Cloudy weather and rain

There are three parts to this exercise:

1. Same view taken in sunlight and under cloudy conditions;
2. Three photographs taken outdoors on an overcast day;
3. Two images taken in rain.

For the first part, I chose a situation as suggested in the notes: a day when clouds were scudding over the sky. This provides an ideal opportunity to take the same image when it is sunny and when it is cloudy within a short time period of each other.

The first subject was a car in our drive:

cloudy: f8, 1/125 ISO 200

sunny: f13, 1/125 ISO 200

There is a pronounced difference in the colour between the images; the cloudy image is noticeably more blue.

The second subject is our house:

cloudy: f8, 1/125 ISO 200

sunny: f13, 1/125 ISO 200

Again the cloudy image is noticeably bluer; notice also that the colour contrast is less, perhaps because the roofs appear darker, and a different colour - more orange in the sunny image to contrast with the sky and car and road in the foreground. Because of the lack of shadow, there is less depth to the cloudy image, we are less aware of the right angle of the roof. Partly for this reason and partly due to the greater colour contrast, I prefer the sunny image.

Looking at the image of two people resting outside a house on page 126 of the course notes, one can see that it was essential to take the image in overcast conditions simply to avoid a shadow on their faces. There is plenty of depth created by the daylight without a further contrast from sunlight.

I found two images taken of Chicago that were in my view better taken in cloudy conditions:

In this image of Trump Tower, I think the cloudy background helps the building stand out, partly because of the differentiation provided by the varying shades of grey, and partly because less of the building is in shadow than might otherwise be the case.

An additional advantage of shooting in cloudy conditions not mentioned in the notes is that clouds can make an effective background as well as affect the light on the subject.

This wide angle HDR image of Chicago beach demonstrates another advantage of shooting in cloudy conditions: that the clouds can help draw the eye in to the subject - as with Trump tower image, the clouds are an integral part of the image. The upper half of the image would be less interesting if the sky were blue. Additionally, the overcast conditions prevent shadow between the buildings and, more important, between the upturned boats in the foreground. The flatness of shooting in overcast conditions is balanced by the effect of the boats and clouds drawing the eye to the distant boat in the centre of the image.

For the second part of the exercise, I took three images in overcast conditions, where the shadowless light was important:

This image demonstrates the detail in the chain mail on this statue in Independence Square, Kiev. The image was processed in Silver Efex Pro 2 in order to increase the structure of the detail.

The lack of direct sunlight was vital in this image as any shadow would most certainly have led to shadows  in part of the details. It required a degree of post processing to get the eyes to appear as more then black sockets in this image; it would have been impossible had there been direct light on the statue.

This image is of a wall at Barrs Court Moat. Again, there is benefit to having the even light provided by overcast conditions - we have plenty of depth and contrast provided by the interweaving stones, shadow would have detracted from this.

The notes suggested looking for strong colour, so included this shot of part of children's equipment, again taken near home. The shot is also texturally strong with the zigzag effect of the moulding.

In the context of this exercise, the most notable feature is that there is a shadow effect. It is easy to over emphasize the contrast between sunlight and overcast conditions; the latter do not PRECLUDE shadow, but merely soften the shadow effect. That is important in this image where we would lose detail with a marked shadow.

Lastly, I took two images of rain:

The torrential rain is effectively the subject in this image taken during a thunderstorm in Wisconsin. We can see the spray thrown up by the car on the right and the need for headlights for the car on the left. The image has a misty sense induced by the wall of rain, and there is an implied irony in the upturned canoe on the roof of the car.

The message is more subtle in this image taken during a downpour in Kiev - the abandoned chair pointing towards a road with nothing approaching. As the note suggest, this image demonstrates also the visual effects of glistening pavement and road contrasting with the dryer parts: reflections of buildings out of frame, and the evident randomness of raindrops striking the road.

This exercise has helped me understand how to use cloudy weather and rainy conditions to advantage by demonstrating: a) the difference between images taken in respectively sunny and cloudy conditions; and b) some subjects where clouds and rain are a positive advantage.