Question about overcast nature photography

[cbrfreak]

I took the family out to Silver Falls yesterday for a picnic, hiking and photography yesterday because the weather man said it was going be warm and sunny. Well, it was overcast all day and my pictures all turned out really blah. Are there any special considerations for overcast nature and landscape photography to get better contrast and color? I was really disapointed with my results yesterday...

[davemdsn]

I prefer overcast days by far for nature photography. You will probably need to make some adjustments to the white balance.

Our weather was supposed to be partly cloudy yesterday, which I was wanting for the wedding I was shooting. Turned out bright and sunny. Had to pull out flash. I really wanted a few clouds.

[carpents]

Originally Posted by cbrfreak

I took the family out to Silver Falls yesterday for a picnic, hiking and photography yesterday because the weather man said it was going be warm and sunny. Well, it was overcast all day and my pictures all turned out really blah. Are there any special considerations for overcast nature and landscape photography to get better contrast and color? I was really disapointed with my results yesterday...

Like Dave said, overcast can be a blessing. It is really nice for close-ups of flora (no harsh shadows) and gives a supremely diffused light for stuff like portraits. Unfortunately if you're looking for sweeping panoramics, it can look pretty blah...you can always try bumping both the contrast and saturation and see if that makes a difference, but for some subjects you just can't do without blue skies or interesting partly/mostly clouds...dull flat overcast doesn't always do it.

[little laker]

I agree with Dave for the same reasons.
The good thing about White Balance is it's usually the easiest thing to correct.

If your running Windows NT or newer you might want to try is press I Feel Lucky in Picasa (a free Google download). It usually nails the white balance for you, and works with both JPG's and RAW

[cbrfreak]

Here are a few samples from yesterday. Maybe that will help for recommendations.
I appreciate all the help with this guys!

[PeterAM]

Try converting to B&W, with/without filter simulation. Then play with brightness, contrast and toning. You may get a pleasant surprise.

[jsundin]

That 3rd one, couldn't you make a layer in PS Elements and tweak just the sky to darken that up a touch? Otherwise, try a shorter crop, getting rid of as much sky as you feel comfortable with. That puts more emphasis on the water.

Jeff

[kskjon]

I would probably try doing some PP magic; add a blue sky yourself.

It isn't always easy, especially with all those trees, but it isn't impossible.

[cbrfreak]

Thanks guys, I'll play with them some more... I just don't get it, they aren't horrible photos, but I can't get them to look right.

[thazooo]

Try a bit of a tone curve or do a little luminousity mask and adjust each channel to your liking.

[SCGushue]

Originally Posted by cbrfreak

Here are a few samples from yesterday. Maybe that will help for recommendations.
I appreciate all the help with this guys!

cbrfreak,

Like the images and subject matter.

Now onto the subject at hand. From your images it looks more like high haziness than overcast. However, the problems here are quite challenging even in the best of situations. First, the camera will have a very hard time nailing this picture even with perfect exposiure because the dynamic range between the shadowed gorge and the sunlit tree is too great for the camera to handle. There are solutions to cope with this problem.

1- Bracket (3 or 5 images...done automatically if you set the camera up to do it) the image you want to capture and chose the one that offers the best options in PP.

2- Tripod the camera and bracket, then perform HDR PP to handle and expand the DR of the camera.

3- On truly overcast days, where a lot of blue/cyan contamination will be seen in the image, set the camera for a specific white balance manually or chose the overcast option which will impart a red/yellow hue to negate the overcast tinge. This isn't always perfect but it is easy to correct in PP in the color correction menu.

4- On bracketed images you can cut and paste the portions of ezch image that you like into one finsished and polished image. A lot of work to say the least but I have had to resort to it on an occasion or two myself and it does work.

When photogrpahing waterfalls, I prefer the sky to be as overcast as possible.
Longer exposures result and the water looks smoother; the sky is less washed out and the contrast can be controlled at home with software.

Good luck going forward

Stephen

Stephen C. Gushue's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

[cbrfreak]

Originally Posted by scg

cbrfreak,

Like the images and subject matter.

Now onto the subject at hand. From your images it looks more like high haziness than overcast. However, the problems here are quite challenging even in the best of situations. First, the camera will have a very hard time nailing this picture even with perfect exposiure because the dynamic range between the shadowed gorge and the sunlit tree is too great for the camera to handle. There are solutions to cope with this problem.

1- Bracket (3 or 5 images...done automatically if you set the camera up to do it) the image you want to capture and chose the one that offers the best options in PP.

2- Tripod the camera and bracket, then perform HDR PP to handle and expand the DR of the camera.

3- On truly overcast days, where a lot of blue/cyan contamination will be seen in the image, set the camera for a specific white balance manually or chose the overcast option which will impart a red/yellow hue to negate the overcast tinge. This isn't always perfect but it is easy to correct in PP in the color correction menu.

4- On bracketed images you can cut and paste the portions of ezch image that you like into one finsished and polished image. A lot of work to say the least but I have had to resort to it on an occasion or two myself and it does work.

When photogrpahing waterfalls, I prefer the sky to be as overcast as possible.
Longer exposures result and the water looks smoother; the sky is less washed out and the contrast can be controlled at home with software.

Good luck going forward

Stephen

Stephen C. Gushue's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

DOH!
I didn't even think about bracketing. Next time I guess.
Thanks for the tips!

[cbrfreak]

Here is the river photo as best as I can make it...

[CDP]

The new crop and punching up the saturation made a world of difference. Good job!

[TaoMaas]

Overcast skies can be a great time to shoot because it's like having a giant softbox. The trick is to not show the sky in your picture because that washed out sky becomes a visual cue to us and creates a "blah" feeling.