Dealing With Gray Days

It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest corner of the USA. You know, Seattle? That infamous gray place? Well, it’s gray today alright and looks to be gray tomorrow. On top of that, the days are pretty short with the winter solstice only weeks behind us. Once in a while we get a nice sunset when that hot ball of gas is kind enough to break beneath the clouds when they aren’t looking, just before it sets behind the Olympic mountains. Not to be seen for another 16 hours.

For the most part, though, it’s gray for a couple of months around here. Yet I still like to get out of the house and do some outdoor shooting. I won’t see any sun drenched beaches, Mt. Rainier glowing orange at sunrise or lush green fields and bright red barns shimmering in the sunlight tomorrow. That doesn’t mean gray is a horrible time to shoot; you just have to be a bit more creative. This then is a small list of ideas of what and how to shoot on a gray day.

Sometimes the world appears dull, lifeless, flat. That’s just the way it is on these days and it’s nothing to complain about, it is simply the way it is. Ok, maybe if you have a shoot for a swimsuit calendar and need a sunny beach, you can complain. But chances are you would have headed to Hawaii. You’re not there, you are here, in the grayness.

Rather than letting your mind glaze over at the dull of it all, sit with it. Take a true critical look around your settings and pick apart what appears and is different in this light. Photography is all about light and you have light, you simply need to take a different approach to using this type of light. Learning the difference between a bright, sunny day and a gray day, in the minutia of a scene, can help open up a more critical way of experiencing light through your photography.

Yes, the beach. I know I just bemoaned not seeing it drenched in sun, but that is no reason to avoid it. I live realtively close to a beach and have visited a number of times in the winter. Mostly on the few sunny days we have, but also when the sky is not blue and the water clear.

A beach takes on a completely different character during gray days. Water that stretches to the horizon will mingle with the sky, sometimes making one continuous spectrum. The shadows in the rocks and driftwood (in these parts) is softer and more life can often be spotted.

Gray days are an excellent time to break out the macro lens. Why? Because of the even lighting close-up subjects will receive. Think of it as Nature’s built in lighttent. Yes, there is less light in general, requiring a slower shutter, for instance. But the evenness of the tones without having to shade your subject is a great way to spend a gray day.

If the world around you seems too lifeless and dismal after two straight weeks of no direct sunlight, show that! There will be time enough for colorful photos when Summer rolls around. Now is a great time to touch up on the Zone System when colors are more muted and easier to understand in regards to that system. If the world around seems black and white, start using that to your advantage and practice more black and while photography.

Whether using a program in post-production or simply jacking up the ISO to 3200 and beyond, gray days and B&W photos sometimes scream for grain. I’m a bit biased here and this point in particular is quite subjective, I realize that. If I’m not trying for a super clean, pin-sharp representation of the scene in front of me, I often swing the other way with B&W photos and become very choosy about adding grain. Too much can ruin a picture for sure. Just the right amount can bring in other elements which can’t be represented by the photo alone, such as noise or cold or isolation. Starkness. This is an artistic area that can be fun to play with on a gray day.

Back to the Think B&W item; take that idea to the industrial side of town and work the grain there. Shadows are typically reduced on gray days and more details can be brought out of dilpaitated old buildings and factories belching towards the sky. This isn’t the sunny, happy side of town, typically, and it is well represented in the shades brought about by evenness of diffused light. It also makes shooting up into tall buildings or smokestacks easier to meter and capture.

Gray days don’t have to end your shooting impulses. It does take some people more motivation to take photos on the blandest of days, but there is still a whole world out there begging to be seen in a new light. Don’t miss your chance!

What other ways have you found to explore light and photography on a gray day?

View the original article here

Dealing With Gray Days

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It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest corner of the USA. You know, Seattle? That infamous gray place? Well, it’s gray today alright and looks to be gray tomorrow. On top of that, the days are pretty short with the winter solstice only weeks behind us. Once in a while we get a nice sunset when that hot ball of gas is kind enough to break beneath the clouds when they aren’t looking, just before it sets behind the Olympic mountains. Not to be seen for another 16 hours.

