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How do I....?

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Rachel Foster

New member
I've been looking to get an image of sunlight streaming through the trees. I'm getting very frustrated due to an unexpected problem. I can't FIND sunlight streaming to photograph. Does anyone know under what conditions I'm most likely to find this? Particular time of day, season, weather conditions?

Help?
 
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Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Location and time of day and of course with the sun at the right angle to the trees. Too bad you missed my wedding last weekend. 5PM to 7PM in Northwest Washington State. Looking out my window right now in California at 4:20 pm....we have very tall trees and it's streaming through.

Face West at pre-dusk. Face East at Dawn.
 
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Olaf Ulrich

New member
For streaking beams of sunlight to become visible, there must be fine particles in the air. If the weather is clear then no beams of light will occur.

The typical provider of air-borne particles is fog. So the best time to see beams of sunlight is when the sun is just starting to come though the morning fog at dawn in Spring or Autumn. At dusk, the chances of fog and sunlight occurring at the same time are much lower, as evening fog usually will rise only after the sun has set. In a wet environment there will be more fog than where's dry, so seek for your photo location near rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, or swamps.

-- Olaf
 
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Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Doug_Kerr said:
Well, Kat, I wasn't even invited. But congratulations anyway. Will we see shots from your honeymoon?
Click to expand...

Very Funny. My last personal wedding was...let me count...Doug, sorry I am late to this thread, but, I am a people photographer. It was a wedding I was paid to be at with my camera.
 
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

pro member
Rachel Foster said:
I've been looking to get an image of sunlight streaming through the trees. I'm getting very frustrated due to an unexpected problem. I can't FIND sunlight streaming to photograph. Does anyone know under what conditions I'm most likely to find this? Particular time of day, season, weather conditions?
Click to expand...

Hi Rachel,

As Olaf already answered the atmospheric conditions need to be right.

We can only see light when it is reflected/refracted by other material of a relatively higher density than air. Typical viewing situations are when there are aerosols of the right size and quantity present.

Fog forms when the relative humidity (RH) is high (e.g. rapid drop of temperature, or overall high RH), smog can increase with enough sunshine. These conditions can be predicted if you have an airport or meteorological service station nearby. Relative humidity can be either measured with a simple RH metering instrument, or you look up the difference beween dewpoint and actual temperature from a meteo service (when dewpoint and temperature are close, RH is high). Smog usually thrives with low windspeeds and high temperatures, high pollution emissions also 'help'.

But there is more. And this may turn into a nice learning experience. Sun rays also stand out against dark backgrounds, so backlighting will apparently help.

A nice experiment is trying to photograph the vapor coming from a hot cup of coffee, or the tip of a cigarette (for once a useful object, as long as it not smoked but photographed). Burning incense is also a good subject. Try shooting it against a light background and a dark background (coffee is dark, the cup/saucer is usually light). Do that with a narrow beam of light (a torch/flashlight) from different angles (e.g. front lit, side lit, backlit). This will allow you to learn the best attack angle for your subject given the sun's position.

Also repeat the exercise with a wider/larger lightsource (e.g. light bounced off of a sheet of close up paper), and learn that it's not as effective.

So, you need the right atmosphere, the right angle of a narrow beam of light, and a dark background. Predicting the right conditions becomes easy, now if only the conditions would cooperate...

Bart
 
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