dumb question about Leica M3, time portals, astronomy the sun, & exposures...

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Hjortsberg

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I'm planning a shot w/ my M3 for January 3, 2012 at 8:15am - 9:00am. In mid August of this year I went down to the site at that time and did some test slide shooting. This is for a time portal to other worlds project.

I got a 5.6 in bright sun.

Now, if it's sunny on 1/3/12 like it was on August the day of the test shoot, will I still get a 5.6 and will the sun be in the same place given that the sun is further away from Earth in January then August.?

Thank you in advance
 
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Hjortsberg said:
Now, if it's sunny on 1/3/12 like it was on August the day of the test shoot, will I still get a 5.6 and will the sun be in the same place given that the sun is further away from Earth in January then August.?
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The answer is more or less yes, but only if you are living on the equator. 🙂
Everywhere else on the earth, at the same time of the day, the sun will be either higher above the horizon (southern hemisphere) or closer to the horizon (northern hemisphere) than in August. This will result in different lighting conditions. How much August and January differ depends on your latitude. At the North pole it will be completely dark at 8 a.m. in January and bright in August. The closer you move to the equator the smaller will be the difference between January and August.
 
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Hjortsberg said:
so then it's gonna be different then the test shoot? so what should i do?
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How far North (or South) of the equator are you?

Up here in the far North (Sweden) the sun is hardly above the horizon at that time in the morning.

Even if it is, your subject may be in shadow, depending on the surrounding landscape.

Me? I'd bring a tripod and a lightmeter...
 
Hjortsberg said:
This is for a time portal to other worlds project.

. . . and will the sun be in the same place given that the sun is further away from Earth in January then August.?

Thank you in advance
Click to expand...

A.) What is a time portal? It sounds like science fiction.

B.) I believe we are actually further from the Sun in summer than in winter. Summer is warmer because the sunlight strikes earth more directly, not because we are closer. In winter we are closer, but the Sun is lower, so the light strikes earth at a lower angle, and is less effective at warming us.
 
gerikson said:
How far North (or South) of the equator are you?

Up here in the far North (Sweden) the sun is hardly above the horizon at that time in the morning.

Even if it is, your subject may be in shadow, depending on the surrounding landscape.

Me? I'd bring a tripod and a lightmeter...
Click to expand...

Location of shoot is: Pasadena, California USA. Specifically, the corner of Colorado Blvd. and Fair Oaks Blvd. for the Annual Tournament of Roses parade
 
it's sort of a joke art project. a silly "time travel" postcard of the parade.

I've found that using Kodak E100 G 100asa slide film that 1 stop over exposed gives it a better look. at least I think that's what I think
 
The big difference will be the compass direction of the sun.

On Jan 3, 2012, the sun will rise at 6:58am PST at 117.3 degrees (27 degrees south of due East).

On August 15, 2011, the sun rose at 6:15am PDT at 72.4 degrees (17.5 degrees north of due East).

Also, the altitude of the sun will be lower in Jan than in August, but not by as much as I thought; see above, Daylight Saving Time is a difference here. I use The Photographer's Ephemeris on iPhone/iPad for this.

Earth to sun distance? From Wikipedia: "the distance between the Earth and the Sun is not fixed (it varies between 0.983 289 8912 AU and 1.016 710 3335 AU)." Ah, the inverse square law says that this will produce a variation of about 3.5% in exposure, not enough to bother.

Cloud/haze could also be very different.
 
Isn't this why they make light meters? Conditions vary, even full sun light - before 9am vs. noon, June vs January, hazy vs. clear etc. Why guess?
 
The Rolleiflex has an exposure guide for Northern Europe that adds a stop for exposure in winter, but in Pasadena I reckon the winter exposure will be the same. I have exposed E100 G strictly at 100 with a Gossen incident meter, or by sunny 16, with very good results and with some good success under exposing by a stop or even 2 for very bright reflective subjects.
 
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