Exercise 4.04 – Judging colour temperature 2

The following three sets of images were taken in the same way as the ones in Part 1 of this exercise – midday full sun; midday shade; and low evening light. The difference in this part of the exercise is the white balance adjustment, using ‘daylight setting for the full sun images, shade for the ones in the shade, and auto for the evening images.

The first set is of the roof of our bird table

Midday – Full sun – Daylight WB

My feeling is that it was much brighter than this – maybe there’s some overcompensation in the White Balance.

Midday – Shade – Shade WB

Again, I feel this has been overcompensated. My recollection is that the colours weren’t so muted.

Evening Sun – Auto WB

These colours and brightness look about right to me.

The next set are of a garden ornament, moved around the garden to suit the required lighting conditions.

Midday – Full Sun – Daylight WB

My recollection is of a brighter day with more contrast in the shadows. Maybe there’s overcompensation here too.

Midday – Shade – Shade WB

I feel that this too has been overcompensated. The dog seems to be too ‘yellow’ to me.

Evening Sun – Auto WB

These colours and brightness look right to me.

The next set is of a clump of saxifrage in a garden which is in need of some weeding!

Midday – Full Sun – Daylight WB

I would say that the greens were too ‘blue’ in this image – not as I would perceive them.

Midday – Shade – Shade WB

I used my body to create the shade for this image (it creates quite a large shadow – even at midday), but I feel that the greens in this image are too ‘yellow’

Evening Sun – Auto WB

This image looks about right to me – the colours reflect warm light of the evening which is what I would have expected.

It seems to me that the pre-set camera settings are dubious to say the least. Obviously they’re set to what are perceived to be the optimum for each daylight / shade situation etc. Obviously the light conditions change on a daily basis and even more with the seasons, so it’s got to be taken with a pinch of salt. I suppose setting the balance manually, using the standard grey card would be the best way, but it seems that the camera’s automatic system works pretty well to me.

Exercise 4.03 – Judging colour temperature 1

Taken with the camera in ‘Daylight’ white balance, the following three images are of my best friend:

1. Taken at midday in full sun

With no colour cast at midday in full sun, this image is assumed to be the baseline for this exercise. The sky was cloudless, but not very high in the sky – a fine autumn day. The sky was a deep blue.

1. Midday in the shade on the same clear day

Although this image was taken within a minute of the first, the colour difference is very noticeable. The overall impression is of a much bluer light – no doubt from the strong sky colour. It’s also worth noting that the redness in the lips is much more muted. The effects of the side lighting in the first image aren’t present in this one, making the image seem flatter.

1. The same day at sunrise.

This early morning image, taken on the same cloudless day with the sun just above the horizon has a much warmer colour. The yellow / orange colour cast from the sun provides a flattering light – it’s the best time of day for many reasons.

So the time of day has a major impact on the colour of light and therefore the feeling an image portrays. It’s another point to remember when composing an image. It’s also worth considering the camera settings – obviously the white balance needs changing, to obtain a colour balance which is relevant

Project - The Colour of Light

Exercise 4.02 – Higher and lower sensitivity

The first images for this exercise were taken in Sneaton forest, where I wanted use a minimum aperture setting for the increased depth of field, with low light conditions, to be able to ‘freeze’ the movement of fast flowing water.At ISO 200, f/29, the exposure needed to be 4 sec, so movement of the water is shown as a blur (I must admit to preferring this type of image for water flow)

Still at f/29, but ISO 640, a shutter speed of 1/25 sec is required. Movement in the water still causes some blurring.

At ISO 3200 the shutter speed of 1/125 sec is enough to stop any significant blurring in the moving water.

For the next set of images we move back to the beach. The object of this exercise was to freeze the waves while still maintaining a reasonably sharp focus in the background. This involved using the minimum aperture while altering the ISO to allow faster shutter speed.

The camera was in aperture priority and tripod mounted.

At ISO 200, 2/22, a shutter speed of 1/80 sec was required for this image. The waves still have a significant amount of blurring, so that they tend to run into each other and look less powerful.

At ISO 400, 1/160 sec, the waves are not running together so much, but they’re still not ‘crisp’

With ISO 800, the shutter speed is reduced to 1/250 sec. Now we can see the curl of the waves and the force as they break. At this speed there’s more of a feeling of power.

This effect has really surprised me. I was expecting to see the difference in clarity in the waves but I wasn’t prepared for the difference on the impact of the image.

In the shopping centre I wanted to stop the escalator while keeping the shops in focus, so a similar setup was used. The main difference was that the camera was hand held. I had to do this to avoid the attention of the security staff – that’s also why the images were taken from the top of the escalator (the security chappies were downstairs). I’d much rather have had the shoppers’ faces.

Starting at ISO 200, I had to use 1/8 sec at f/22. The vibration reduction in the lens helped, but close inspection shows some significant blurring due to camera shake as well as the moving people.

ISO 500 allowed a shutter speed of 1/20 sec but this was still not good enough for a hand held camera and with moving subjects.

At ISO 1600 a speed of 1/60 sec was enough to stop the movement. Close investigation of this image shows an increase in noise – particularly in the dark areas.

