#CLEAR DAY CLOUDY DAY HOW TO#
#CLEAR DAY CLOUDY DAY SKIN#

You should be comfortable quickly changing your settings. In general, you should expect to have a bit higher in your ISO. 400-800 will most likely be where you stay, but don't be surprised if it needs to be a bit higher.

These settings will undoubtedly vary a bit depending on the time of day, the severity of the overcast, and of course personal aesthetic preferences. Here are a few images from a cloudy Seattle day, edited with the Kodak Tri-X 400 preset in Capture One. You don't have to do the whole shoot in black and white, but the tones are so great that you'd be remiss not to try it out! Subjects against cloudy, diffused backlight. By Chris Daniels, edited with Mastin Labs Gold 200 preset Try it in black and white. You can still use the sun as a backlight, but because it is so diffused, you'll easily be able to keep detail in both your subjects and the sky. This is perhaps the primary reason that a cloudy day is great for lovers of the light and airy look. If you're shooting in the middle of the day, find a spot off of which the light reflects.īy Chris Daniels, edited with Mastin Labs Gold 200 preset Use the Backlight When this happens, adjust your settings and use it while you can. Every once in a while, the clouds will shift just enough to allow a pool of sunlight through. This is a wonderful advantage of cloudy-day shooting. Right, BTS of assistant holding up black card. Edited with Mastin Labs Gold 200 preset Use Cloud Breaks or Light Pools On the left, you see the image with no fill at all, and on the right, an assistant holds up the black side of a five-in-one to create contrast on that side of the subject's face.

This negative fill will reduce the light reflected on that side of the subject and create greater dimension.īelow is an example of negative fill in use. You could also use the black side of a reflector. The easiest way to do this is to have your subject stand close to something dark a building, tree, sign, etc. Instead of adding light, you will take it away. Depending on the intensity of the overcast, you may have enough light to bounce onto your subject, but you should rely more on negative fill.

#CLEAR DAY CLOUDY DAY HOW TO#

You just have to know how to work with it. The general lack of directional light is why many fear cloudy days. Doing so ensures that you have higher definition in the available highlights, which will help in adding dimension to your images. This is common practice anyway, but metering for the shadows is especially crucial in such soft light. Especially colors in the red/yellow families!īy Chris Daniels, edited with Mastin Labs Gold 200 preset from our Adventure Everyday pack Meter for Shadows With the flat, even lighting from an overcast sky, a pop of color goes a long way. This is a perfect time to use color as a key element in the story of your images. If these reasons alone don't make you want to run out and shoot, I don't know what will! Tips For Making The Most Of A Cloudy Day Make Good Use of Color Amazing backlighting is possible on a cloudy day.Color easily stands out when shooting during an overcast day.

#CLEAR DAY CLOUDY DAY SKIN#

Big, soft light means even skin tones for your subjects.

Clouds create gradual transitions between highlights and shadows.

This means that you get big, beautiful, diffused light and lovely, soft shadows.

An overcast sky essentially turns the sun into a giant softbox.

If you're into the light and airy style, you may be surprised to find that a cloudy day can be just what you want. In fact, clouds offer just as much reason for photo excitement as a sunny day, and I'm going to show you why! ⛅️👍īy Chris Daniels, edited with Mastin Labs Gold 200 preset from the Adventure Everyday preset pack! THE BENEFITS OF SHOOTING ON A CLOUDY DAY If you're a photographer in this part of the world, you have to learn to make it work for you. On average, Seattle is cloudy 62% of the year, especially in the fall and winter. While the mention of this city often evokes the imagination of rainy days, what you get more than anything is cloud cover. I call beautiful Seattle, Washington home. This doesn't have to be all gloom though! It's a real bummer to be looking forward to a bright sunny shoot only to step out your door to find overcast and cloudy day skies.

Clear day cloudy day