Unit 1- Location Photography- 2. Magic Hour Lighting

13th October- Blackburn
Research and Practice Shots

Firstly it is worth saying that when i got the brief for Systems and Processes, i didn't have a clue what Magic Hour lighting was, so i looked it up:

"Magic hour is the first and last hour of sunlight when the lighting is typically softer and warmer and shadows are longer. This is because when the Sun is near the horizon, sunlight travels through more of the atmosphere, reducing its intensity, so more of the illumination comes from the sky.

More blue light is scattered, so that light from the Sun appears more reddish, and the Sun's small angle with the horizon produces longer shadows".

The above is courtesy of Wikepedia.

It is called Magic hour or Golden hour and Photographers love the particular lighting effect it has.

Galen Rowell a wilderness Photographer and Climber claims that Magic hour is a mild form of 'Alpen Glow'; an optical phenomenon seen on the mountains.

Photograph By Bernd Haynold 2004

Shortly after our assignment briefing for Systems and Processes John and Richard sent us an example of Magic Hour lighting that they had shot themselves and gave us permission to use them on our blog sites as examples.

Photograph By Richard Peregrene

Photograph By John Harrison

The following link takes you to an article showing some contemporary photographers who have used Magic Hour/Dusk lighting as part of the effect in their Photographs, one of whom is Gregory Crewdson who i plan to look at further in my research.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/twilight/index.html

The brief says:

2. Make at least 1 photograph that employs Magic Hour Lighting.

There are 4 main types of shot with Magic Hour that i plan to achieve,although the idea of getting up before sunrise doesn't fill me with pleasure!

1. Sunrise- The sky and the scene in front of it.

2. Sunrise- The effect the light has on objects rather than the sky itself.

3. Sunset-  The sky and the scene in front of it.

4. Sunset-  The effect the light has on things rather than the sky itself.

The first place i went was Corporation Park in Blackburn at 5pm on 13th October 09. I took a friend for safety, it is in Blackburn after all! When i was driving there i noticed the light and how beautiful it was, by the time i got to the park and set up my camera on the tripod the light had changed again and gone quite cold.

Here are two photographs i took, showing the light;

F5.6, 1/125 Sec, ISO 1600, handheld, un-edited.

F5.6, 1/125 Sec, ISO 1600, handheld, un-edited.

Looking back at these and my later images i realise that it wasn't actually Magic Hour, but it was an experiment after all.

After taking a few shots in the park i started to drive home and saw the sky, it looked like it was on fire, after driving half way around Blackburn trying to chase the light and find a spot where i could photograph the firey sky from, i abandoned my car at the side of the road to take this shot.

F5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 125, handheld, un-edited

The photo could have been better if i edited it and maybe darkened the shadowed areas to create a silhouette effect, however; at the point of taking these photographs i hadn't yet discovered how to edit photographs and i want my Blog to show my progression throughout this course.

I don't think they show the Magic Hour light but i wanted to show them anyway because i like them.

Here are some more i took when driving over Grane Road toward Haslingden, i saw the sky and found somewhere to pull over,i really like them even though they were taken after magic hour.

F4.5, 1/60 Sec, ISO 400, handheld, un-edited.

The illumination on the wall, grass and sign is from the headlights on my car.

F4.5, 1/60 Sec, ISO 400, handheld, un-edited.

F4.5, 1/60 Sec, ISO 400, handheld, un-edited.

17th October- Blackpool

I decided to go to Blackpool to try and get some photos for the Magic Hour lighting.

The main reason for this was that i wanted to caputure the sky without anything being in the way such as buildings and hills, i knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west and worked out that in Blackpool the Sea was the west so standing on a pier and looking out to sea, there would be nothing in the way of the sunset.

I understand that Magic Hour lighting is about the lighting effect that is cast upon things rather than just the Sky itself, however; i wanted to show as many different aspects of Magic Hour as possible.

I took a few shots around the pier just warming up and trying to get an idea of exactly what i wanted to photograph, they dont show magic hour but i like them so wanted to put them on anyway:

F16, 1/100 Sec, ISO 2500, handheld, adjusted in LR.

I am really pleased with this image, i have been playing around with Lightroom and managed to create a Graduated Filter to draw the eye into the image and toward the man walking, i also think the B&W conversion works better than the original colour image.

F20, 1/100 Sec, ISO 2500, handheld, un-edited.

This was taken not long before magic hour, it was just a quick shot and i think would benefit from some editing as it it very average at the moment

F13, 1/100 Sec, ISO 2500, handheld, adjusted in LR.

On this image i have played around with the colour to make it slightly more blue and also the Lens Correction which i think helps to frame the focal point.

 F22, 1/125 Sec, 2500, handheld, un-edited.

F29, 1/320, ISO 2500, handheld, un-edited.



F32, 1/160, ISO 2500, handheld, un-edited.

I like the light on this photo, the lense flare is a little distracting but i like the colours although tecnically it is over exposed. I only noticed afterwards that the man is looking at the camera and it looks like the woman is holding him back, maybe he didnt want his photograph taken?! oops

This one again was just a quick snap whilst i was waiting for magic hour, i quite like the perspective although again think it could be better with some tweaking in LR/Photoshop.

I walked off the pier and saw a horse and cart on the road, when i crossed over i realised it was directly in front of the beautiful sky. The photo below is the original un-edited version, i plan to use this as one of my magic hour photos and will re-post it when i have edited it fully later.

F13, 1/80, ISO 2500, Handheld, Un-edited.

