exercise to demonstrate the effect of the angle of the sun on photography.  I tried to  get a good compositional piece like an isolated building that would fill my frame and show this effect. The shooting mode to use was something I also thought about. It was not stated in my instructional manual whether it should be manual , aperture, shutter or program mode. But I decided to use the aperture mode to give me a uniform aperture and let the camera decide the shutter speed since I was shooting a static object rather than a moving object.

Image 1:ISO 400, 300MM,0EV,F/5.6, 1/200, 7.09AM 

Image 1 was the first picture I took in the morning and have tried to be as sensitive as possible on my composition by zooming  and filling the frame with the building. It is not the most perfect framing i admit. The fewer background elements the better.  I could not get a very shallow depth of field to isolate the background because i was shooting closely spaced objects from a far distance.
The sun was just rising from the east and quite low on the horizon. I used a uniform light sensitivity of 400 and uniform focal length of 300mm. As is observe light distribution appears the same across the building.

Image 2: ISO 400, 300MM,0EV, F5.6, 1/2500,8.27AM

I took the same image an hour later at 8.27am and got a different shutter speed of 1/2500. This I later realized may have been because my camera was set to spot metering in which case it was measuring the  light only within a small area resulting in faster shutter speed which may be due to the sensor. This is the golden light period and i expected to get something sharper.  I took another picture 3 hours later shown below:

Image 3:ISO 400, 300mm,0EV,f5.6,1/4000, 11.31AM

The spot metering which i only realised later has obviously affected sensor reading of light distribution across the building. The above shot below was at 11.31am.Notice the shadow that has divided the building.

Image 4: ISO 400, 300mm,0EV,F/5.6,1/1600,12.37PM

In image 4 , the sun was almost overhead.

Image 5:ISO 400,300MM,0EV,F/5.6,1/2500

The day was also a cloudy day and with clouds moving, this may have affected the view. As the evening wore on, the sky became clearer and less cloudy. In aperture priority mode, any  time i pressed the shutter half way, my shutter speed kept fluctuating showing that light distribution was changing.

IMAGE 6:ISO 400,300MM,0EV,F/5.6,1/1250,4.23PM

At 4.23pm when i took the above image, the horizon had moved with the sun heading west and reflecting on the building. IIt was still spot metering at this point yet the picture appears to be better with the light more evenly distributed and golden.

Image 7:ISO 400,300MM,0EV,F/5.6,1/800,5.19PM

In image 7, at 5.19pm, the sun is moving towards the horizon and the light appears less hash with a slower shutter speed indicating the camera is able to capture more light in less time. Notice the difference in contrast with earlier pictures.

Image 8:ISO 400,300MM,0EV,f/5.6,1/640,5.53PM

Image 9:ISO 400,300MM,0EV,F/5.6,1/640,6.09PM

 The last two images 8 and 9 was at 5.53pm and 6.09pm. You can see the suns angular effect as reflected through the buildings windows and more parts of the building falling into shade. The color spectrum is different from afternoon.



CONCLUSIONS

From the above exercise , it can be concluded that:

1. Light and shadow movement can be anticipated throughout the day.

2.As the sun gets lower at the end of the day, more and more of the scene gets into shade.

3. The light in the early hours of the morning and late hours of the evening gives a more golden spread.

4.A clearer weather gives more definite changes in light distribution.

JUDGING COLOUR TEMPERATURE 2

White balance is the calibration of the white point of an illumination, where it is matched to a set standard. Most digital cameras have an automatic white balance system that tries to correct the recorded colors so that the whites (and all other colors) appear normal to the human eye.(Ang, Tom, Fundamentals of Photography; the essential handbook for both digital and film camera's, pp343).

Until recently when I experimented with it, i really did not quite understand what white balance was for , but now i do. In this exercise, i took images of the same objects in direct sunlight, shade and auto and compared them.

Image 1:AUTO WB, ISO 3200,85MM,0EV,F4.5,1/500

IMAGE 2:WB DIRECT SUNLIGHT,ISO 3200,85MM.0EV,F4.5,1/5

IMAGE 3:WB SHADE,ISO 3200, 85MM,0EV,F4.5, 1/500

As can be seen from the above images shot in Auto , direct sunlight and shade white balances, the image contrats are different. Shooting under this late morning condition and with such high ISO, the camera has adjusted automatically in image 1 for the ligh condition. In image 2 shot in direct sunlight white balance , it may have appeared better if taken truly under direct sunlight rather than from a balcony which i did. The high colour temperature in image 3 with shade white balance tends to make the background colours  come very close to the colour of the yellow containers. I took another set of 3 pictures under the same conditions bou with a lower ISO to see the effect.

Image 4: Auto white balance, ISO 1250,70MM,0EV,F4.5, 1/250

Image 5: Direct sunlight WB, ISO 1250, 70MM,0EV,F4.5,1/250

IMAGE 6:WB shade,ISO 1250,75MM,0EV,F4.5,1/200

By reducing the ISO to 1250, I was able to remove some grain from the images rendering them a bit sharper. You need to look closely to tell the difference. Pixel pipping is something I have become accustomed to. With powerful camera's these days you can set your ISO to 12,800 and still get almost noise free images. Unless there is need to make very large prints , the difference is hardly noticeable. So ISO 12800 on a Nikon D4 can appear as ISO 3200 on a Nikon 3100 camera. Such is the level that its possible to take pictures in near darkness with todays expensive modern cameras.
When we take pictures,  adjusting properties like ISO, White balance, aperture and shutter speeds have direct effects on the final image. We must know what to correct for at the beginning and depending on the light situation.

On my Nikon D7000, the white balance settings listed are:auto, incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade and various other colour temperatures to choose from. I was at a wedding a while ago and the interior of the venue was reflecting different colors. When I took pictures I realised that the images were affected by the intensity and color of light in the venue. I did not know about white balance at the time and even though my camera was set to auto, the effect of the colours were so strong that the camera could not correct adequatly for it. With the benefit of hindsight, i now realise that i could have changed the white balance to suit the particular light conditions.

VARIETY WITH A LOW SUN

This next one is to show some of the advantages of shooting when the sun is low Frontal lighting, side light, back lighting and edge light.  Wondering to use natural or artificial objects for this. Am