Cloudy Day Editing...

<p>Hello All,<br>

So I recently did an engagement shoot for a couple, and wouldn't you just know it... Cloudy and rainy the whole time.. Now I am looking at the results and they aren't terrible, but I really want them to pop.. </p>

<p>I have been poking around trying to find a decent tutorial for editing cloudy day photos and I haven't really found anything.. So I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations or suggestions to help me improve these photos<br /><br />Thank you,<br />Andy<br /><br /><img src="http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee461/wolfeye_15/IMG_2248_zpspd9klm7e.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee461/wolfeye_15/IMG_2411_zps12gege2o.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" /></p>

Two bits of advice / personal opinion:

 

1) Don't try to change an overcast, rainy day all the way into a sunny day. The quality of light is too different & the result

will almost certainly look oddly "off" -- a bit fake. Instead, make your goal somewhere between the two extremes.

 

2) IMHO, the worst part of days like these is the featureless, white sky. Drop in a hint of blue and some structure ( ie,

appropriate clouds at low opacity), and you'll see a big, immediate improvement without doing hardly anything to the

actual subjects.

 

Just my $0.02,

 

Tom M

<p>To start, I think Tom has made some good points. You can certainly improve these with curves to bump up the contrast a bit. Since there's no skin tones visible, it's hard to tell if you will have to mask the skin tones when you do that.</p>

<p>However, I think, as in many of these cases, the number one thing is to be aware of the sky and its effects when you're shooting. By a) avoiding the sky in shots, and b) using a small flash pop,you should be able to reduce the amount of post work necessary. Since that isn't the case, follow Tom's advice and use curves to get a stronger look.</p>

<p>The color saturation, temperature and contrast look very pleasant to me in the two samples you've posted. I've tried to emulate the look of an overcast day in some of my color photos that seemed too contrasty and saturated, so personally I'd be satisfied with the look you already have.</p>

<p>The only skin I can see is her bare foot, and the color looks fine. Lower extremities tend to show too much redness from flushed capillaries, so if her foot looks like that chances are their faces will look good as well.</p>

<p>I hardly ever pay attention to featureless skies, as long as the main subject matter seems to grab my attention. Occasionally I might use the graduated filter in Lightroom to pull out just a little more tone and detail.</p>

<p>You just need to punch up the contrast a bit. Overcast days are excellent days for portraits, where the sky is the largest diffuser of light.</p>

<p>I played around with the second image in pscc, lightening the shadows, straightening, cropping a little and removing some objects that were distracting. </p><div></div>

<p>Because it is very difficult to convey in words exactly what one has in mind when making such recommendations, I had a few minutes and also tweaked your second image.<br /><br />Is I mentioned, I'm not a big fan of making a photo taken on a rainy day have a warm color cast, except, as suggested by others, the skin tones might have to be dealt with separately since clients generally don't like blueish skin, LOL. Anyway, I toned down the overall warmth of your image to make it look more rainy, but added saturation of the warm colors that are present to provide contrast and center of interest. Don't forget the old art school adage, "Cool tones recede while warm tones come forward". Also, as per my previous post, I slightly darkened the sky from being 255,255,255, added a bit of cyan-blue and some structure to the sky, and opened up the shadows a bit while retaining some very dark tones.<br /><br />Also, I did spot your image (...way too many white flecks to look professional), but I didn't do anything to your composition because I felt that you framed it the way you did to achieve a particular look. OTOH, I did slightly darken the OOF cobblestones nearest the camera so that they didn't draw too much attention away from the subject.<br /><br />Just my $0.02,<br /><br />Tom M<br /><br />PS - Don't forget to download the larger version of the image.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>I think Jeff has the best advice. When dealing with overcast conditions, pick your shots so the sky is not in the photo. Actually, overcast light is softer, which makes the exposure of your subject easier. Based on your images, it appears that you were in an urban area, which should have provided at least some interesting buildings to provide a nice backdrop without the sky.</p>