11 - Plaza and transmission center [- JO -]

[Mouse]

The sun is on the rock in the second photo.

I'm going with the sunny look myself

[Straf]

Also light in the northern hemisphere is bluer that light in the southern.

[Mouse]

[Mouse pulls several faces trying to work it out]

Why is that, then, Straf?

[Straf]

I don't know. I might have dreamt it. Or I may have got the wrong end of the stick when I was buying theatrical filters and saw 'north light' and 'south light'.

[Mouse]

Buying theatrical filters

Ok... I'll buy it

[Falconius]

Italian light was famous for being warm during the renaissance. And frankly the light here in the Mediterranean is warmer than in the north, even than during northern summers. Perhaps it has to do with the angle the sunlight hits the atmosphere.

[Mouse]

Maybe light is more yellow at the equator, but blue at the poles because the red light is refracted and bounced back again out to space when the atmosphere is thicker - which is connected with the angle of incidence idea. It would be weaker too because the sun's footprint at high latitudes would be much larger for the same amount of light than it is at the equator.

I remember the strange surreal almost iridescent nature of early morning and late afternoon light in Scotland on the holidays we went there - compared to the light just a degree or so further south in Dorset, at the southern end of the country.

Yes. That makes sense. Thanks

[waldronate]

Maybe light is more yellow at the equator, but blue at the poles because the red light is refracted and bounced back again out to space when the atmosphere is thicker - which is connected with the angle of incidence idea.

The path of sunlight at any latitude is longest at sunrise and sunset and shortest at mid-day. Sunrises and sunsets are more red than blue because atmospheric scattering is strongly wavelength dependent with shorter (bluer) wavelengths scattering more strongly than longer (redder) ones. It's why the sky is blue. See Index of Refraction, Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering for more information.

The general color of light present is strongly influenced by secondary (scattered and reflected) light rather than direct illumination. At upper latitudes and during winter, most of the blue is coming in from all directions of the sky where it has been scattered and the ground is mostly white (snow or ice), which further reflects the blue back up (it's why glaciers are sky blue, after all). In warmer countries, there are a number of factors that contribute to pretty light, which include the color of the terrain (tan sand gives you a wonderful light), big poofy clouds that bounce the yellow light down from the sky, and a larger particulate load than very cold or hot places (the above-discussed wavelength-dependent extinction is strongly dependent on particle size and distribution).

Most photographers seek out the "golden hour" just before dawn and just after sunset where there isn't direct illumination to cause shadows and a lot of the blue has been scattered out, giving a beautiful golden light. I live a bit downwind from a large mountain range, which causes bands of clouds to form overhead a few times a year. Just after the sun goes behind the mountains, it lights up those clouds and gives a brilliant yellow light for twenty minutes or so that is beautiful but very hard to describe.

[Mouse]

Ooooh....

You just did that invisible flying island thing and came down as gentle as a feather in a cloud of light and stepped down just a moment to explain...

Now I understand. I got the red and the blue the wrong way around (to put it very simply)

Thank you so much Waldronate

[Redrobes]

I went up to Cheddar earlier this year... that place looks familiar. I got a ton of photos of the area and its limestone - if anyone wants something particular.