Requirement
Several images
Purpose
To show how to capture changing light over the landscape
Technical learning
- Speed at which light changes over the landscape varies with conditions
- Light change is usually fastest (a) at sunrise and sunset and (b) when sun is breaking through cloud cover
Sunrise/ Sunset
- After sunrise and before sunset, light passes through a 'golden hour'
- Key effects on light during this period are: it is (a) softer - indirect light provides proportionally more of overall light level, (b) it is less intense than during the rest of the day, (c) it is warmer - due to reduction in blue light that is scattered in the longer distance travelled through the atmosphere and (d) it produces longer shadows - due to lower angle of the sun
- 'Golden hour' is not a fixed hour of time but the period when the sun's elevation ranges from 0° to approximately 6° after sunrise and vice versa before sunset. Latitude and time of year determines how long it lasts. In the UK, it is about an hour at the summer and winter solstice, shortening to 45 minutes at the spring and autumn equinox. At the equator it lasts only 30 minutes throughout the year.
- Nevertheless, cloud pattern, rather than angle of the sun, is the key variable on light behaviour during the Golden Hour
Sun breaks
- The transition of light on the landscape as sunlight emerges around the edge of broken cloud can change mood dramatically
- It is also a fasting moving, unpredictable change
- Windy conditions at cloud level add to variability and opportunity
Exercise instructions
- Find a scene with an interesting subject that will stand out when sunlit
- Select preferred angle of the sun and pick a viewpoint. If shooting cloud breaks, go high rather than low to see the effect of changing light on the landscape.
- Shoot at each point where changing light changes the character of the landscape
- Pick a shot that you think is likely to the 'best', confirm if this proves to be the case and if not, try to explain.
Images and review
Shot looking up a oilseed rape as cloud cover was moving quickly over the field on a blustery early spring day. In later images in the sequence the pylon lines appear as a distraction and need removing in post-production
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| Contrast of light and shadow across the field adds visual drama to the image, as well as the sense of motion of the light |
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| Less contrast, less impact |
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| Ditto |
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| Bland due to lack of contrast |
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