I’m a lover of artificial light; but as stupid as it sounds I never realized until I was preparing this section of the course.
As I have said many times I live in Hong Kong – is doesn’t make me unique there is another 7 million of us, but it what as defined my photography up to this point. And as I said in my notes for Assignment 3 I shoot a lot of B&W to avoid the non-descript light, but in general, when I do shoot colour it in the evening and night under the light from the signs and buildings and that is down to the compound nature of the artificial light.
This course had made me realize the street are bathed in a mix of lighting street lamps, Neon Signs, shop window, even car head lights. This combination of temperatures creates a sophisticated look and while our eyes and brains and process all this information; an image requires (without extensive post-processing) just demand the choice of one colour temperature. This leads to different looks from one image/scene depend which light source you focus on.
Below is a sequence of shots taken around Hong Kong in various situations using various types of artificial light.
Image 1
Taken in a building entrance, lit by I think florescent tubes. Auto White balance on the camera has given, excellent realistic tone. The light is bathing the subjects evenly and much like early or late in the day and is wrapping the subjects.
Image 2
Taken at 10:10 pm in the street, the subject is bathed in light from signs, windows and the white balance was set using the Lightroom eyedropper on the grey road. Where is a distinct cool tone to the light but it is not harsh it still bathes the subject.
Image 3
Shot indoors, but it is the mixture of tungsten and daylight as there is massive glass roof to this building. Setting the white balance for the daylight has exaggerated the orange glow of the tungsten lights. This what I like to play with; mixing temperatures isn’t possible in pure daylight.
Image 4
Shot in the evening using auto-white balance and setting in post-production to the cooler tones coming from the shops and restaurants. This allows me to use the light to give a sense that it is close to midnight although it is only around 6 pm.
Image 5
The same image as above with the white balance warmed to, pick up on the streetlights and reflect the scene more how the eye and brain processed the scene.
Overall as I have said above ambient artificial light more often than not can reflect the characteristics of the softer light of sunset or sunrise just with and a more complex shift in colours.