30.04.2012

TAOP

Part Four: Light.

Project: The Colour Of Light.
Equipment: Canon G12.

Exercise: Judging Colour temperature. 1.

The timing of this exercise was fortuitous as I was due a break in Spain where I knew the sun would give strong, pure colours.  For my model I took along a white bear.  I have made no corrections to these pictures other than converting to jpg. and changing file size. 

I photographed bear in the three conditions requested and achieved the result one would expect.  

Full sun:  A nice clean white bear.

Shade Under a clear blue sky: A blue tinge to the bear that was stronger that I would have anticipated.  Not a very pleasing colour and one that would have to be corrected or avoided.

Full, low morning sun:  A gorgeous warm colour that although not true one would probably leave alone.

Judging temperature. 2.

The following three were taken in a shaded area with as neutral as colour as I could achieve.

The first was shot on auto to give a base line for the others.  The colour was pretty good.

The second was warmed up with the cloud setting.

The third was cooled down by using the full sun setting.

Again the blue image is the least pleasing as it has that cold feeling one attributes to blue whereas the warm yellow/orange of the second version is much more acceptable.  The neutral baseline picture is the truest but not necessarily the most pleasing.  

Exercise: Two pictures in sun and shade.

This is a pair of pictures of the tiles on the villa.  The one taken in shade is certainly less yellow than the one taken in full sun.  There was on a 1/2 stop difference between them but this can put down to the light nature of the cloud.

This pair is a beach scene. Again there is only a 1/2 stop difference but the cloudy one is now definitely bluer.

Exercise: Variety with a low sun.

I first carried out this exercise using the bear but decided I could do better by photographing some local trees.  Unfortunately I could not get all the required shots using the same trees but the effect of the different lighting angles is obvious.

The first is the image of three different trees rising above a building line.  This picture lacks any drama and is lacking in depth.  

The second is with side light.  It shows more detail and depth but still lacks any drama.

The third is a silhouette with the sun hidden behind the trunk of the tallest tree.  Much more dramatic than the other two.  The structure of the trees stands out clearly but all colour has disappeared.

The last is a rim shot and was taken from behind a side wall where the trees were back lit by a low sun that was out of my view.  The result is quite pleasing as it has the drama of the silhouette as well as the colour details.  The result is very different from the full back lit version yet from a light direction that is not that much different.  One to remember.

Project: The time of day.  

Exercise: Light through the day.

This series of pictures was shot from the roof of the villa I was staying in.  It’s more a village scape that a landscape but served its purpose.  The view includes the roof of the villa which shows nicely the effect of the sun on its undulating surface.  The trees start off being back lit and again show the effect of the sun passing overhead.  The first picture was at 07.25hrs and the last was shot at 20.56hrs on a 2 sec exposure.  The camera was set on Av and the sun setting.  I am not going to comment on each picture individually as I think this series tells the story of the sun's passage quite graphically, although I will pick on a few.  

The first was taken before the sun had risen.  I would normally expect the light at this time of day to be warm and either yellow or red but on this morning it was neutral allowing the blue of the sky to dominate.  The lighting is very flat with muted colours and little contrast.  The bright blue sky is giving a cold blue tinge to the white walls.  As the day progresses the contrast increases and the colours become more vibrant.  Different patterns appear on the tiles as the sun passes over.  


The mid-day images are lit by a near vertical sun that is throwing down high contrast shadows.  The roof tiles have no modelling and the general tone is one of unforgiving harshness. 

The penultimate shot has the sun coming from over my shoulder and the colours are at their most saturated.  What shadows there are appear very harsh and the warm tones associated with evening are evident especially on the tiles.  My shadow appears in the two shots previous to this one.  

The last shot was taken long after the sun had disappeared and again the contrast has dropped away and the colours are really muted.  There is the blurred image of a person walking through the bottom of the shot.  I have left this in to indicate how long the exposure was.


To my eye the most pleasing shots are the ones where the light is coming from behind me.  There is just enough angle on the sun to allow some shadow modelling and the colours are fully saturated. 

Exercise: Cloudy weather and rain.

Below is a picture I took of Brighton Pier early one morning.  All the elements were with me.  The sun was low enough to illuminate the underside of the clouds yet not high enough to be seen.  The extremely low tide allowed the clouds to be mirrored in the wet surface of the sand and their colour implies the fire that brought about the pier's downfall.  The gentle waves make a sympathetic curve round the sand and match the shape of the cloud.  The high flying birds make an implied triangle with the two lumps of pier.  Even the shape of the cloud follows the shape of the derelict pier.  I have seen many pictures of Brighton Pier that were shot on a sunny day and they are just that and no more.  In this image there is an air of brooding, tranquility and emptiness that full sun would take away.  The silhouette of this ruin is far more powerful than the full detail sun-lit equivalent.  This is an image I have always been proud of of but until I started this course I didn't know why it works so well.

