Exercise 4.1: Daylight Quality

Considering the ‘quality’ of light between the two images below. The first in direct sunlight, the second with cloud cover.

The most obvious thing I note is the absence of shadow in the cloud cover images.

The strength of direct sunlight can overwhelm the eye in what I think of as a kind of bleach effect, whereas with diffused light the image is far easier to understand. The subtle contrasts of the tree bark come through for instance, these are all but lost in the glare of direct sunlight.

With the shots below again considering direct sunlight in comparison with more diffused light under cloud cover, in this case there is a clear difference in vibrancy and depth of colour found in the sunlit picture over the cloud lit picture. In this case the brighter image is more positive and optimistic.

Technical point: In taking these shots I used the histogram to guide my exposure rather than the the camera indication of 0EV. I aimed to have a good balance across the histogram between Low, mid and High tones.