What Do You Do for a Cloudless Sky??

Seems a given that clouds add drama to the sky - at least, that's

what most critics and the public say. So there you are, a beautiful

scene, you're dying to photograph it, you may never be in this

location again, blah, blah, blah, and there's not a cloud to be seen

anywhere.

 

I've used red filters but often the effect appears overdone with a

cloudless sky. I read Uncle Ansel and he said keep some good cloud

negs handy. That's fine but it seems awful hard to to get the

composite print right and soon people start noticing the same clouds

in all your photos.

 

Bottom line - I spend a lot of days waiting for clouds. Gets

frustrating when you drive a hundred miles for a shot and the clouds

go away.

 

There's got to be a better way????

Alex,

 

I started waiting for the clouds to be in the area before I went out to shoot. Of course then they wouldn't go away and I'd spend all this time in the field waiting for the sun to peak through. Then I would awake to find nothing but clear sky.

 

I think I went to Monument Valley 10 times before I got both clouds and sun.

Try watching for weather patterns and weather reports- for example, seems like around here, it's often partly cloudy till noon or so, then nothing.

Yeah, I can symapthise. Monument Valley is a 1000 miles (literally) from the house for me.

If the sky is boring I include less sky in the picture.

Yep, done that too David. My habit in that case is to reach for the red filter. Helps somewhat but can have other distracting effects.

I have finally decided that I'm not going to travel anymore. Every time I go to a place to shoot, the weather isn't what was predicted, or the tide is out, or something. I once spent a month in 1984 in London, shooting historic buildings. Every one, including two castles, was covered in scaffolding. I didn't know there was that much scaffolding in all of Europe.

 

If I limit myself to a ten mile radius of my studio, I can do freshly fallen snow, heavy fog, nifty clouds, etc with some certainty. I have found that city parks in early morning dew and fog look a lot like far off wilderness. And I'm home for lunch...

 

John

I use my medical kit -- two gourds and an eagle feather -- to summon the clouds with the appropiate dance movements and chant.

After dealing with this for a few years in the Sierra Nevada, my solutions are:

1) More foreground, less sky (i.e. find something else to shoot)

2) Go climbing

3) Go backpacking

Thanks for everyone's advice so far. Good to know I'm not alone with this dilemma. Bill, is you medicine kit more reliable than the Weather Service?

I live in Hawaii. Here wonderful cottony clouds are pretty

common. I was waiting for them for weeks. They came and shot

some landscapes with the yellow-orange filter. I have never tried

a red yet. I think it overdoes it.

But I really want to say is: Cloud negatives? Is that what Ansel

said? It sems awfully wrong, at least for me. When I go out there

is because I want to put in paper the beauty that was there

before my eyes. What is the point of adding clouds to a

photograph if they weren't there anyway! I believe in the waiting

process. Having the camera close to you -maybe in your car-

may help get the shot.

That is just me. I don't mean to criticize, I just want to express my

opinion.

It is a wonderful feeling for me to see beautiful clouds over my

lanscape photographs knowing that I was there and saw them

with my eyes and that for a long time I'll be able to remember that

day by looking at the print hanging from my wall.

What do you think??

 

Thanks, Christian

I usually try to time major trips in conjunction with weather changes in the Spring, doing the weather pattern research thing on the weather sites. But, my hit rate isn't much better than anyone else's. Hell, I went to Death Valley and it snowed on me!

 

But, in a pinch, I'll add clouds from another negative, paying attention to sun angle, and all of that. It's a pain in the darkroom, but pretty easy if printing digitally.

 

Bill may be able to give up on his day job if those "medical kits" work better. I hear it has a lot to do with how you hold your mouth when doing the chants, though.

You change your ideas of what & how you shoot & work on images that stand without the clouds. Look at many older images before film could capture skies well. Many strong images there without a cloud showing. Shoot closer. Work with 'negative' space. Get away from the postcard photo mentality & push for more graphic images where the clouds are not what you count on to make the photo.

Alex -- build yourself a cloud-portfolio for no-cloud days... =)

My medical kit IS my day job. My best gourds are normally reserved for when antibiotics, antidepresents, and cardiac meds, etc. don't work. I think that the eagle feather is probably just a placebo.

1. pay close attention to the weather forcasts. Either watch the news, or i think some websites have live weather. Those live satellite views are great for predicting when good clouds will be in the area. You may even find a live webcam in the area.

2. Talk to locals in the area to find out what seasons are good for clouds. (here in sacramento, March, April, and November is good clouds)

3. If the sky is clear, darken it via a polarizer or neutral grad. Use a color-saturated film to bring out the color in the landscape. In BW, use an orange or red filter (or a polarizer). The effects of a clear but dark sky are quite impressive.

4. Go digital. Here is a shot that I took in black and white of the CA capitol. The sky was very overcast and hazy.. actually completely white, no cloud detail at all. I scanned the print at 300dpi. Then I downloaded some stock images of clouds, (www.deviantart.com) converted them to BW. I stitched the images together and toned the whole thing.. It took me about 2 hours cause it was my first time trying to seamlessly composite 2 images. Anyway here if the final image (scaled down for the web).<div></div>

How about a blue filter for a stark white sky. I use this sometimes for architecture. It separates a gray building from the sky nicely. With a yellow or orange filter, the tone of the sky is too close to the tone of the building.

Pack it up and go out for a nice breakfast. Wait for a better day with better weather. No kidding. This is something I learned in Richard Bown's wonderful book "Pictures from the Country". It is just part of the art of photography. Now you can certainly shoot as you wish but so very much of the photographer's success ultimately is interesting light and weather. ....Learn when to hold'em and learn when to fold'em...

Want clouds? Come over to the UK!

You might try doing the same thing for no clouds that I do when the sun is shining brightly and refuses to go behind the clouds so that I can make a photograph in open shade. I wait quite a while. Then I start packing up my gear, at the same time I start saying things out loud like "I'll have to quit for the day, no more photography today for me, I'll pack up and come back another day, etc. etc." As soon as the sun thinks I've given up it will go behind a cloud. If I then unpack my gear very quickly I can get the photograph made before the sun realizes it's been tricked. I'd bet the same thing might work to cause clouds to appear.

I had the same disappointment when I visited Monument Valley last September. No clouds for three days. Today I am in NYC and heading to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I am lucky however....blue sky and plenty of clouds. I will be dusting off the red filter! Alex...some days are just better than others.

What I do when the sky is cloudless is take my 8 x 10 camera out and make photographs. I do the same thing when there are white puffy clouds in a blue sky. When the sky is overcast I take my 8 x 10 out and make pictures. When there's fog, I go out and make them then, too. Stieglitz said: "Wherever there is light, one may photograph." I don't think he spent much time waiting around for clouds.

If you want "grand scenics" with lots of clouds, you're going to have to play the weather game. If you go somewhere and the clouds aren't happening, then you should change your objectives and shoot things that don't require big puffy clouds in the background.

 

St. Ansel did a lot of intimate portraits of natural objects--trees, rocks, etc. My guess would be that the cloudy skys weren't happening on those days so he turned his attention to other things.

Try to be creative: take some pictures without including the sky, take a better look at the place and try to shoot with some more imagination. You don't have to shoot the whole Grand Canyon to show you have been there. A cactus and a rock might be enough.

 

Simone

When you see a sky full of great clouds, take some shots at various angles. Save those for use later on; just choose one with the light hitting the clouds appropriately and mask it into your shot.

 

If you're a wet-darkroom-only type, it's an old, Luddite-approved technique. Much easier to do digitally, tho...