Outdoors at night

I chose to look locally for subjects for this exercise including Portsmouth city centre, the M27 and nearby Cosham. My intention was to explore the variety of lighting effects and colour found in artificial light. I used a tripod for most of the shots but not  P371,P372, P376 and tried out  a variety of settings before achieving the following images.

P365: f5.6 @ 3.2sec  ISO100  55mm WB - daylight 

P366: f3.5 @ 1/30  ISO 1600  21mm  WB- daylight

P367: f3.5 @ 0.6  ISO 100  +1.7exp. 24mm AWB 

P368: f5 @ 1/3sec  ISO100  37mm  WB- daylight

P369: f4 @ 1.3   ISO200  25mm   AWB

P370: f4.5  @ 3.2sec  ISO100  34mm  WB- daylight

 

P371:  f3.5 @ 1/6  ISO 100  + 1.7exp.  18mm  WB - daylight



P372 : f3.5 @ 1 sec ISO 100 22mm WB -  daylight



 

P373 :f29 @ 1/3  -1.3exp.  ISO 3200  34mm AWB

P374: f22 @1/3  -1.3exp.  ISO 3200  18mm

P375: f3.5  @ 1/160  ISO 1600  +1.7exp.  4mm  AWB 

P376: f4 @ 1/60  ISO 1600  15mm  AWB



P376a: f36 @ 1/3  -1.3exp. ISO3200   55mm  AWB



Apart from the challenge of finding shop windows that were brightly lit, I found images reflected in the window glass posed a problem in some cases which sometimes could be resolved by changing the angle of the camera. Back lit screens in bus shelters and in one shop ( see below ) also proved a challenge as in finding an exposure setting to reveal the image on the screen resulted in loss of detail in the dark foreground and back ground. This is fine if you do not want that contextual setting as in P376. I tried a variety of settings but as the image below shows did not 'crack' the problem. Interestingly, the reflected image of the screen on the left produced a better exposed image presumably because there was less light to cause over exposure.

P376b : f20 @ 1/6   -1.3exp.  ISO 3200  24mm



Tungsten and fluorescent lighting

Part 1

This exercise explored the differences between daylight and tungsten  lighting. I stood        close to the  window inside a room just after sunset  when there was a little daylight left  and looked out for about one minute.Turning back to look at the room light,it appeared darker .As my eyes adjusted, the light seemed to become lighter. Turning back to the daylight outside, this now appeared to be a darker colour.

Measuring the light level in different parts of the room, I found the reading close to a reading lamp to be 1/8 @  F8 and in the darkest corner it came out at 1/6. At full aperture ( F4 ) the shutter speed came out as 0"4 not sufficient for hand - held shooting unless unlike myself you had a very steady hand.

I then composed a photograph in which both the interior lit by a tungsten light and the exterior at dusk were both visible. Three images were taken with the white balance set to Auto, then daylight and finally to tungsten. The differences between the images were as follows:  

Auto white balance





P356: f4 @ 1/3  ISO 800  18mm

Daylight



P357: f5 @ 1/3  ISO 800  18mm

Tungsten

P358 : f3.5 @ 1/3  ISO 800  18mm



The above images show quite a difference. Interestingly, the tungsten setting brings an image quite close to the AWB but a degree lighter with a bluish tinge. As expected the daylight setting produces a much yellower  interior but darker outside.

Part 2

For this part of the project, I took photographs of two different interiors, a tube station  and inside a train carriage at night. Each interior was shot first using the white balance set to auto and then to fluorescent. 

P359: f3.5 @ 1/60  ISO 1600 4mm AWB

P360: f3.2 @ 1/60  ISO 1600 4mm

P361: f3.5 @ 1/60  ISO 1600 4mm  AWB

P362: f3.5  @ 1/60  ISO 1600  4mm





Looking at the above four images, I think none are very satisfactory in respect of colour representation either from how the scene actually  looks now but also how I remember it ( given that this could quite likely be different to the actual reality).