Dealing with grey skies

MikeHunt79

MikeHunt79

MikeHunt79

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I was hoping to go out and get a few outdoor shots today, nothing specific, landscapes and fields mostly, but the whole sky is just a sea of grey.

I find it really makes the photo's seem depressing, I was looking thru some holiday photo's from Greece the other day, and even tho the shots were taken with a disposable cam, they looked awesome and so much nicer.

Anyone have any tips of getting shots when the sky is grey? Can some PP trickery be done to make it look less depressing?
 
You can only work with what you've got. You can add a gradient in to make the sky different but it doesn't really work with solid grey clouds as it's something we're not used too seeing (Unlike blue/coloured skies where it works quite well). The best thing is to try and bring the exposure of the clouds down as much as possible and hope there is some shape in there somewhere, then maybe you can accentuate that with a little dodging and burning. You can of course shoot the picture with as little sky in it as possible, but that may not give you the composition you're after.

Your other option is to comp in a sky from another photo, but that depends entirely on how much you like the photo!
 
Thanks, I quite like the idea of playing with the exposure and level to bring out the detail in the clouds, I guess this shouldn't be overdone tho as I may end up with something that looks like it should be in a horror film if you know what I mean. :)

I may also try having less sky in the shot, but I was also hoping to to get a few shots of planes as I live quite close to an airport, so I've got to have some sky in the shot unless I do an extreme close up.
 
If the sky is really boring, Try to avoid the sky as much as possible. Somehting like a 4:5 rule would work.

ND grads are useful to stop the grey overexposing.

Overwise you have to hpe you have an interesting cloud pattern. Then you have a lot to work with. Not much you can do with a monotonous uniform grey.

However, greay skies are good for other tpyes of photography. Without the harsh highlights and shadows it can be easier to capture lots of subject. Macros, abstract architecture.
 
You are better off accepting the white/grey sky and work with it rather than against it. Shooting architecture is perfect for when the sky is pretty miserable. Equally, long exposures at the coast with white skies are okay (you need something in the shot though, groynes, pier, lighthouse etc.)

The problem with the UK is that we rarely get dramatic skies when the weather is bad.

The forecast looks much better tomorrow :-)
 
asim18 said:
Yes. You can replace it with a nice blue sky from a different image.
Click to expand...

You can, but days with bright blue skies tend to give pictures with shadows, or at least higher contrast ratios between the elements on the ground. If you lob a blue sky into a grey image it can all too often just look very odd.
 
Stupot_ said:
Black and white is your friend:)
Click to expand...
Good shout, I may try B&W on a few of my existing cloudy shots, see how it looks.
asim18 said:
Yes. You can replace it with a nice blue sky from a different image.
Click to expand...
Adrianr said:
You can, but days with bright blue skies tend to give pictures with shadows, or at least higher contrast ratios between the elements on the ground. If you lob a blue sky into a grey image it can all too often just look very odd.
Click to expand...
I guess you would have to do lots of tweaking of the white balance in order for it to look normal, and also the shadows would look different I imagine, as clouds act as diffusion in front of the light source (the sun). I guess it could be pulled off with lots of photoshop, but it would be beyond my ability...
martinturner said:
You are better off accepting the white/grey sky and work with it rather than against it. Shooting architecture is perfect for when the sky is pretty miserable. Equally, long exposures at the coast with white skies are okay (you need something in the shot though, groynes, pier, lighthouse etc.)

The problem with the UK is that we rarely get dramatic skies when the weather is bad.

The forecast looks much better tomorrow :-)
Click to expand...
Yep right now it's just a sheet of plain grey, no highlights of breaks in the cloud at all.

I think I will wait until tomorrow, it's now raining, and the football is now on. Sometimes you have to quit while you're ahead...

Nice idea about the architecture tho, there are a few churches and quirky houses near me, and I think they may good even when it's cloudy. :)
 
MikeHunt79 said:
I guess you would have to do lots of tweaking of the white balance in order for it to look normal, and also the shadows would look different I imagine, as clouds act as diffusion in front of the light source (the sun). I guess it could be pulled off with lots of photoshop, but it would be beyond my ability...
Click to expand...

It's not so much an issue of white balance. Sunlight through clouds is pretty much the same as sunlight through no clouds. It's the lack of contrast and vibrance on non-cloudy days (Correctly as you say due to diffusion). You have far fewer, much softer and much lighter shadows. It isn't worth bothering with unless you really like the image and/or have no other chance to shoot it again in better weather.
 
Adrianr said:
It's not so much an issue of white balance. Sunlight through clouds is pretty much the same as sunlight through no clouds. It's the lack of contrast and vibrance on non-cloudy days (Correctly as you say due to diffusion). You have far fewer, much softer and much lighter shadows. It isn't worth bothering with unless you really like the image and/or have no other chance to shoot it again in better weather.
Click to expand...
Gotcha, I thought clouds would tint the sunlight a bit like a coloured gel over a lamp, but thinking about clouds are very colourless, so that would explain why there is little or no difference in WB. :)
 
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