Shooting on an Overcast Day

[lfoush]

So I'm planning on shooting portraits in overcast weather at some point, to get a dramatic look. What settings to I need to play with to achieve photos that are not too dark, and without a bunch of noise. I have some ideas that would involve a fast shutter speed, but i feel that the photo would turn out too dark. any ideas?

 

[KmH]

Overcast skies act like a very large light source, so the light is very soft and any shadows cast have very diffuse edges, which is not very amenable to a dramatic look. Also reflectors are pretty inefficient when the sky is overcast.

As far as what settings, that would depend on the depth-of-field you want, how overcast it actually is, and what time of day you are shooting.

 

[cgipson1]

^what Keith said!

I will add that fast shutter speeds are fine on overcast days, as long as you compensate for them on some other leg of the exposure triangle. If you meter correctly, why would they be dark?

 

[TCampbell]

The Sunny-16 rule has multiple definitions for this.

"Light overcast" still has defined shadows... they're just weaker than full-sun.
"Medium overcast" shadows is when they disappear (or become so weak they're hard to see.)

There's also "Heavy Overcast" category - and of course no shadows at all. Each level is about a stop darker than the previous level.

Based on your description, it sounds like you may have a specific look in mind for the sky (lots of drama in the clouds) and that may place you into the "heavy" overcast category. You may have to bring your own lights depending on the drama you're trying to create.

 

[scorpion_tyr]

Definitely look into bringing your own light source as TCampbell mentioned. If you're going for drama I'm going to imagine you want a lot of detail in the clouds around your subject so you're probably going to be shooting a wide focal length with a pretty small aperture, and then you need a fast shutter speed, and you don't want any noise... that's a recipe for an under exposed image. Bring your own off camera lights and compensating will be easy, plus it'll help make your subject pop out and add to the drama.

 

[SHaller]

Agreed. I always like to use a small amount of soft fill light during overcast. It keeps everything from being too flat.