Are all days good for Photography?

There are some pretty complex questions in the beginner forum, so i thought i would ask something very basic.

 

I went to the park today, it was a very overcast day, but very bright, i live by the coast in North Carolina having moved

from London, one thing i have noticed living here is that the light is very blue and seems to wash out alot of my

pictures, there are nearly always over exposed areas when the sky is in view.

 

I am using a Targus circular poloriser to combat this, but i am still having issues on some days, can anyone advise

me what i am doing wrong?

 

Is there days that you don't pick up your camera because of bland skies or harsh light, or do you find ways around

this?

 

I tend to use Aperture Priority when taking my pictures and minus the ev -2 usually to kill the light, but my pictures

look too dark in parts. I suspect my polariser is cheap and not doing the job, or i am missing some knowledge.

 

Its the sky thats i have a problem with it makes my pictures lool like cut outs at times........lol.........:(

 

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k223/gorringeman/greenfieldpk067.jpg

Simon, All days are good for photography........and living! Combat bald skys with gradated filters held up in front of the lens. Overcast can be a very beautiful light for portraits and flowers. You pay good money to get that effect in a studio. Just add some fill flash or a reflector to pop the eyes a bit. Use a good UV filter to combat blue haze.

simon,

 

you don't specify your equipment at all or how you are metering the light. it is important that you are looking at light and that makes for a good start. a polarising filter would cut out reflections and make the sky appear a darker shade of blue. it would also accentuate the clouds. however, it should only cut out light to half a stop to one maybe. if you have too much light that is leading to overexposure you might need to think about using a graduated nd filter. as long as this is level with the sky, that would cut out the light somewhat.

 

another easier option is to learn to meter light. you don't state your camera name or lenses used. you can meter for the darker parts of a frame ignoring the brighter parts. a matrix based meter which is what most modern dslrs and point and shoot cameras would offer should also take into account, would also counter this problem. i do feel that your next step in the learning curve is to master metering.

 

i prefer cloudy and overcast days to sunny ones. in terms of photograohy, the light seem to be more evenly spread, and in terms of the great outdoors, less people around on a rainy day!

i had a second look at your picture. meter for the darker parts even when using a polarising filter. you should definitely consider a graduated nd filter if you want to go down the filter route,

The sky may be overcast and look light gray but it is very bright nonetheless so it will record as white. If you stop down so the sky will be gray in the photo, then everything else will be darker. A polarizer is used to eliminate reflections. If you are using it as a neutral density filter so things appear darker in your viewfinder, the meter will just open up one stop to record the scene the same as if the filter wasn't on and recorded one stop less.

 

Using -2 EV to darken down the sky will also darken down the rest of the scene. Your best bet would be to use a graduated filter to darken down the sky area.

Thanks guys i will buy a graduated filter, i have this problem alot as i said, i have a Nikon D40 with 18-55mm lens, as this is a beginner forum i will admit i know nothing about metering at all, maybe i should read my camera manuel a bit more, its hard to take in so much information and REALLY understand it sometimes.

 

Thanks for your help, at times i feel like i am drowning.

I think it's a matter of playing the cards your dealt. An overcast day gives you blah skies, but the diffuse lighting can be good for nature photography, or outdoor portraits where you want the lower contrast. There are a lot of subjects that benefit from the soft lighting of a drab sky.

I would weigh in on anytime being good for photography...it is more a matter of understanding the limitations of your material, how to creatively circumvent those limitations to produce insightful images. Get a good book or two on photography and learn more about exposure and lighting, and the range of potential shooting situations will open up like a whole new world.

All days can be good, but days with bad weather normally make photos something more interesant and imponent like, when it's raining, or when it was raining but itain't anymore and the sunshine is coming strong. Fog, rain, snow whatever it is, as long as it is bad weather can sometimes give us better pictures.