Photography in Cloudy Weather

[BJPhotography]

I want to go out and play around with my settings. I want to be able to take photos and come home and just upload them without adding any crap to them to pretty them up. Im taking just my 50mm lens with me. What settings do you recommend for cloudy weather on the beach? Just a basic idea of where to start and I can play with them from there. Thanks.

 

[Robin Usagani]

You will be the only person who knows what setting to use. We can't see your light meter

 

[dxqcanada5]

There are no specific "settings" as it varies with the lighting and subject.

What you should do is ... take a photo.
Then immediately examine it. Look at the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, composition ... etc.

You will need an understanding of how these will affect the image in order to manually modify them for the next shot.

 

[dxqcanada5]

I should have asked ... How well is your understanding of exposure controls ? ie Shutter Speed, Lens Aperture, and ISO.

 

[BJPhotography]

Im just learning about the settings. Up until now, Ive done very little with the manual settings on my camera. I am reading alot and trying different things so Im realizing that the higher the iso setting, the more light comes into the picture. Im still trying to figure out what that means for the aperture setting though and the shutter speed. Its really hit or miss for me right now. I just wanted a starting point, I guess. Do pictures on cloudy days require usually more light or less because of the overcast?

 

[dxqcanada5]

Here is a start: Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO by ~Tiberius47 on deviantART

There are more in the http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...rum-photo-gallery/123160-tutorial-thread.html

 

[OrionsByte]

I should have asked ... How well is your understanding of exposure controls ? ie Shutter Speed, Lens Aperture, and ISO.

+1

Do you understand how aperture affects a photo besides how much light it lets in (controls depth of field)?
Do you understand how shutter speed affects a photo beside show long the light is exposed (freezes or blurs action)?
Do you understand how ISO affects the quality of an image?

In general, however, on a sandy beach you generally want to expose about a stop over what your light meter reads, because the sand is reflective enough to fool your meter. Beyond that, I can't be specific about the settings because like Schwetty said, I'm not there to measure the light.

 

[dxqcanada5]

Cloudy days make light more diffused ... softer.

In some cases Cloudy days will not provide as much light exposure as a Sunny day ... but Sunny days also introduce dark shadow areas.

Read up on that exposure tutorial ... that will give you a base.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Cloudy day is easier to shoot BUT it the colors wont be exciting. Just change your metering to evaluative and do aperture priority with ISO100 or 200. More than likely your photo will turn out decent.

 

[BJPhotography]

I should have asked ... How well is your understanding of exposure controls ? ie Shutter Speed, Lens Aperture, and ISO.

+1

Do you understand how aperture affects a photo besides how much light it lets in (controls depth of field)?
Do you understand how shutter speed affects a photo beside show long the light is exposed (freezes or blurs action)?
Do you understand how ISO affects the quality of an image?

In general, however, on a sandy beach you generally want to expose about a stop over what your light meter reads, because the sand is reflective enough to fool your meter. Beyond that, I can't be specific about the settings because like Schwetty said, I'm not there to measure the light.

Okay! This is a start!
Now Ive been reading that I should look at getting a filter to remove glare from the water. Polarized filter. Yes?

 

[BJPhotography]

Also, I did notice that the shutter speed shows more blur or you can freeze it like it was never moving. I just dont remember if which one that was - a high or low setting. Its so much to think about.

 

[OrionsByte]

Okay! This is a start!
Now Ive been reading that I should look at getting a filter to remove glare from the water. Polarized filter. Yes?

That would help, yeah. But honestly? Before you pick one up, I'd recommend going out and taking some shots without one so you can see the difference when you pick one up. That will help you learn when to use it and when not to. I know you'd prefer to come back with some astonishing photos right away, but like anything else, photography is a learning process and you need to take your time and soak in what you learn.

 

[dxqcanada5]

... to add to your project ... here is something to do to gain understanding of the controls:

find one subject.
Put the camera in Automatic/Program mode and take a shot.
Note the Shutter Speed, and Aperture. We will call these the "original" values.

Then put the camera in Manual Exposure
Set the camera to the original Aperture ... but change the Shutter Speed higher ... take a shot ... set the Shutter Speed to a low value ... take a shot
Set the camera to the original Shutter Speed ... change the Aperture as you did with the Shutter Speed.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Most common beginner behaviour (yes, I went trough this.. i am not making fun of you):
1. Shoot wide open all the time
2. Think you will need some kind of filters to start taking good photos
3. Think you know how to PP but you are not even close

I say forget about filters for now. I have a cheap polarizer filter, star filter, UV filter and they are all sitting in my drawers not being used.

 

[DerekSalem]

Also...the chances of being able to just take a shot and have it look great on an overcast day are severely lessened...especially if you don't fully understand how settings work and inter-twine.

Not saying it can't be done, but it's tough. Overcast days can give you marvelous effects, but you'll want to PP them to bring out some of the highlights and contrast since usually overcast also makes things look drab (taking some of the range out of the picture and leaving them without too much contrast).