Cloudy Weather and Rain

The first part of this exercise is to take two-three scenes and photograph them on a cloudy day and a sunny day. Each of the three sets below the image taken on a cloudy day is on the left and the sunny day on the right.  Each of these sets shows quite clearly how the clouds act a s a diffuser, softening the light and reducing the shadows cast.  I took all photos at roughly the same time of day.  The images taken on a cloudy day are also slightly bluer. I had used daylight setting for all images.  The available light is also reduced on a cloudy day, especially the image of the tombs on the sunny day the sun bounced off the stone making it incredibly bright. On the cloudy day I need to use a very high ISO as well as wide aperture and slow shutter speed.  The differences were actually greater than I had expected them to be.  However I do prefer the images taken on the cloudy day.  Rather fortunate living in London where we have more cloud than not.

         Cloudy - TV 1/40 AV f6.3 ISO 500                        Sunny - TV 1/160 AV f8 ISO 200

        Cloudy - TV 1/160 AV f8 ISO 500                          Sunny - TV 1/200 AV f8 ISO 200

        Cloudy - TV 1/40 AV f4.5 ISO 800                        Sunny - TV 1/250 AV f8 ISO 400


The second part of this exercise is to identify two photos in my library that would definitely not be better in sunlight.  The first I have selected is the beach scene below. On a bright sunny day with blue skies this picture would not have the same moodiness that it currently has.  the sand would be brighter, the atmosphere would be a totally different place. The sport would look out of place.

The second image would definitely be very different on a sunny day.  This picture was taken in the afternoon without any shade near by.  A sunny day would have given hard shadows on her face.  It was very overcast, perfect for such beautiful young skin. The slight blue cast was very welcome as she already has a lot of red in her skin. Sun would have increased the warmth and changed the gentleness of this image. I was very grateful for the cloud on this day.

The third part of this exercise is a photo in the rain. I love taking pictures in the rain so have used one from my library. This day I went out just to take pictures in the rain. It was particularly heavy rain. I'm always looking for that special shot that will really show the rain. I think this does give a feeling of a sudden down pour, although I still haven't captured the density of the rain I am after. there is a lot more reflection and glare in the rain so when there is wet pavements or pools of water on the pavement you have to make sure you don't get burnt out patches.  I now have a raincoat for my camera to let me out in this weather.