Jim Gollan @ OCA Landscape: Throughtout the Day (13)

Requirement

Enough!

Purpose

To show the effect of the moving sun on a landscape

Technical learning

Light is the most profound force on a landscape
Within this the moving sun is one of the most powerful
The sun's path moves from East to West over the day
It also changes with the length of day between the winter and summer solstice (in the northern hemisphere, 20/21 December and 20/21 June respectively). In southern England in mid June the length of day is 16 hours and the highest elevation of the sun is 60°. Whereas in mid December the day is only 8 hours long and at midday the sun is only 15° above the horizon.

Exercise instructions

Pick a scene with some prominent relief to create shadow. Choose a sunny or part sunny day. Set up camera with a tripod and cable release. Take a picture at regular intervals of the same scene, if possible every hour throughout the day from sunrise to sunset. Keep a note of the exposure. See how the landscape changes at certain times of the day.

Images and Review - exercise re-performed

I redid this exercise for the Art of Photography course - the sun falling on a mountain in Spain

Click to view images on AoP blog

Images and Review - original version

These images were taken of my garden between 15.30 and 20.30 (sunset) in the second week of May, one every hour until 19.30 and then one every 15 minutes.

The camera faces down the garden South East at at 113°.

The surrounding trees and shrubs cast a shadow across the lawn, as does the house when the sun moves behind it.

According to my Golden Hour App, the sun moved from Southwest/ West-Southwest at 15.30 (Azimuth - 237°) to West at 20.30.

At 15.30 the sun's elevation was 45° (below its peak of 55° for that time of year). It fell at increasing speed towards 0° at 20.30 (sunset).

The aperture was f8 in every shot

15.30