SOUTHWOLD- JAN 2011 ASSIGNMENT 4

Objective

• To use experiment using natural light.
• Look at taking pictures in cloudy conditions
• experiment with different white balance settings

The light was very limited so I had to tripod all images.

I experimented with exposure levels
as this scene has both highlights and shadows
I did not use a graded filter on the sky but took
an average reading to capture the sky details and not
over exposure/burnout the hidden sun
The below images show the same scene ( slight variation in composition) but at
different times of the day.Notice the change in the colour saturation and colour tones/hues.
The first image was taken at dusk on a long exposure. The blue/green tones of the sky
have increased the intense green of tones on the groyne.
F8 1/100 sec white balance pre set to sky tones


The second image was taken mid afternoon.
The cloudy sky has increased the saturation levels of the groyne
so the orange/yellow tones are not burnt out.
F22 1/40 sec
 
The series image below were taken to show the capture the changes colours of the sky and
its effect on the changes colours of the scene. The sun was low in the sky and
about to set. the sky colours changed to a blue tone to a red/blue tones
the colours became more intense when the sky was about to set.
I used a tripod and experimented with long exposures.
F20 3/sec white balance pre set to current sky conditions


The longer the exposure allowed me to capture more light
which meant that the sky actually looked more blue to the camera
were as the top image was more red?
F20 8/sec White balance set to sky tones

There was some colourful beach huts on the beach. I used them
as fixed objects to set about taken a series of images at different
exposure levels.
Light was varied as the foreground was in shadow but the sky
was bright as the sun was shinning through. I took various light  readings
and took the image at an average exposure. I had to lighten the foreground
in photoshop as it was under exposed.
F20 bracketed at 2 stops exposure levels.




The bottom image has been combined using photoshop..creating a HDR image
capturing the highlights and the lowlights
I have continued to use HDR on some of the images I have taken

Comments

I used this trip to experiment with white balance levels and with exposure settings.

I think I need to work more on exposure levels in difficult lighting conditions and I

think I could have achieved better levels on the beach as the sky is too light at times and

the foreground is too dark at times. I am going to try to use neutral density filters more

and see if they help improve exposure settings.