This is my new Corona Virus project. My plan is to photograph the shed at various times of day to compare the different light. As we say, "it's all about the light!". This info will be used to demonstrate various points to the students on our photography evening classes.

Got up before six to make the most of the one hour delay in sunrise.

The sun didn't rise quite where I wanted, so I'll have to go back in the late Autumn when it should rise further to the west.

This shot was taken on my big Canon camera with an 85mm lens on a tripod. Exposure was 1/25 sec and aperture was f5.6 - ISO 100

The photo has been enhanced in Lightroom to bring out the colour in the sky and the shadows in the foreground. The shed is almost invisible in the original photo - if I'd exposed for the shed, the sky would have been overexposed. View the original here...

Went back just before sunset (19.17) and took this photo.

The sunset wasn't very strong so the colour is fairly muted but present nevertheless. The sun was still above the horizon at this point so the shadows are striking. The sun was setting to the right of the picture at about 90 degrees to the building.

Once more I used the big Canon with the same lens. This time the shutter speed was 1/400, aperture f4.0 and ISO 250

Within five minutes the light was much flatter (see the two pictures below)

Click on any of the photos on this page to view a larger version in a new tab.

Taken at 19.22 - the sky is rather overexposed!

Taken at 19.27 - light is flatter now but at least the sky is better

Deliberately chose today as it was cloudy and dull. I went at noon (GMT) as the sun would have been at its highest (if it had been visible)

Same Canon with the same lens. This time the shutter speed was 1/800, aperture f5.6 and ISO 250.

As you can see, the picture is relatively uninteresting compared to some of the others. "It's all about the light!"

This one was taken at the same time as the one above but with my new 54 megapixel phone camera.

Very disappointing and harsh. Just goes to show, there's so much more to a camera than the pixel count.

At least part of the problem is because the natural lens on the phone is much wider angle than the 85mm used on the Canon. I've therefore had to zoom in on the photo quite a bit to get the same view. I must try walking closer to it next time I'm there and see if the "un-zoomed" photo is better.

Another shot taken on the smartphone but this time it was just after 9.30 on a sunny morning and I didn't zoom. I walked closer to the shed instead. This does give a different perspective which I don't like as much as the shots above.

Vastly better quality than the zoomed in photo above.

The lighting is all wrong though. Such a strong backlight makes it difficult to see the detail in the metal shed sides and casts a strong shadow.

Backlit only by the full moon - the detail in the shed is limited despite the fact that the moon is overexposed.

In this shot I've augmented the light on the shed by running along it with a torch. Because the exposure is 15 seconds you can't see me, just the extra light. It was fun though, the farmer had spread fresh muck all over the field this afternoon. I had to dash the 80 yards from the tripod to the shed during the 10 second shutter release delay and then I had 15 seconds to run up and down the shed with the torch.

With a bit more experimentation and a better torch I could probably get the light to be more even.

Couldn't resist getting a shot of the moon with the 400mm lens whilst I was there - 1/200 second at f10 (ISO 250)

Another shot of the full moon - much more red tonight than last night (mainly due to timing - I was there much earlier for this one) - 1/50 second at f40 (ISO 250)

I've also cropped this shot to a square format

I really like the effect here - the moon behind some trees - It's not quite as sharp as I'd have liked and if I get the chance I would go for a faster shutter speed at the expense of ISO - 1/2 second at f10 (ISO 250)

It's also possible that the camera might have moved a little even though it was on a tripod. I did use the delay on the shutter release to avoid the pressing of the shutter causing shake. There was little or no wind but it is possible the branches moved a little as well.

I wasn't that far from the trees and a 400mm lens is quite a demand on the tripod.

Back to the project in hand (the shed) - 20 second exposure at f5 (ISO 100)

I had to use the 28-135mm zoom for this as the 85mm couldn't get the moon and the shed in from my chosen vantage point

This is another shot with some extra lighting from my torch

I moved the tripod a bit closer to the shed (about 40 metres) which gave me the ability to sprint across after pressing the 10 sec delay shutter - I then walked around the front of the shed shining my torch on it as evenly as possible

This was the best of about 15 attempts - in a couple of them I stood still for a short while and my shadow appears in the photo

I found a 13 second shutter speed gave me enough time to bathe the shed in light so I reduced the ISO to 100 and used an aperture of f11 - the lens was the 28-135mm set at 65mm

Walking home afterwards I loved the moonlight

This shot is taken with the 24mm fixed lens at f1.4 on a 10 second exposure (ISO 200)

I tried lots of other settings on Manual but I liked this the most

Even the sheep look more interesting in moonlight

The same 24mm lens at f1.4 but only 3.2 seconds this time and ISo 400

Tricky to get the sheep to stay still but I found whistling seemed to work. Maybe they were just curious about where the dog was!

Future plans include a winter sunrise plus a good sunset.

I've discovered an app that predicts whether the sunrise or sunset for the day will be a good one. It's called SkyCandy and it's free to use in its basic form,(there's a monthly fee if you want to be able to set alerts and gain other features).