For the most part, though, it’s gray for a couple of months around here. Yet I still like to get out of the house and do some outdoor shooting. I won’t see any sun drenched beaches, Mt. Rainier glowing orange at sunrise or lush green fields and bright red barns shimmering in the sunlight tomorrow. That doesn’t mean gray is a horrible time to shoot; you just have to be a bit more creative. This then is a small list of ideas of what and how to shoot on a gray day.

Live With It And Learn From It

Sometimes the world appears dull, lifeless, flat. That’s just the way it is on these days and it’s nothing to complain about, it is simply the way it is. Ok, maybe if you have a shoot for a swimsuit calendar and need a sunny beach, you can complain. But chances are you would have headed to Hawaii. You’re not there, you are here, in the grayness.

Rather than letting your mind glaze over at the dull of it all, sit with it. Take a true critical look around your settings and pick apart what appears and is different in this light. Photography is all about light and you have light, you simply need to take a different approach to using this type of light. Learning the difference between a bright, sunny day and a gray day, in the minutia of a scene, can help open up a more critical way of experiencing light through your photography.

The Beach

Yes, the beach. I know I just bemoaned not seeing it drenched in sun, but that is no reason to avoid it. I live realtively close to a beach and have visited a number of times in the winter. Mostly on the few sunny days we have, but also when the sky is not blue and the water clear.

A beach takes on a completely different character during gray days. Water that stretches to the horizon will mingle with the sky, sometimes making one continuous spectrum. The shadows in the rocks and driftwood (in these parts) is softer and more life can often be spotted.

Close up

Gray days are an excellent time to break out the macro lens. Why? Because of the even lighting close-up subjects will receive. Think of it as Nature’s built in lighttent. Yes, there is less light in general, requiring a slower shutter, for instance. But the evenness of the tones without having to shade your subject is a great way to spend a gray day.

Think B&W

If the world around you seems too lifeless and dismal after two straight weeks of no direct sunlight, show that! There will be time enough for colorful photos when Summer rolls around. Now is a great time to touch up on the Zone System when colors are more muted and easier to understand in regards to that system. If the world around seems black and white, start using that to your advantage and practice more black and while photography.

Give It Grain, Capture Its Mood

Whether using a program in post-production or simply jacking up the ISO to 3200 and beyond, gray days and B&W photos sometimes scream for grain. I’m a bit biased here and this point in particular is quite subjective, I realize that. If I’m not trying for a super clean, pin-sharp representation of the scene in front of me, I often swing the other way with B&W photos and become very choosy about adding grain. Too much can ruin a picture for sure. Just the right amount can bring in other elements which can’t be represented by the photo alone, such as noise or cold or isolation. Starkness. This is an artistic area that can be fun to play with on a gray day.

The Industrial Side of Town

Back to the Think B&W item; take that idea to the industrial side of town and work the grain there. Shadows are typically reduced on gray days and more details can be brought out of dilpaitated old buildings and factories belching towards the sky. This isn’t the sunny, happy side of town, typically, and it is well represented in the shades brought about by evenness of diffused light. It also makes shooting up into tall buildings or smokestacks easier to meter and capture.

Conclusion

Gray days don’t have to end your shooting impulses. It does take some people more motivation to take photos on the blandest of days, but there is still a whole world out there begging to be seen in a new light. Don’t miss your chance!

What other ways have you found to explore light and photography on a gray day?

Post from: Digital Photography School

View the original article here

Dealing With Two Light Sources In Photoshop Lightroom

Sometimes the odds are against you. White balance with one light source, while shooting in RAW, is pretty easy to deal with in post production in the case that your camera didn’t get it right the first time. Lightroom, and many other programs, offer some preset situations and settings (daylight, shade, tungsten, etc…). Click a button and you’re done.
What about when the scene includes two different light sources? In this post we’ll take a look at how to adjust settings when a scene contains both indoor incandescent light and outside, overcast light. While this example is finite, it can be used in a variety of light combinations with a few tweaks.