The next three images demonstrate another advantage of varying the ISO. I was using the D200 with a 500 mm lens, without a tripod and trying to photograph gulls in flight. This involved panning with the camera in continuous focus – not easy with a lens of this size! It was also quite windy. The D200 doesn’t have the same level of noise reduction as the D300s.

At ISO 100 the fastest shutter speed I could attain was 1/320 sec. With the speed of the bird, awkward shooting angle and wind I couldn’t manage a sharper image than this.

ISO 400 allowed a shutter speed of 1/640 sec with a resultant sharper image.

At ISO 1000 a shutter speed of 1/800 sec enabled a much sharper image. Out of focus areas due to movement of the bird and / or the camera were greatly reduced. I think the increased noise in the image is more than compensated by the clarity of the image.

Noise can be the down side of using high ISO settings. Software is available to remove some of this noise (e.g. Topaz Labs De-noise), but the image has then been digitally manipulated which is not always acceptable. It’s also possible that the increased noise may be beneficial to an image – particularly if using monochrome. The Nikon D300s operates very well at high ISO settings and can automatically reduce noise if programmed, so it’s not too much of a problem for me.

Demonstrating the effect of increased sensitivity has been a useful exercise. Not only as a means to take images in low light without additional lighting, or to keep good sharpness throughout an image without using slow shutter speeds, but also to enable hand held shots where a tripod would be difficult.

Exercise 4.01–Measuring exposure

Part 1

The following six images were made darker or lighter, by adjusting the exposure, for the reasons given:

‘At the setting of the sun’

This image was overexposed 4 stops to overcome burnout from the sun. The foreground has become almost a silhouette, but I think the treatment has made this view of the battery parade into a strong image with a story to tell.

‘It’s fine even when it’s wet!’

This was taken on a dull, overcast and very wet morning. It was underexposed two stops to lighten the image and the blacks brought back in and the contrast increased using Lightroom. This has had the effect of making the day look brighter and enhancing the few colours to make another image with a story to tell.

‘Backlit Tulip’

This image was taken in the garden using the sun for backlighting and over-exposed by two stops. The exposure readings were taken from the flower petals, which also helped to darken the background.

Misty Bandstand

Here’s another overexposed image, with the darker areas reduced almost to silhouettes. This had to be done, to prevent burn out in the sky areas – the morning was in fact much brighter than this.

 

Sneaton Forest morning

This image was underexposed by 1 stop to make it lighter. Without this adjustment, the view would have been much darker and contrasty, with the sunbeams being far lighter than the rest of the picture.

Backlit daffodil

This image was overexposed, to make the background much darker. The details in the flower were also enhanced by this treatment.

Part 2.

The following sets of images were taken using automated bracketing in camera. They have been rearranged, so that they are shown in the order required in the exercise. I have been regularly bracketing images for several years, for use in HDR software, so nothing new here for me I’m afraid. The camera was tripod mounted in each case. I used matrix metering for a better ‘average’ value.

The first five images were taken in Sneaton forest. Because of the variation in lighting here images really benefit from bracketing.

One stop overexposed

For this set I think the half stop overexposed image is slightly better than the ‘average’ exposure image. The slightly darker image has an air of intrigue, while the lighter images make the forest seem clean and safe – they also have burning out in some areas. The first image is far too dark for my liking.

The next set of Whitby West pier at sunrise were chosen because of the uncertainty with exposure at relatively low light levels. Bracketing takes out some of the uncertainty.

It seems that the exposure overcompensated for the low light conditions as the best results for these images are those that have been over exposed. I prefer the one that’s half stop over exposed, which gives what I perceived as being the actual light at the time.

An early morning walk along the cliffs North of Sandsend provided the next series. I wanted to catch the early light in this view, knowing that the cliffs would be a stark contrast to the light. I anticipated using the images with HDR to make the final picture. The fishing boat was a real bonus.

The results of these exposures caused something of a quandary – the darker images showed off the early sunlight and sea reflections to the best effect, but the lighter ones brought out the detail in the fence / foliage.

The only viable solution was HDR and tone mapping.

The next images were of Goths. I always use bracketed images for the goths, as they work so well in HDR.

The first was taken in Whitby Abbey grounds. I wanted to get the blackness of her clothing and jet jewellery while keeping the detail in the stonework.

The second was taken outside the grounds – I was leaving as he was arriving. His makeup took hours to complete.

I feel the best exposure was the ‘average’ one. This maintains the blacks but still allows the moonstones in her jewellery and her complexion to look right.

Again, the ‘average’ exposure looks to be the best for this set, because the textures of his mask show well, without any burn out. In the under exposed images, his eyes show much better. Obviously the way to use the images is with HDR, like this:

The last set of images was taken on the beach at sunset. Again, it’s a difficult call trying to judge the best exposure for these conditions, so bracketing comes into its own here.

I think the one stop over exposed image works better here. The burn out is reduced and the darker colours give an overall feeling of a warm summer evening – which it was. The blacks are blacker and the contrast much stronger. The average to under exposed images are too light – they just look too thin.

Project - The Intensity of light

Part 4 - Light