Exercise: Three photographs on an overcast day.

I went out on an overcast morning and walked out into the salt pans at Lo Pagan near Murcia.  I took a hint from Perello's book and Chased the Light.  There was an even blanket of low laying cloud that cast no shadow.  The air was still and the water was glass smooth.

The first is of pylons marching through the tranquillity of this shallow lake.  The water was mirror calm and the light soft under low and even cloud.  The pylon at the left is in fact the last but by cropping where I did I have tried to indicate their continuation.  I also took the shot from right of the pylons but it didn't work.  There is a gull on top of the first pylon that I did not notice until I had downloaded the image.  

This is a long derelict house on a tiny island way out in the salt lakes.  The empty windows give it an air of total desolation.  The house makes a nice single point in the lake balanced by its own reflection.  The diagonal row of the disused fish trap forms a pleasing triangle with the strip of land and breaks up what would otherwise only be an image of subject and reflection.  It also leads the eye from left to right into the subject of the picture.

Another single point image of a moored boat.  In the background, beyond the the promontories, are faint outlines of islands.  Having the boat facing the opening hints at rowing out and visiting  them.  This could almost be a greyscale image were it not for the colours of the boat.  This picture best illustrates the softness of the light on that morning.

Exercise: Tungsten and fluorescent lighting.

I have had to alter this exercise as I live in an Eco house that has no tungsten lighting.  It has low voltage diode, compact fluorescent and energy saver bulbs but tungsten it has not.  What I have tried to do is cover both parts of the exercise in one experiment.

I did what I could with the lighting I have in my living room.  I waited until the light value inside and outside roughly matched and took the following.

Daylight.

Tungsten.

Fluorescent 1.

Fluorescent 2.

Fluorescent 3.

Auto.

The unevenness of both the illumination and the colour cast by these various sources is pretty obvious.  None of the inbuilt correction settings come close although the Tungsten get nearest.  The one that comes nearest is the camera's Auto setting but leaves the outside of the image very blue.  With a bit of fine tuning this would be a passable representation of the real colours.

Have decided to publish as the blog has become unstable.  Will continue the rest of the Light section in a new blog.

For the third part I have chosen very different pictures.

The first is a picture from m window on a dull and rainy day.  It is the sort of view a child would see on such a day.  I focused on the wet glass and allowed the scene to blur.

The second is obviously a set up but does nicely show the action of a drop of water falling on water.

The last is a picture I took a while age of a faint rainbow over Ularu in central Australia.  Not the best rainbow ever taken but to see one in one of the worlds driest places was worth recording.

  

08.03.2012

TAOP

PART FOUR: LIGHT.

Exercise: Higher and Lower Sensitivity.

Equipment: Canon G12 on Av.  ISO settings 100 and 800.

For this exercise I took pairs of exposures in each location, one at ISO 100 and a second at ISO 800.

The first was at a round-a-bout and included a town scape and slow moving traffic.  

ISO 100.  f5.6 @ 1/320.  No obvious camera shake.  Good depth of field.  No motion blur on the vehicle.  At 300% pixilation was clearly visible but fine detail was still seen. No serious noise.

ISO 800.  f5.6 @ 1/1,250. No sign of camera shake.  Good depth of field.  No motion blur on the vehicle. Even at 66% noise was becoming evident in the shadow and dark areas. At 100% it was intrusive.  At 300% pixelation was clearly visible and fine detail was being lost.    

I produce the two pictures as taken and two details from them.  What may not be obvious is the loss of colour saturation at the higher sensitivity.

Conclusion.  No advantage in using higher sensitivity on this occasion.  

The second pair was at Sainbury’s shop exit and involved people walking across  my line of vision.

ISO 100.  f5.6 @ 1/125.  No camera shake.  Good depth of field.  Slight sign of motion blur particularly on the legs.  Pixelation similar to the first pair.  The black interior of the open boot is totally free of noise.

ISO 800.  f5.6 @ 1/1250.  No sign of camera shake.   Good depth of field.  No sign of motion blur even on the small pram wheels.  The darkest area I could find was the rear wheel of a car.  This was very noisy.  The loss of colour saturation is more pronounced in this second pair, due possibly to the lower shutter speed of the ISO 100 image.  The loss of detail is well demonstrated by the steps detail that I reproduce.

