Lighting on cloudy days?

[vintagesnaps]

Frame lower (such as for the first one), minimize the sky in the shot. Have less background/sky in the pictures.

When it's hazy here I frame so not too much of the crappy looking gray sky will be in the picture. If it's a nice sunny day with blue sky and white puffy clouds then I want more of that pretty sky in the photo.

If it's cloudy/overcast you just aren't going to have the same light and shadows as when it's sunny. I think it's a matter of figuring out how to work with it. Evenings are my favorite time of day to get out and take pictures.

Get out with just your camera and practice by trying different ways of framing scenes and backgrounds etc. so when you get out there with people you have some idea what would work in various light conditions.

 

[Lieniitte]

Frame lower (such as for the first one), minimize the sky in the shot. Have less background/sky in the pictures.

When it's hazy here I frame so not too much of the crappy looking gray sky will be in the picture. If it's a nice sunny day with blue sky and white puffy clouds then I want more of that pretty sky in the photo.

If it's cloudy/overcast you just aren't going to have the same light and shadows as when it's sunny. I think it's a matter of figuring out how to work with it. Evenings are my favorite time of day to get out and take pictures.

Get out with just your camera and practice by trying different ways of framing scenes and backgrounds etc. so when you get out there with people you have some idea what would work in various light conditions.

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely do that, just trying the scenery, backgrounds! I see that that's something I really should be paying more attention to, and trying to shoot ONLY the backgrounds would really give me more of an idea of what to do.

 

[TCampbell]

I usually very slightly warm the white balance on cloudy days to reduce the cold gray look.

A soft flash with a CTO gel (CTO = Color Temperature Orange) can also help the look of a photograph on an overcast day.

 

[Bebulamar]

I actually like cloudy days as the light is so soft.