Color of outdoor light: Hi All, Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles...

bleirer

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Any good college level physics text book would describe. The American Institute of Physics will have a lot of light data. So visit a good library.

SS319

bleirer wrote:

not a specific photo situation.

That is too bad, because the specific photo question is easier to deal with - at least with a canon camera. If you shoot a white card at the start of a shoot and then menu custom white balance, the camera system will use the white card to set the camera white balance. I suspect you can go into the manual white balance and pull the RGB values out for the specific WB you have set.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

bleirer wrote:

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.

I can give you a (short) list here real quick.
Candle..............................................................1500K
30W incandescent Lamp......................................2600K
60W incandescent Lamp......................................2700K
100W incandescent Lamp....................................2800K
200W incandescent Lamp....................................3000K
100W halogen Lamp...........................................3200K
Neutral White Fluorescent Lamp..........................4000K
Morning and Evening Sun....................................5000K
Xenon Flash.......................................................5000K to 6000K
Midday Sun........................................................5500K
The Blue Hour..................................................10,000K

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Outdoor light is outdoor light. The best time to shoot is early morning or late afternoon.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Ched49 wrote:

Outdoor light is outdoor light. The best time to shoot is early morning or late afternoon.

Not if your subject is not available. Sometimes you do not get any choice when you can shoot.
It can be very variable.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

bleirer wrote:

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.

You may find the book "The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting in Digital Photography" by Michael Freeman helpfull.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

bleirer wrote:

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.

"The Manual of Photography," by Elizabeth Allen and Sophie Triantaphillidou, Tenth Edition. This book will tell you everything you could ever want to know about light (and many, many other photography subjects) from a technical point of view, you would need to read elsewhere to get a seasoned photographer's artistic take on light. I've also read the Michael Freeman book called "Capturing Light: The heart of photography." It was ok and helped me to better understand the many different types of light and what might be good to photograph in each type of light. He looks at light not as "good" or "bad," not just soft or hard, but as an opportunity to photograph in a certain mood and to evoke an emotion of some type. I think any book on light will help you to start to understand the different types of light and then you just need to work at experiencing the types and see what they do.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

RichardTaylor wrote:

Not if your subject is not available. Sometimes you do not get any choice when you can shoot.
It can be very variable.

Very true. Especially if you are traveling and stop to see something.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

RichardTaylor wrote:

Not if your subject is not available. Sometimes you do not get any choice when you can shoot.
It can be very variable.

Agree. The color temperature can vary with atmospheric conditions and time of day. “Outdoor light” is too non-specific

CO

Here's a good chart that shows color temperature at different times of day.

(Download)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

speters wrote:

I can give you a (short) list here real quick. br ... (show quote)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

CO wrote:

Here's a good chart that shows color temperature at different times of day.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

bleirer wrote:

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.

Do what you should do for EVERYTHING. Google! You'll find what you're looking for in minutes. >Alan

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Generally, natural light is somewhat yellow biased in the early morning hours, red biased during the evening hours, and, otherwise, blue biased between those times. I've found that during most of the day, blue tends to be predominant. This changes, of course, with cloud cover, fog, dust, etc. The predominant color will also depend on your surroundings. For instance, if you are photographing in a forest, the overall scene will have a lot of green influencing it. If you are photographing in a sand dune area, it will be a toss-up between blue and yellow, again for a cloudless day. This is why, when working with color, I do an image specific white balance as part of my processing.
--Bob

bleirer wrote:

Hi All,

Do you know of a resource that goes into specific detail about what color outdoor light is at different times of day, different kinds of shade, angles of light, etc? More for general light awareness for myself, not a specific photo situation.