As you can see from the settings i used on this and some of the above images, the ISO is very high, this was a school boy error as i was only just getting used to using the camera in manual mode.
 I am aware that a High ISO can produce a grainy effect, which explains the finish in this and some of the above, i do think however; that given the subject it actually works, i think when i see a horse and cart i think traditional, old which leads me to think that a crisp clean looking photograph wouldnt quite work.
Also the grain doesnt take away from the essential detail in the photograph. I have certainly learnt my lesson though when it comes to using high ISO's! I plan to edit this in Photoshop to bring more definition to the sky.

F10, 1/10, ISO 2500, handheld, un-edited.

This image is slightly underexposed, i took a few of the same scene and have one where it is properly exposed but there is no one in the scene. I like this because i think the silhouette of the man walking adds to the image and balances the composition.

This is the final image that has been edited in Lightroom, i did plan to use Photoshop but in the end i only wanted a few simple adjustments which were easier to do in LR anyway.

Here i have used the gradient tool for the sky and increased the clarity so the clouds stood out more.

I also decreased the exposure very slightly as this made the sky look better and gave the horse and cart more of a silhouette effect.

20th October- Rawtenstall

I wanted to get some more examples of Magic Hour lighting so i walked up the hill in front of my house and took these:

F13, 1/160 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, un-edited.

This is very similar to the above and using the same settings but i have wamer it up slightly and increased the vibrance in Lightroom.

F7.1, 1/60 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, un-edited.

This is the same photograph as previous but this one has been edited, this has exaggerated the lighting and created quite a different photo. I have warmed it up, decreased the exposure and used the gradient tool. I think this illustrates how Magic Hour can be almost created, although the original photo was taken in magic hour, the settings i had used and the location didn't really exploit this, i wasn't going to use this image but after editing it i was quite impressed with the result.

F7.1, 1/50 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, un-edited.

27th November- London

I went to london a few weeks ago and made sure i got there in plenty of time for magic hour.

I got the 1.30am coach and arrived in London at 6.30am. I then had a little time to get from the Coach station to near London Bridge.

I remembered the year before when i had walked across this bridge and it looked really pretty. Because London is a very built up area there aren't many places that were within a reasonable distance where i could go. I thought of this bridge for Magic Hour because it was a wide open space, from which you could see the sky rather than sky scrapers!

As i got there the sun was rising and i took these:

F5.6, 1/160 Sec, ISO 200, handheld, edited in LR.

This has been warmed up a little in Lightroom and a Vignette applied, i also reduced the clarity as i felt this really added to the image. I suppose this wasn't strictly magic hour as the sun was still rising, but i wanted to include it because i am so pleased with it and to me, it makes me think of how far my photography has come in the last 3 months.

This is another shot i took, i liked the way the light and colour of the sky was reflected in the top of the building and especially as this was in contrast to the cool blue at the top of the building.

F5.6, 1/60 Sec, ISO 200, handheld, edited.

This has been cropped slightly and the exposure decreased a little as this brought out the colours more.

This is the same as the above but with the clarity decreased, i couldn't decide between the two.

The next one was taken as the sun had come up, it was what i would consider to be the start of Magic Hour and i loved the way the light lit the side of the boat in the middle of the river.

F5.6, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, edited in LR.

Here i have used the gradient tool for the sky and used the slider to warm it up a little, i also cropped it tighter to draw attentiion to the main focal point which was the light on the boats.

This is the same image but i have increased the fill light and blacks on this one, this is an effect i quite like on some images, it gives it a real painterly quality and in this case i think it shows off the Magic hour light more than the previous one.

After these shots i decided to walk down past the London Dungeons to get nearer to the tower of London which was where the beautiful light was, i needed to be fast as it was already Magic Hour! I got there and the light was illuminating everything and making things look like they were washed with gold, my worry here was that i wouldn't be able to capture the actual light and show it to its full extent.

I saw a big silver barrier which when i stood behind it was underneath the river and the tower of London and almost framed the shot. You could see the lighting on the silver as it left a warm highlight along it.

F5, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, edited in LR.

I have increased the blacks, and used gradient filters to the top and bottom, also reduced exposure. I think you can definitely tell this was Magic Hour.

This is just a cropped version of the previous image.

After taking these i walked down nearer to the river i was framing up this shot and thought it looked like your average tourist shot then i decided to wait for some people to walk past, i got lucky and a bike went past, i timed it so it was in just the right spot.

F5.6, 1/125 Sec, ISO 125, handheld, edited in LR.

This image has been de-saturated, contrast and clarity increased and a vignette applied, i have to say i am fairly new to editing and i still cant believe how different it looks from the original!

I like the way the light illuminates the building and makes it stand out compared to the shadowy silhouette of the cyclist, i thought this was quite apt given that this is where the Queens jewels are stored.

It was taken during Magic Hour and i am not entirely sure that this is easy to spot but i liked the final image and the fact it was in black and white showed another way of photographing magic hour.

Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson

When taking this i was inspired by this famous photograph by Cartier-bresson, and looking at it i think it does have a reminiscence of the famous image.

Main Learning Outcomes

- When working with lighting such as Magic Hour- the lighting changes very fast so need to be adaptable and quick thinking to avoid missing the perfect shot. Another factor would be the weather- which could change at any moment- so being prepared for rain is a good idea.

-Magic Hour is unpredictable, to get good photos using this the chances are it will take a few attempts, it isn't visible every day and depends on the cloud cover and weather. It is also different at the various times of year, i have noticed a big difference between the light in October and December and this is only two months apart.

-A better understanding of both light and the technology available in post production, i wasnt aware of just how much could be done in Lightroom let alone, Photoshop.

Things to Improve/Learn

- If using Magic Hour in an image get the sunrise/sunset times in order to arrive and setup in plenty of time

- Take warm clothes and even a flask and a chair if i can find someone to carry them for me! It was very cold when i went to the park and wanting to get back to my warm car is likely to cause me to rush the photographs.