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.