How to take good photos on cloudy days?

In gloomy weather, there is no projection of objects on the ground, and the weak and soft sky light makes all the scenery dull and obscure, so many photographers think this is the most dissatisfied weather, and some film friends who are very particular about going out often put their cameras aside until the weather clears up.

Is it really impossible to take photos on cloudy days? The answer is no, the key is whether you can master this light and turn unfavorable factors into favorable ones. For photographers, as long as there is light, they can produce images and shoot unique works under specific light.

Cloudy days can be roughly divided into three different types:

First, the darkest cloudy day

This kind of dark and cloudy weather is likely to "destroy the city with dark clouds". At this time, there will be a flat and unified tone in the picture, which can often obtain a rich and dignified oil painting effect or splash-ink color in the artistic conception of Chinese painting to show a unique emotional color. In this weather, taking some scenic photos may have unexpected special effects. I once saw a photo with the title "Rain is coming, and the wind is full of buildings". In addition to trees, the atmosphere of "rain is coming" is mainly characterized by dark shadows, which can only be photographed on cloudy days.

Second, sunny and cloudy days.

This kind of weather is also called "false cloudy day". If you can observe carefully, although there is no obvious projection on the ground, you can often find the weak position of the sun. In this weather, portraits, especially those of girls and children, have no heavy shadows on their faces, and their skin is delicate and smooth. This kind of lighting is an ideal light source for shooting high-profile portraits. Obviously, the clothes of the subject must be white or light. With a light background, it is easy to succeed by increasing the exposure of at least 1/3 when shooting. In this weather, you can also enjoy the scenery, especially the scenery with large water surface, water and sky, several distant mountains and a boat with a leaf, which can get the effect of ink painting. Generally speaking, most of these landscape photos are high-profile.

Third, common cloudy days

There are no dense dark clouds, and there is no looming sun. The sky is even smoky gray, and the light is dim and weak. At this time, everything on the earth seems to be placed under a huge shadowless lamp. When you think of shadowless lights, you will naturally think that many landscapes and cultural relics often need to be photographed under this special light. It takes a lot of energy and time to create a non-projection condition under the natural light on a sunny day, such as erecting a tent with plastic film or translucent paper (the same is true with artificial light), putting the subject in the tent, and opening a hole from one end of the tent to let the camera shoot through the hole to achieve this soft, uniform and non-projection effect. Cloudy days are a godsend, which can save a lot of complicated equipment. Why not use them? For example, "Water Town Flavor" was shot in the shade. On the screen, the scales of fish reflect soft and obvious silver dots, which changes the weakness of plane light, makes the object present a three-dimensional sense and a good texture, and achieves a high-profile effect that can be displayed under shadowless lights. Similarly, using this light to shoot porcelain, gold and silver wares, glassware, jewelry and cultural relics can also achieve clear texture, rich texture and soft projection.

In addition, when we photograph large animals in the zoo, we often have trouble dealing with light and shadows. On sunny days, the projections of fences and barbed wire in cages, especially the pillars supporting the fences, are mapped on animals, which hinders the perfection of marks and pictures on animals. Choosing cloudy days, scattering light shooting can eliminate projection, and the effect is much better.

Scattered light on cloudy days is also very useful for re-creating documents, especially when the original is wrinkled. If direct light or side light is used, these wrinkles are vivid in the picture, even more obvious than the actual manuscript, which seriously affects the quality of the photo. If you recreate these documents with soft non-projection scattered light on cloudy days, you can minimize wrinkles and make them difficult to detect.

In addition, although the characteristics of dark light are soft, scattering and directionless, we can change it artificially. If it is cloudy, you can choose to shoot indoors, so that the light can shine through the doors and windows. At this time, the light will have a certain directionality, and there will be a projection on the illuminated object. Of course, this projection is quite different from the projection under direct sunlight on a clear day. First, this projection is not strong enough. The deeper the shadow near the object, the weaker the projection away from the object. Second, the projection outline is vague and there is no clear edge; Third, the closer the subject is to the door and window, the greater the projected light ratio. When we use this kind of light, if we choose a room with windows in opposite directions, we can adjust the size of doors and windows and the distance difference between objects and two windows as the main light and the auxiliary light respectively. Generally speaking, this kind of light is much softer than direct sunlight, so it can also be used as a light source for shooting portraits or still lives.