Time to Sunset

I have got rather hooked by the passage-of-time-in-one-picture idea, so I thought that I would try another one.

There is a great view to the horizon from one of our bedroom windows. The view has large trees on either side and at this time of year the sun sets at a point on the horizon that can be seen from the window. I thought that it would be interesting to track the position of the sun from higher in the sky to sunset. I would take shots every 10 mins and combine them to create a picture with a series of bright patches fading to deep red as the sun approached the horizon.

The only problem about the pictures was that I would have to shoot them through double-glazing as the window cannot be opened. I had to be very careful not to create reflections on the glass and avoid a double-image cause by internal reflections between the two panes of glass. But I thought the potential image was worth the hassle. In all, I took 8 pictures every 10 mins before sunset. I had a timer to tell me when the next shot was due. Unfortunately, the timer didn’t ring for one shot, so there was a gap in the sequence.

I merged all the shots in Photoshop to get a combined picture, but felt that the images of the sun were too bright – there was too much glare. So I reduced brightness and also colour temperature, which then gave the picture a rather surreal feel. The final image is shown below.  

Where the sun is higher in the sky it is brighter and creates a bigger impression on the camera detector. This was deliberate. I didn’t reduce exposure to get a clean disc of the sun. As the sun sinks it loses strength and the bright patch reduces. When the pictures are combined the effect is a bright blob getting smaller and redder as it moves towards the horizon. I think this gives a greater feel for the passing of time – the passing of a sunny day or the passing of a warm afternoon.  Also, a breeze sprang up during the shoot and started to move the leaves on the tree to the left of the picture. You can clearly see the effect. This is another indicator of time passing.

So what about the missing shot. I could have ‘corrected’ the picture with a simple digital edit and added another image of the sun at the missing point. But I didn’t think that was really acceptable. So I thought I would reshoot the sequence. But then I thought maybe the picture looked better without the shot anyway. In terms of composition, the two sets of blobs make for quite a good picture. The gap is also a comment on the passing of time. It’s that point in the day when the cool of the evening starts to be noticeable. So in the end, I decided the picture would be my blog post for this week. Hope you like it too.