Photographing Natural Light Conditions

rxp · Nov 5, 2015

At the risk of sounding both scientifically and photographically illiterate...

I got into photography because i was interested in capturing the sensations (of the world) around me etc... One thing i noticed over time was that every year in late September there would be an afternoon where the lighting conditions seem very abnormal, like a uniform glow for a few hours around 4 or 5 pm. I later figured this must be something to do with the Autumn equinox, but not sure the dates coincided exactly. I'm not sure my reasoning is correct, out of everything i read about the equinox none of them mention this phenomenon. Plus something very similar has happened this afternoon, the overcast sky was a kind of pink/orange - we get those skies every so often but what seems abnormal is the way it bounces the light back so intensely and uniformly, as if your looking at everything through a filter.

Obviously when i tried to take a digital shot, the phone just balances it to make it look completely normal (sky near white). Is there a scientific/photographic terminology for classifying these conditions rather than just overcast etc.? And what are the best techniques for capturing these conditions?

Obviously I am open to the idea that this is all purely a matter of my perception. When it happens I don't see anyone else going crazy about it, so maybe I was just ill the day they taught this in school

RobC · Nov 5, 2015

if sun is in the west and has just gone below horizon then:

if there are no clouds over the horizon but there are clouds above you and extending towards the horizon but not past it, then the sun is shinning up and illuminating the underside of the clouds and because the atmosphere is full of humidity it bends/splits the light like a prism and the resulting light hitting the underside of the clouds is usually towards the red end of the spectrum. Hence red cloud sunsets.

Of course this is all highly variable depending on cloud heights, cloud density, humidity, where clouds actually are, where sun angle is relative to coulds etc etc so what we see is highly variable.

Yes this seems to happen in spring and autumn more than other times but that is partly due to fact that you are up and about at those times. In middle of summer sun is already high in the sky before you get up in the morning and unless you are out in the landscape when it sets at maybe 9pm or later you miss it. You're probably indoors watching the tv by that time.

But the effect is pretty much down to sun illuminating underside of clouds.

Where I live I get fantastic sunsets with multi coloured clouds in spring and autumn when conditions are right. And the angle of the sun may be optimal at those times of year depending I guess on your latitude.

rxp · Nov 5, 2015

Cheers Rob! Very helpful.

RalphLambrecht · Nov 6, 2015

Yall need to drink more to really appreciate it.

michr · Nov 6, 2015

If you want the camera to do a better job of capturing the actual color of the light you saw, turn off auto-whitebalance in the camera. Or if you camera supports it, use camera RAW instead of JPG.

MartinCrabtree · Nov 6, 2015

michr said:
If you want the camera to do a better job of capturing the actual color of the light you saw, turn off auto-whitebalance in the camera. Or if you camera supports it, use camera RAW instead of JPG.

Man I'm way behind. What film allows that?

Alan Klein · Nov 6, 2015

Digital film.

cliveh · Nov 6, 2015

RalphLambrecht said:
Yall need to drink more to really appreciate it.

+1

DREW WILEY · Nov 6, 2015

I think RAW is equivalent to latent image. It ain't been cooked yet. White balance must be some kind of racist thing.

Sirius Glass · Nov 6, 2015

Welcome to APUG And yes white balance is a racist thing. Stick to film.

Poisson Du Jour · Nov 6, 2015

White balance??
How about white point, black point, grey (or mid-) point... all of these are in use in production of my RA-4 prints from film (and are not out of place when speaking about film) when examining output, and you'd get bloody lousy prints without taking careful note of these things.

RobC · Nov 6, 2015

zone 8 would probably do it

Kirks518 · Nov 6, 2015

Here in west Central Florida, we get the pink skies fairly regularly. It's really cool, because everything turns pinkish. Everything. As mentioned earlier, it's the clouds cover being illuminated from the underside nearing, during, and after sunset. I'm not an early bird, so I don't know if it happens at sunrise.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be predictable (to me). I live 2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and by the time I realize it's happening, grab my stuff, and head for the beach (the backyard is not photogenic), it's over....

Another way to possibly capture it with your non-film device is to underexpose it. Seems to work for my daughter.

RobC · Nov 6, 2015

I would think that the nearer the equator you live the shorter the sunset. Florida is less than half the distance from equator than we are in the UK so your sunsets won't last too long.

michr · Nov 6, 2015

Alternatively you can use slide film, like Velvia to photograph the clouds. Properly exposed, the film will preserve the vivid colors of the scene. If you use your cell phone, you have to make sure it doesn't overexpose the image, and you can choose from a menu of white balance options to pick a white-point that preserves the color.

RobC · Nov 6, 2015

Here's a sunset cloud shot I took quite a few years ago. When I printed this back then it was done at G5 with a lot of gradient burning in from the bottom left corner where light was from coming to top right to even out the lighting.
I didn't have filters with me when I took it and the sky above the clouds was actually medium to light blue so I deliberately placed the white clouds on zone 5 or 6 I think with the intention of printing at high contrast to get the blue sky towards black and the clouds just below losing detail. The result is a great departure from what I was looking at but is more or less what I had envisaged. This is a neg scan with some work on it to make it look approx like the print. Being B+W the pinkish cloud colour has been lost. The neg has very bad drying marks all over it and is a real bugger to print.

frank · Nov 6, 2015

RobC said:
Here's a sunset cloud shot I took quite a few years ago. When I printed this back then it was done at G5 with a lot of gradient burning in from the bottom left corner where light was from coming to top right to even out the lighting.
I didn't have filters with me when I took it and the sky above the clouds was actually medium to light blue so I deliberately placed the white clouds on zone 5 or 6 I think with the intention of printing at high contrast to get the blue sky towards black and the clouds just below losing detail. The result is a great departure from what I was looking at but is more or less what I had envisaged. This is a neg scan with some work on it to make it look approx like the print. Being B+W the pinkish cloud colour has been lost. The neg has very bad drying marks all over it and is a real bugger to print.

Can you re-wash the neg to get rid of the original drying marks?

RobC · Nov 6, 2015

I guess so, one day when I get round to it. Probably if I get the urge to print it again.

Photographing Natural Light Conditions

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