best times of day and weather for black and white shooting

<p>there has been so little time of late to shoot. when i have picked up a camera it has been the dslr. the two other cameras, the bessa r is sitting there is fuji pro 800z at around 28 in the counter. the om4 has a roll of expired ilford fp4 125 with barely 3 on the counter. the fridge contains at least ten rolls of various speed and make expired black and white films and i could not afford to buy new until these have been gone through! my film photography has always been available light outdoor shots, nature, street and landscapes. i used to love shooting xp2 400 just after dawn or when the sun was setting.</p>

<p>so for available light black an white photography, i wondered if some parts of the day are better than others. bright sunlight always confuses me with black and whites. as much as i like a walk along the park, trees and foliage in black and white just never looked interesting when i shot them. by the way, being into minimal post processing, i don't like the idea of shooting raw with a dslr and converting it to black and white!</p>

<p>I shoot b&w in my dslr for simplicity, and because, like you, I shoot both types of film. I really don't pay attention to the weather for b&w, except rainstorms for the equipement, and only the light for the scene and metering. I only have to watch the range with Scala due to its narrower dynamic range, but otherwise I go with what's there, partly because in the NW we get many overcast days which reduces the range, highlights, shadows, etc., and waiting for the sun won't get you outdoors with the camera. But then I have quite a few rolls of intesting shots, but nothing noteworthy either.</p>

<p>Time: "Awake," and Weather: "Any."</p>

<p>Starvy-</p>

<p>There used to be an excellent little book (circa 1980s, when I started out with photography) that reviewed how weather fronts and conditions can be predicted and used to advantage in photography. I think the author's last name was Plant, but not sure.</p>

<p>I prefer mixed cloud and sunlight (ground effects of varying light throughout a scene), but also early and late daylight bright sunlight shooting. For the former, weather systems have periods when mixed cloud and sunlight occur, so when I think about it I try to get to places I want to photograph (whether local or more distant) when that occurs, before or after a weather front passes.</p>

<p>Maybe you can find some data on weather fronts (simple physical geography textbooks or web info) and find when that occurs. Living in the high mountains or on the seacoast is less predictable than inland in this sense, as weather is less predictable in those places (I have found that photography in mountains is fun because things change very frequently in the space of a half day).</p>

<p>Hope this may be useful to you. Good shooting.</p>

<p>Fog or overcast... yesterday late afternoon, shot in full color:</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Starvy--</strong></p>

<p>I think you may have given yourself a challenge in your own OP. Bright sunlight used to confuse me as well, but there was something I was drawn to in many of the effects it could have, particular strong shards of light and even more so strong back lighting. Bright sunlight might be the very place to start. The good thing about strong sunlight is sometimes you get to break the rules about blowing highlights, or really black shadows, but figuring out the most creative way to deal with that can be fun as well. You don't have photos posted, so I don't have a sense of what you like to shoot or what you are after photographically, so it would be hard to take this question much further. One thing that might work is to let the light dictate the subject matter you choose rather than the other way around, at least on some outings.</p>

<p>...of course finding sunlight in Wales might be a little like finding the holy grail...</p>

<p>Starvy, when I was in Caerphilly/Cardiff last year, I burned over 20 rolls. There are always pictures there.</p>

<p>sunlight is like gold dust but lately, it has been a little odd.. we had sun the morning.. by the time i got out of the house with a camera, it was too cold and too overcast :(</p>

<p>@ John - I fully agree!</p>

<p>overcast days</p>

<p> Best time of day? It depends on the way you want your subject/scenes to look like. The cliche' is to get the "golden light" of dawn and/or dusk (dawn requires more resolve and better coffee), but great pictures have been made at all times of day <em>and night</em> , as well as weather. It's all up to you, and to choose weather or time of day because it aids and abets your vision. This is what photography is all about, making photographs that are your own. Not the way anyone else suggests. Observe, experiment, discover for yourself.</p>

<p>From your question, I'd say it would be good for you to spend time out (with your kit, of course) observing carefully how weather and light changes the way things appear.</p>

<p> Maybe even take along a small notebook to keep notes, complete with drawings indicating light quality, hr of day, and direction.</p>

<p> Back in the day when most fashion pros shot outdoors in the most cliche'd light (the golden hr), along came a guy who shot mostly between 11AM-2PM. His work looked like no one else's. [Helmut Newton]</p>

<p>newton and the new objectivity.. i don't aspire to reach such heights but do take your point!</p>