Light through the Day

Just returned from a 12 day holiday in the South West of France. Took the opportunity to catch up on some of the projects. This particular one covering approximately 14 hours of a day was taken by the side of the pool at the villa we had rented. A more pleasant way to complete a task can hardly be imagined. However because of cloud cover forming on the first day at about 6.00.p.m. it was necessary to complete the project on the second day. The weather and level of sunshine was much the same so comparison of the varying light is possible.

The scene chosen offered a number of advantages. The presence of the water tower on the horizon, the bungalow to the top left of the picture and the small tree more or less in the middle provided three elements that could be used to assess the changes. The water tower appeared to be a very light cream colour when viewed close up, the house was a darker shade whilst the tree provided evidence of the position of the sun during the day. All the shots were taken with the camera on a tripod and triggered by a remote control. The aperture value was set at f11 and the camera adjusted the shutter speed.

The following pictures are a selection from a great number taken during the day. They are in sequence from 0553hrs to 1947hrs.

0533hrs

0633hrs

0659hrs

0729hrs

0814hrs

0849hrs

0939hrs

1054hrs

1154hrs

1400hrs

1700hrs

1800hrs

1847hrs

1937hrs

1941hrs

The early morning light was blue although this was slightly before the actual dawn. It is a cold light that to me is not very attractive when used in this scene although I can see it as being ideal for an early morning shot across a very still stretch of water with just a very light mist. 

It changed quite quickly about 7.00.a.m. as the sun rose above the surrounding hills. Interestingly I did not remember this amount of difference in the colours and the 0659 and 0729 shots are much warmer that I remembered. As stated in the Course material there was little or no change in the apparent value of the light from approximately 10.00.a.m. to 5.00.p.m. as seen from my vantage point.  A closer examination of the images shows that there is a gradual change from 2.00p.m. onwards with a darkening of the light. As the sun sinks lower in the sky there is a noticeable difference in the red tones and for the last two images we have an almost 'violet' quality to the light. Again my perception of the light was that it was much lighter. Obviously my eyes had adjusted and presumably we also impose some part of the image that we 'remember' onto to the actual visual perception.

My chosen image would be the one taken at 0659hrs. The softness and colour of the light meets the needs of the scene. This was not my original choice because from memory the 1937hrs shot was much more atmospheric than the final outcome on the screen.