Light through the day

One fine morning on a holiday in North Wales, I managed to wake up at six o’clock. As I wandered over to the wash rooms, I decided this would be a good time to start my exercise on light through the day. I wasn’t sure quite what weather to expect but hoped for the best.

My 06:00 image has quite a lilac hue to it and quite flat lighting as although the light from the sun is visible, it hasn’t yet broken the horizon. There is a fine mist over the hills omitting most of the detail of the trees and shrubs.

 

What a difference an hour makes. By 07:00, the sun has risen above the horizon and cast a pale yellow glow over the fields. Shadows can be seen on the hills and there is a striking contrast between the brilliantly lit barn end and the much darker side wall. The sky is a very pale blue, almost white.

 

By 09:00, the sun has begun to move behind the barn. The shadows of the foreground hedgerow have lengthened, yet the lighting on the hills behind has again, become quite flat. Some of the golden glow from earlier is retained in the foreground grass.

 

I get the feeling that my flat 09:00 shot may have been due to cloud passing over as by 10:00, the detail has returned to the hills. The hue is changing from the golden yellow to a deeper green and the shadows have become much shorter as the sun rises in the sky.

 

By 11:00 the foreground shadows are almost lost and the lighting on the barn has regained the flatness of the 06:00 shot. Partly as a result of the flatness in the foreground, my eye is drawn to an interesting patch of sunlight half way up the hill. As a whole though, this image is not striking.

 

13:00 and I realise I have not been blessed with the sunny day I’d hoped for but I feel I will have enough information to see results from this exercise. My attention is now drawn to the white barn roof and the yellow corn field as well as the white patch of sky to the far right which seems to be lighting the area. It is obvious that the sun has moved across the sky, the light on the hills is now flat, as is the majority of the picture.

 

15:00 brings a very flat image, quite different from the golden contrast seen this morning. Dull and lifeless, this image would have been deleted straight away if it weren’t for this exercise.

 

By 16:00, things are beginning to get interesting again. The hills in the background appear more golden in this image as does the grass to the foreground. As the sun moves round to the right of the shot, detail is beginning to show in the wood of the barn wall and the telegraph pole.

 

Although the background hills and sky appear quite flat, by 17:00 the yellow hue is returning to the foreground along with more contrast to the barn and pole. The corn field has also taken on a more golden hue.

 

19:00 brings flatter lighting yet has a lovely warm tone, slightly more orange than the yellow hue of the morning. The flat light prevents this image from being a favourite but I find the colours quite calming and appealing.

 

By 20:00, the interesting light is now long gone and we are left with flat, insignificant colours. An hour later it had become too dark to take a photo of this scene without long exposures so as the interesting light had subsided, I let this be my final image.

Before doing this exercise I was aware of golden hours and have, on occasion timed arranged shoots around times in the evening when the light is at its best. Having studied these images, I feel the morning light has a totally different quality to that of the evening and will try to incorporate this into my future photography where possible.