This exercise takes a detailed look at what happens to a scene as the sun moves through the day. The notes require "a landscape location with a fairly definite subject that will catch the sunlight even when the sun is close to the horizon."
It is the most challenging exercise of the course so far for two reasons:
- I live in suburbia so merely finding a landscape location is difficult;
- This exercise was done in late September, way past the the peak time for day long sunshine
Gazing at unpromising forecasts for several days, I had considered not even doing this exercise for the time being and await a suitable opportunity, even perhaps in 2012, but an Indian summer occurred at end September; even better 30 September was a Friday, a day I do not work.
Consequently decided that had to find a suitable location, and chose Barrs Court Moat, about 5 minutes walk away from my house. It is a pleasant location, if a little flat for optimal lighting; however, I found a spot where I could place a tripod regularly on exactly the same spot (using a marker for the front foot of the tripod) overlooking the moat and the field within. This provided opportunity to compare how both the water and the field appeared throughout the day.
A tripod is clearly a necessity; I managed to set it up so that there was little need to adjust the frame each time. I decided to fix the aperture at 13, and ISO at 200 and use Auto White Balance, so all shots are taken with these settings.
Although I got lucky with the weather, it must be said the sun is comparatively low at this time of year, and the days shorter, so it was a further challenge to shoot 12 images. I had to go out early on, so the 0945 shot was taken next day.
Set out below are the times and shutter speeds of each image:
 |
| 07:10 1/4 |
 |
| 08:08 1/45 |
 |
| 09:45 1/125 |
 | |
| 11:13 1/180 |
 |
| 12:02 1/180 |
 |
| 13:06 1/125 |
 |
| 14:02 1/90 |
 |
| 15:15 1/60 |
 |
| 16:22 1/60 |
 |
| 17:18 1/45 |
 |
| 18:00 1/20 |
 |
| 18:29 1/10 |
Despite my reservation, the scene worked well for this exercise, giving two related contrasts: the grass and surrounding trees, and the moat itself. The sun rises behind to the right and arcs round to the left, setting just off camera to the left.
One is struck by how the appearance of the vegetation changes throughout the day. As might be expected, it looks dark at sunrise before being within direct sunlight, and again late in the day after the sun is over the far horizon. We get a classic scene in late morning when everything seems to balance well, the grass, sky and the moat all bathed in sunlight. Early on, we have the competition between shade and golden sunlight, probably the best shot of the trees and a pleasing golden look to the wooden edge of the moat.
Possibly the best images are late afternoon. I like the 16:22 image - the grass is bright but not too bright, making a good contrast with the near tree in shade, and a pleasing reflection in the water. Fortunately, this was a calm day so the water provides reflective opprtunity all day. The sky is over-exposed in this image but could be darkened in post processing. I thought about using a graduated filter to darken the sky, but this would have made the foreground trees silhouetted all day.
The moat also looks different throughout the day. It is mostly in shadow but with enough light in the sky to give a reflection. It is muddy - see the 15:15 shot - and therefore the better shots are where there is less direct sunlight. It is surprising how much the appearance of the most changes in the next hour, with an altogether more pleasing blue tinge by 16:22.
The later shots work less well - clearly the sun was just too low by 18:00. I took one last shot at 18:50 but did not include as it was virtually the same as previous two.
I found this exercise challenging and rewarding. Simply managing to find a good location on a suitable day was rewarding, but the exercise also required a degree of planning, patience, organisation and tenacity as well as some technical and practical thought. I gained as much from the process as from the result.
And the results were interesting. A lot of the exercises in this section do not tell us anything new, but they do emphasise and formalise what one intuitively knows. Anyone knows that light is different throughout the day, but the discipline of doing this exercise has helped me realise just how much it changes for photography. Perhaps more importantly, it has emphasised that different parts of the image are affected in different ways throughout the day - the moat is possibly at its least good in these images when the sky is at its best. It is about balancing the appearance of the constituent elements in the frame to give the best overall image.
