Photography Time - Shooting in dull, overcast weather

Introduction

Welcome to photography time (really original name, I know), the section of the blog giving tips and advice on photography. We are not professionals but we have picked up a fair amount of knowledge which we would like to share. We will try and post photographic advice relating to the places we have visited and written about in the previous posts. This should give some continuity to the whole thing and hopefully make it easier to understand what we are talking about.

Our first two outings were in pretty dreich (that's a Scottish word for dull and miserable) weather conditions so it seems logical that this first post should give some advice on shooting in these conditions.

Cloud Diffuser

On dull and overcast days you have a lot of cloud cover. Often this will be a flat blanket of cloud all over the sky.  This has the effect of acting like a massive soft box on the sunlight hidden behind it, diffusing the light all across the clouds. Why is this a problem? Well, because of the dull, low light you can be tricked into thinking the sky is darker than it actually is. You shoot merrily away and then come home to find out all the snaps have a sky blown out to eye-popping bright white, loosing what little definition there is in the sky. Depending on the camera it will handle auto-exposure differently but from my experience in these conditions, the sky very often blows out when the foreground is at the correct exposure.

Of course, skies blowing out is a problem in any weather but because of the way the light gets spread across the blanket of cloud on a dull day, it can effect more of the sky than on a sunny day and be harder to spot in advance.

Solution: Don't over expose the sky. This can be done in a number of ways:

• Altering the exposure compensation setting on your camera
• Altering the cameras exposure point to expose for the sky rather than the foreground (although this may make the image too dark in some cases)
• If shooting in manual mode, increasing the shutter speed.
• Use a graduated ND (neutral density) filter on the lens to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera from the sky. This will cause problems if you have foreground objects jutting over the horizon.
• Use HDR. I will not go into HDR just now but I will do a full post on it at a later date.

Hopefully, depending on what camera you use, one of these options should be available to you. In addition, if you can view the histogram I recommend you use it to help identify blow outs.

The foreground is correctly exposed but the sky is blown out,
losing what little definition there was and producing a
glaringly bright wall of white.

By slightly underexposing you can stop the sky
blowing out and retain what little definition there is.
The foreground can then be lightened in post-processing
giving a more natural picture and a slightly more
interesting sky.

Voila! The previous photo with a bit of post-processing to
lighten the foreground. Notice how the sky
still has some tone and definition which would
have been lost if it had blown out

Contrast and Definition

In dull conditions images can look flat and lifeless. The more direct sunlight in sunnier conditions provides more contrasting elements which brings more definition to objects in the photo. On dull days, the dull, diffuse light does not.

Solution: There isn't really a great deal you can do about this as the camera only captures what is out there. The only real solutions are to either buy a better camera. Higher end camers and lenses will provide better contrast and definition although the difference may be negligable in such conditions. Or, to tweak the image in post-processning. This can be done in-camera by altering whatever settings are available which govern how your camera coverts the RAW image data to jpg, and / or with external software afterards. Using external software needn't be a complex process and the example below just took me 5 mins to do.

The image as it was shot from the camera. Notice how I deliberately underexposed it to stop the sky
blowing out and retain definition.

Literally 5 mins using Lightroom and I have been able to make a dramatic difference.

Low Light

On dull days there will obviously be less light available as the clouds are blocking our light source the sun. This can cause a number of problems depending on how your camera is set. On cameras set to automatic mode or on mobile phones, it is likely to compensate for the low light by ramping up the ISO. If you have a camera where you can set the ISO manually and have the ISO fixed at a low value, it will result in either a lengthing of the shutter speed or a widening of the aperture.   

Solutions: The best solution is to use a tripod or monopod to stabilise the camera. This will allow you to retain a low ISO value and keep a suitable aperture without worrying about camera shake and motion blur from the reduced shutter speed. You can also try resting your camera on a fixed object to help stabilise it. If none of these options are available and you have to take the photo hand-held hen the following options are available. Which one to use is a matter of preference depending on what you want from your photo.

• Setting the ISO higher will result in faster shutter speeds but will increase image noise
• Keeping a low ISO and a smaller aperture will retain image quality and depth of field but will result in a slower shutter speed which can cause camera shake and motion blur
• Opening the aperture will result in faster shutter speeds but will reduce depth of field which can be problemtic if there are prominent foreground objects in the photo.

Another point is to watch which filters you have on your lens. Some filters such as polarisers can reduce the exposure by a number of stops. Only put such filters on if you really need them in these conditions.

Weather Sealing

One last point. On dull days there is a good chance it will rain or even snow. If your camera is not weather sealed then it could get damaged by the precipitation so put it away in a safe, dry place until the rain stops.

Summary

Shooting on dull days can be challenging for the reasons listed above and the end results can be disappointing. However, if you get your camera set right and maybe use a bit of subtle post-processing there is no reason you can't get some good snaps.