PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Photography Tip #13:
Waiting For the Right Light...Using Overcast Days

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See how the low cloud ceiling and its lack of contrast help the peace sign to take center stage. Because of the lower contrast, we can appreciate and better discern the subtlety of the peeling paint at the bottom of the symboll. As well, the overall mood has a built-in serenity that better matches the mood, than would a bright sunny day.

 

 

In Photo Tip #12, you learned that bright, clear days can positively influence crisp contrast and deep colors that make your landscape and many other types of photography "pop".  But overcast days are a photographer's best friend when it comes to portraiture and certain other types of outdoor photography.  Read more to learn how professional photographers use those dull, drab days to create photographic works of art! 

SCENARIOS - working on overcast days:

      ● The portrait photographer would rather work on 
          overcast days, because it is less work and often
          provides for more attractive people pictures

      ● For a grungy, gritty or urban look, the artistic
         "street" or "urban photographer" prefers
          the dullness of a dark, cloudy day.  Mix this with 
          a bit of rain or wet pavement and you're golden!
 
(See urban photography images to the left and below for examples of effective use of cloudy days for interesting photos.) 

Yes, photographers do prefer to do their work overcast days when it comes to composing portraits. This perspective definitely has some merit, but just as with the previous strategy discussed in the previous photo tip, it too can lead to its own problems. Most professional photographers would rather do portraits on cloudy or overcast days because they simply don't have to deal with shadows anywhere on their subject's face or body, don't have to worry about squinting or half-closed eyes and have a better chance of capturing the more gentle form of the body and face, as opposed to the more harsh and unappealing texture that direct sunlight can produce. (Remember that form (ie – 3-D depth) is a good thing in portraiture, but texture is generally not. Facial texture is not the photographer's best friend! If you're going for the “character and wisdom” look that facial wrinkles and imperfections can produce, then knock yourself out, but then, most photo clients do NOT want this!)

But how exactly does an overcast day work to your advantage when you're taking pictures of buildings, landscapes, street scenes and nature? We learned previously that bright, clear sun can make these types of outdoor images look crisp and colorful, but there's a whole lot of room left for photographing under a deck of clouds as well.

Thin clouds will allow for a bit of shadow; these less dramatic and gentle shadows can help reveal form as opposed to “shape”. Shapes are important elements in all photography – shapes are fundamental to the way our brains store and classify information. But sometimes we want our pictures to reveal get a better sense of depth rather than shape. Here's an example of how this works.

Take a look at the scenes to the left and below.

In one picture, the camera captures the ridge of mountains on a bright sunny day, revealing the jagged shape of the range.

The other picture, photographed on an overcast day, provides more depth than shape, revealing soft relief and form.

Both are excellent pictures, but they produce entirely different feelings.

The soft shadow thrown by the egg is the result of sunlight from a window on an overcast day. Notice how the shadow has gradation of light (it isn't completely dark) and does not have sharp edge definition.

By comparison, this picture shows how a single, direct light source can result in harsh shadows with fine edge definition and solid fill.

 

 

It's important to recognize that, although thin clouds can produce gentle shade and shadows, a highly overcast day may not provide any shadows at all, thereby reducing depth and form. As well, if you're doing portrait work, dark days can turn your otherwise light and happy photosession into something quite different. You may find that your subject's mood becomes more sombre and contemplative - not necessarily something that your model or client may want in the finished set of pictures. You may also find that the overly dark day makes your location and setting look dreary even when your model or subject maintains a happy mood.


Beyond these potential problems caused by an overly dark and cloudy day, you may also encounter some techical issuses associated with insufficient light. As you learned in Tip #2, the element of LIGHT is everything to photography. Without light or enough of it, color saturation, contrast, edge definition and overall clarity suffers.


As you can learn in our free DSLR camera tutorials, when a photographer works in low light outdoor settings, there are new challenges to deal with. Whether your camera is set to “automatic” or “manual”, it must make exposure changes to compensate for less light and maintain proper picture brightness.


More specifically, this means that the ISO (camera's sensitivity to light) will have to be higher, which will result in a grainier picture. Alternatively, the f-stop will have to change to a lower number (meaning that the hole or “aperture” in the lens gets bigger) to allow more light into the camera. But wide apertures have an effect on focus that you may not want in landscape and urban photography. Yet another option is to use a slower shutter speed which also allows more light into the camera. But slower shutter speeds produce more camera shake and motion blur when the subject is moving even slightly. So, whether the aperture gets wider or the shutter speed is slower, either one may help to maintain a proper exposure when there is less light available.


If you're worried about adequate light on a dark day, your best bet may be to learn and use the manual exposure functions on your camera. If you have a DSLR (or an old film SLR), it would be really advantageous for you to learn exposure control, if you don't already know it. It will take some concentration and a lot of experimentation, but it's well worth the effort! (See our FREE DSLR lessons.) Think about it this way...owning a DSLR without knowing how to use it in manual function is like driving a car exclusively in cruise control – even on city streets! Imagine how limiting that would be; now you know why it's worthwhile to learn the manual controls on your camera.

For those who already know their way around the f-stop and shutter speed wheels, here is a handy tip.  When using a camera outside on a heavily overcast or dark day, we suggest using a combination of a slightly higher ISO (around 200-400), medium aperture (f/8-11) and average shutter speed (1/125). This gives you more flexibility and the best possible picture quality, but experiment, because available light can change a lot.

Urban Photographers Love Overcast Days...

So, what exactly is an "Urban Photographer"?  This breed of brave, creative folk scour big city streets for the iconic-symbolic aspects of gritty urban life, from the people on busy street corners who move along as they interact with each other and the city itself, to the crumbling and old or shiny and new architecture.  Most often, though, these creative visual artists seek out the old, grungy and character-filled parts of a city - often areas that are now in various states of decay and ruin, but speak volumes to what has been, had occurred and is now. 

Imagine a street corner bustling with people.  Imagine the scene in black and white.  Now imagine how it is transformed on an overcast day - perhaps even a rainy day.  Whether the subject is people within the city or the physical elements that make up a city, overcast days can be quite magical for the urban photographer.

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