Exercise - Cloudy weather and rain

Part 1 - View in sunlight and under the cloud

This part of the homework, I took all photos near house. I had to wait for the weekend like this. Some weekend, there was no single cloud in the sky and some weekend, it rained the whole time.
I used "Day light" white balance with "Aperture priority" mode and "Evaluation metering" mode for this homework.

Photo 1 - building
These two photos below, the sun was behind me and the cloud kept drifting across the sun.
Sunlight
setting: f/13, 1/250sec, ISO200


cloudy
setting: f/13, 1/200sec, ISO200

That was about 1/2 f-stop different for these two photos. I could tell the different between the two photos. The one above has higher contrast because the sun made the colour of the building so bright constrasting with the bright grass in the foreground.
These two photos were taken by only 1 minute different.

Photo2 - Park
These two photos below, the sun was from my left hand, drifting in and out of the cloud.

Sunny
setting: f13, 1/200sec, ISO200


Cloudy
setting: f13, 1/125sec, ISO200

The two photos above are about 1/2 f-stop different.The two photos were taken at about 10 min different. I was waiting for the sun to come back out of the cloud.

Photo3 - Person
I took these two photos in different day but tried to keep the time to be about the same.

Sunny
setting f4.5, 1/1000sec, ISO200


Cloudy
setting f5.6 1/25 ISO200

The two photos above are about 6 f-stop different.

Overall, when the cloud cover the sun, the shadow edge is deffinitely less distinct. they look less contrast, more bland and less colourful.
From the photos above, I prefer the one under the sun.
Some photos maybe better taken in the cloudy day for example a portrait in black and white.

Part 2 - overcast day
I had to wait for the day the sky turned gray again and usually when it does, it is not happening at the right time because I am either at work or too ill.

Pronounced relief
These two photos have been post processed by increasing contrast and adjust white balance to day light (4900K) because the original look so dull and cold!
Photo1 - tree skin


Photo2 - tree skin


Strong colour:
Photo3 - Complementary colour

The good thing about taking colourful photo under cloudy sky is there is no risk of having harsh shadow.

Part 3 - raining
I took these photos in Wales one weekend. It rained most of the time but the scenery was very beautiful. My husband helped carrying an umbrella for me. (for the camera mainly)
I remember seeing a photo in a magazine I read. It's a photo in black and white of a little girl wearing rain jacket walking in the puddle. It was so beautiful.

photo 1 - rainbow


photo 2 - foggy background

The rain has made the grass more vibrant and the mist has create dramatic to the photo above.

Exercise - Variety with a low sun

I know about the three main lighting, frontal lighting, side lighting and back lighting but I have very little knowledge of what the edge lighting is.
As far as the definition in the workbook is concerned,
Edge lighting is when the sun is outside the viewfinder frame and the edge of the sun is lit. shooting is done toward the sun.
It still isn't very clearn so I googled and found:

http://blog.corporatefineart.com/2009/04/edge-lighting.html
" Rim light (or edge lighting) helps to separate the subject from the background in a very artistic way, and it helps to give dimension to a picture. No matter what subject you might be shooting, lighting along the edge can dramatize an image and make it very appealing."
I am not 100%sure but I think this is edge lighting according to the definition above.


Edge Lighting: Where the subject is lit at the edge


Side lighting: The sun to the right of the camera


back lighting: This photo was shot toward the sun with it being lit behind the subject.


frontal lighting: with the sun behind the camera striking the subject fully



By the time I finished doing this assignment, my head was hurt and my eyes were sore because I had to look where the sun was and many times I had to look directly into the sun.
Eventhough I like the photos taken but I did not enjoy hurting my eyes so much!!

Exercise - Light throughout the day

Planning:
I went around the area near the house to find a place where the Sun can reach through out the day and where I can make several trip throughout the day to do this homework.
I had to watch the MET office forecast to see how the weather is likely to be.
After a few places in mind. I have decided to go for this place, Portable Airship Hangar, which is very near to my house. The structure is very interesting and I never get bored looking at it. This place is only 5min walk from my house and it has very seating which I could sit and relax.
I went to this place a few times before the day of homework just to see where the Sun will rise and where the Sun will set.
Luckily it's authumn and the Sun rises slightly later now, 7am and set a bit early, 7pm. The time changes on a daily basis. The day is shorten by 5-7 min every day.

As I can only do this homework during weekend due to work time constraint, I am also quite lucky that this past weekend we have had very nice cloudless warm sunny day.
I planned on doing this exercise over a period of 5 days by covering different times.

I had a look on MET office forecast and Wednesday - Sunday were going to be cloudless sunny warm days.
I set the camera on aperture priority at f/14 with WB set to auto.

Shooting:

Wednesday - I went to take photos between 5-5.30pm. The light was already low in the sky. There were many birds tweeting.

Thursday - The Sun was to set at 6.42pm. After doing some house shore, I went to take photos between 6-6.45pm to cover the Sun set. the light was amazing. I took a few photos after the sun set.

Friday - I finished work at 1pm, I went straight to the place and started taking photos with interval of about 40 min. I planned to finish the photography for today at 4.30pm since I did some evening shots already.

Saturday - The Sun was to rise at 7.02am. I set the alarmclock at 6.30am just to make sure I get there before the Sun rise. When the Sun actually rose, I couldn't see it because it rose behind a buidling but I could see the light changed so fast. I was there until 8.30am and got home just to have breakfast. I then went back again at 9.15 and stayed until 11am because I had other appointment to go to.

Sunday - I only had just over half an hour to cover so I went back out at 11.45 and stay until 12.30. The cloud was much less today and I could feel the heat on my skin. I was glad I didn't have to stay that long.

I really enjoyed this exercises. I took 3 different angles of this hangar but I like this view the most because I can see the changes in colour in the sky. I could have used tripod but I couldn't leave it so I decided not to use it.

3different version:
1)


2)


3)


I chose photo 1 here because it looks real pretty at all the lighting. The other 2 photos are only pretty at certain light

06.54


07.07


07.21


07.36


07.55


08.27


09.13


09.49


10.29


11.06


11.55


12.22


13.10


13.57


14.33


15.13


15.44


16.27


17.17


17.50


18.02


18.13


18.22


18.42



I love all the photos I took. They just give different feeling. All the light was just as beautiful.
My favourites photos are the one at the earliest morning time when the sky was quite red, the one in the mid morning, blue sky with some contrail which gives some texture in the sky and at Sunset when the edge of the sky seems to be quite yellow.
The best moment would be the morning time because it's quiet and no mosquito!

I think which time of the day is good to take photo of a certain scene really depends on how the scene sits facing the light. From this exercise it seems to me that only 1 of the scences I took photos of looks really good all day while the other two looks nice at only certain times of the day.