I worked with the colours slightly to add warmer greens and yellows, again, to maximise the impact of the light on the valley. I brought down the exposure slightly, bumped up the saturation and the contrast. I didn't actually touch the rays at all, I just worked on everything else around the image. I wanted to maximise the sun rays without diminishing from the image as a whole. It was at this point that I wish I’d packed my graduated filter, as it was very difficult to set exposure for both the landscape and the sky, so I tried to find a happy medium within which the sky was not completely blown out.
This scene didn’t last for long, but as the sun finally shone through the clouds the visible rays of light fell onto the valley below us. The sun was trying its best to break through the clouds and I could tell that before long the dull grey of the clouds would be overwhelmed with light. Breakthrough! Shooting the Third ImageĪs we ascended towards the top of our first peak, we kept stopping to turn and take in the view behind us.
Attempting to raise contrast in color can destroy an image, but working in black and light give you more room to boost it without making things look unnatural.ģ. I’ve converted the image to black and white in post, which brings attention to the variety of textures within the image without the distraction of colour. The light is falling evenly on the variety of surfaces. In hindsight, this isn’t an amazingly interesting image, but for these purposes, it works as a good example to highlight the way in which cloud cover can be beneficial. This can be extremely useful for portraiture (we’ll come to that later), and was just right for this shot of the pathway leading off into the distance. One of the best things about cloud cover is that it acts as a huge natural softbox for the sun, which means that the light from the sun is evenly dispersed. I was trying to find other points of interest to work with. Searching for Inspiration Shooting the Second ImageĪt this point, I was struggling to find anything exciting in the landscape to work with, the views across the valley looked dull and lifeless and vast layers of flat cloud weren’t offering much to enhance that. I also added a touch of blue to the clouds to contrast with the yellows, greens and purples of the landscape, which heightens the impact of the brooding clouds.Ģ. I also boosted the purples slightly to bring out the small patches of heather dotted around the hillside. I wanted to ensure that a small amount of detail could be seen on the right in the foreground. In post, I looked to maximise the tones in each third of the image. The clouds certainly add drama and depth to this image, as the layers overlap one another. This may not be the most stunning of images, but it does begin to portray the atmosphere of the scenery that day. If the conditions had been different, I would have packed more lenses and a tripod at least, but I didn’t have high hopes, so just thought I’d take my camera in case the weather did decide to change. I was travelling light, we set off late and had a lot of walking to do, so I simply packed my DSLR and a 28mm prime lens. This isn’t really the sort of view that you’re after when you first head out on a shoot, the clouds rolling over the edge of the hills on a very dull and damp day. There are certainly inequalities in my work, but I wanted to openly show you the processes that I went through in order to show you how pitfalls can be avoided and how sometimes you can be surprised by what is achievable in uninspiring conditions using minimal equipment.
Clear day cloudy day series#
I’m going to take you through a series of images that I took that day, displaying the original unedited jpeg and then the final RAW version, explaining the circumstances of the original shot and the process that I went through to end up with the final version.
I recently took a trip out to the Peak District National Park with some friends, and lo and behold, it was cloudy, but that didn’t stop me from being able to take some exciting images. I’d love it if we had blazing sunshine every day, but when it comes to weather, you have to work with what you’ve got. Living in the north of England, I've gotten used to shooting on cloudy days.
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