Artificial Light

I take a lot of photographs in artificial light. Quite dark artificial light if that makes any sense. Four years ago I started taking my camera along to rock concerts. Not the big stadium type venues but the small clubs and pubs with an audience of less than a hundred or so. It was quite a steep learning curve initially and I found myself filling a 4gb memory card with about three usable shots on it! These days I'm much more careful before I push the button.

From the last gig I attended, just under three weeks ago;

The latter of the three is an interesting image in the eyes of my photofriends. I used a burst of fill-in flash. Flashgun. The very word is enough to make the hairs on my neck stand on end and send me into a cold sweat. I'm rather nervous in the presence of it.

Exercise: Tungsten and Flourescent Lighting part 1.

Waiting until just after sunset I looked out of the window for about a minute. The room behind me had the tungsten lights switched on. Turning to look into the room I first saw the walls to be a kind of magnolia colour. This lasted just a moment. I continued to look into the room and about a minute later I looked back out of the window. Immediately the sky appeared to be a shade of aqua, or blue/green. Again, this sensation was very brief. 

Setting the camera to iso200 and opening the lens aperture to f2.8 I then took a series of meter readings throughout the room. In the darkest corner I measured a reading of .6 sec. It would be very difficult to handhold the camera with this exposure. In the lightest part of the room I was reading 1/30 sec. This would just about be possible to handhold.

Image 1

Image 1 was taken with the white balance set to Auto and the room tungsten lighting switched on. The subject itself has been recorded as slightly more yellow than it appears in reality. The background has been recorded quite accurately.

Image 2

Image 2 was shot with the white balance set to daylight in the same lighting conditions. Interestingly the colours have been recorded more accurately than they were with auto white balance, although the background appears to have a slightly blue cast.

Image 3

Image 3 was taken with the white balance set to tungsten. The outside background has a very blue cast. The subject colour is almost accurate but also suffers from a slightly blue cast. I think this may be due to it being sat in a bay window with outside light reaching it from the sides.

Exercise: Tungsten and Flourescent lighting part 2.

I had no luck at all finding an interior lit with CFL lamps. So for this part of the exercise I have included just the one type of flourescent lighting. Hopefully I will be able to collect some bulbs and perform the missing exercise at home before I submit for assessment.

Picture 1

Picture 1 was taken in flourescent lighting and with the white balance set to auto. It is almost accurate with regard to colour rendition but it appears to have a very slightly yellow hue.

Picture 2

Picture 2 was taken with the white balance set to Flourescent. The image is too cool and the colours of the scene have not been accurately reproduced. I think Picture 1 does a better job of recording the correct colours.

Picture 3

Picture 3 was shot with the never before used Alternative Flourescent white balance setting. I certainly wasn't expecting a result like this. way too yellow.

Exercise: Outdoors at night.

I will demonstrate the four scenario's listed in the brief followed by my own interpretations.

A floodlit building

A Floodlit Building

30 secs @ f32 iso200


The National Gallery

A brightly lit store front

A Brightly Lit Store Front

1/8 sec @ f5.6 iso200

The beautiful totally original Art Deco store front of Blooms.

A large interior with many people

A Large Interior With Many People

1/50 sec @ f2.8 iso1000 handheld

Victoria Station Concourse

A raised view along a busy road

A Raised View Along A Busy Road

30 secs @ f32 iso200

The M25 in Surrey

Train arriving at station

Train Arriving At Station

10 secs @ f16 iso200


Redhill Station

City skyline

City Skyline

1/50 sec @ f2.8 iso640 Handheld

London City

Descending view

Descending View

1/10 sec @ f2.8 iso640 Handheld

London Apartment Block

Train leaving station

Train Leaving Station

25 Secs @ f32 iso200

Olympic stadium

Olympic Stadium

1/160 sec @ f4.5 iso1000 Handheld

The Shard opening

The Shard Opening

1/20 sec @ f2.8 iso1000 Handheld

Off the underground

Off The Undeground

.8 sec @ f18 iso800 no tripod, braced against handrail

Rush

Rush

1/8 sec @ f8 iso400 Handheld