Conclusion.  The controlling of motion blur was not worth the loss of picture quality on this occasion.

The third pair was taken at waist level with me walking towards my target.

ISO 100.  f5.6 @ 1/30.  Camera shake is very evident giving the whole image has an out of focus look.  There was no noise in the black of a door.  The other criteria are not worth commenting on because of this blurring.

ISO 800.  f5.6 @ 1/400.  Little sign of camera shake.  Good depth of field.  Small amount of motion blur but not sufficient to spoil the image.  There is some noise in the black areas of the image.  This image suffers from the same pixelation and saturation problems as the other examples but this time the drop in quality is more that compensated by the fact that the shot was only possible by using a fast shutter speed and high sensitivity.

Conclusion.  Well worth the loss of image quality to obtain the shot.

Back in the time of black and white film the limitations of the various products was paramount.  A change of speed meant wasting the end of a roll.  Pushing and pulling film was a regular procedure that required a whole arsenal of rapidly deteriorating chemicals.  Are Ilford Pan F, FP4 and HP5 still made?  Pixels and noise may have taken the place of grain but tools are now available to smooth out these problems, at least to some extent.  Noise reduction and filter programmes can counter these problems but as usual there is a cost, and that cost is sharpness. 

Noise does not have to remain a problem if saturated colours are more important than sharpness as noise reduction programs used either within the camera or in post production can limit its effect. 

03.04.2012
TAOP 


PART FOUR: THE NATURE OF LIGHT.
Project: The intensity of light.
Exercise: Measuring exposure.


Part 1.


I used spot metering throughout.  I was using it in a way that would give false readings so as to make life difficult.


While I was taking the first set exposure shots for Part 2 I noticed a yacht moored up off shore.  What I wanted from this shot was a near silhouette against the brightly illuminated sea.  Using what I had learnt from the seven exposures of the sea scape exercise I had just completed I took a reading and then over exposed by 2/3rds of a stop.  f14 @ 1/320sec.





The following piece of mindless graffito was inside a shelter.  I took a reading off the white area and then opened up by 2/3rds of a stop.  This was to compensate for the camera's software dropping the white to grey.  f4.5 @ 1/125sec.I did a double bracket but this was the best result.  It still looks to be in a shaded area  but the surface looks white.




The only illumination to my garden shed is a small window and the open door and I was filling the door.  If I trusted the camera’s metering the result would not reflect the dark gloom of the place as it would attempt to lighten it to the average daylight reading.  I took a reading off the back wall and then closed down one full stop.  The result is the one I wanted.  f4.5 @ 1/15sec.





After taking a series of pictures of The Winkle at Hastings I noticed the representation of a dab on the reverse side.  Using what I had learnt from the series I took two shots, one at, and another one third brighter than the meter reading.  The truer image was at 1/3 brighter.  f5.6 @ 1/125sec.  The camera’s meter had tried to compensate for the strong reflections and had recommended a shutter speed of 1/160sec.




A visit to Walmer Castle provided this image which is of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s garden looking back towards the castle.  I took exposure readings from the castle, the water and the grass.  All were different.  I tried the Castle reading but the result turned out to be too light as the camera opened up the exposure to compensate..  f4.5 @ 1/125sec.  I closed down by one stop and got a good result.  f4.4 @ 1/250sec.  The grass reading would have given the same correct result.  

The last of this set is of lobster pots at Deal.  As they are so dark I knew that the given exposure would be wrong and would give me an washed out image.  I took one shot as the camera suggested, f5.6 @ 1/80sec, and then one more at f5.6 @ 200sec.  The second one was still not dark enough  so I took a third at 5.6 @ 1/250sec.  This was the correct exposure to retain the deep blacks that were the pots. 

 

This series has been about the black cat in the coal hole and the white bridal dress against the white wall; problems where the camera's meter will try and average out exposure to the standard 18% grey card.  In these extreme conditions it is only by degrees of correction that a satisfactory exposure can be made.  Opening up for the bridal shot and closing for the coal hole.  Counter intuitive  but sense if one thinks about it.

Part 2. 

I carried out this part as directed but at 1/3rd stop increments as that what my E3 employs.  This gave seven images for each subject.

I images of white flowers against a dark background, white flowers against a bright sky, the sun's reflection on a smooth sea, a group of dinghies and finally The Winkle at Hastings. 

I reproduce the best of each set and how much under or over it is from the camera's suggestion.

+1 stop.

+1 stop

+1/3 stop.

+1 stop

+1/3 stop.

Spot metering is my normal way of working but I use it in a more intelligent and accurate way than I did for this exercise.