This photo was taken at the set of the Marty Riemer Show, a podcast on which I appeared earlier this month as a guest talking about giving up the corporate world for the freelance traveling/photography life. This was my first time in a studio of this sort (in his basement) and I wanted to get some shots showing how things went together. As you can see, there are strong incandescent lights overhead in cans and then light from a gray Seattle day flooding in from windows. This image is the original and how the camera picked up the scene on Auto White Balance. The only thing I have adjusted for at this point is the lens correct as it was shot at 10mm.

The camera chose ISO 1000, f/3.5, 1/15 and a temperature setting of 4450K. This is slightly higher than the standard range for an incandescent light bulb, which is between 2700-3300K. The first task is to pick the dominant light source (incandescent) and bring the temperature closer to that range. For me, that setting was 3250K.

Now I want to cut out the blue colorcast from the windows. In this case, I lower the Blue Saturation to -38.

This is enough to remove a fair amount of the colorcast while not effecting the scene too much. The blue on the screen suffers just a bit and much more saturation loss would leave it white.
The problem for me at this point, is Marty has better skin tones than this image represents. Simply reducing the temperature and removing some blue is not enough and only subtracts from the image. To make these next adjustments I have found it is easier to go overboard. My next step is to jack the saturation up to +100.

This overblown version lets me see just how much yellow and orange colorcast is left from the incandescent lights. It’s time to fine tune. First I drop the Yellow Saturation down to -67 to remove a some of the colorcast. Second, the Orange Saturation is dropped to -21 as it is a major component in incandescent light.

Lastly, I bring the overall Saturation back to +57 to keep some of the warmth in Marty’s skin tones.

Had I gone all the way back to a Saturation of 0, the scene is lifeless and anemic.

From here, other adjustments can be made to freshen up the photo, but I’ll stop at this point as this post is only about trying to get the most from two sources of light. While this technique will not work in every instance, it is handy for photos when a second light sources is seeping its way into your enjoyment of the image.

View the original article here

Dealing With Two Light Sources In Photoshop Lightroom

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Sometimes the odds are against you. White balance with one light source, while shooting in RAW, is pretty easy to deal with in post production in the case that your camera didn’t get it right the first time. Lightroom, and many other programs, offer some preset situations and settings (daylight, shade, tungsten, etc…). Click a button and you’re done.

What about when the scene includes two different light sources? In this post we’ll take a look at how to adjust settings when a scene contains both indoor incandescent light and outside, overcast light. While this example is finite, it can be used in a variety of light combinations with a few tweaks.

The Original

This photo was taken at the set of the Marty Riemer Show, a podcast on which I appeared earlier this month as a guest talking about giving up the corporate world for the freelance traveling/photography life. This was my first time in a studio of this sort (in his basement) and I wanted to get some shots showing how things went together. As you can see, there are strong incandescent lights overhead in cans and then light from a gray Seattle day flooding in from windows. This image is the original and how the camera picked up the scene on Auto White Balance. The only thing I have adjusted for at this point is the lens correct as it was shot at 10mm.

The camera chose ISO 1000, f/3.5, 1/15 and a temperature setting of 4450K. This is slightly higher than the standard range for an incandescent light bulb, which is between 2700-3300K. The first task is to pick the dominant light source (incandescent) and bring the temperature closer to that range. For me, that setting was 3250K.

Now I want to cut out the blue colorcast from the windows. In this case, I lower the Blue Saturation to -38.

This is enough to remove a fair amount of the colorcast while not effecting the scene too much. The blue on the screen suffers just a bit and much more saturation loss would leave it white.

The problem for me at this point, is Marty has better skin tones than this image represents. Simply reducing the temperature and removing some blue is not enough and only subtracts from the image. To make these next adjustments I have found it is easier to go overboard. My next step is to jack the saturation up to +100.

This overblown version lets me see just how much yellow and orange colorcast is left from the incandescent lights. It’s time to fine tune. First I drop the Yellow Saturation down to -67 to remove a some of the colorcast. Second, the Orange Saturation is dropped to -21 as it is a major component in incandescent light.

Lastly, I bring the overall Saturation back to +57 to keep some of the warmth in Marty’s skin tones.

Had I gone all the way back to a Saturation of 0, the scene is lifeless and anemic.

From here, other adjustments can be made to freshen up the photo, but I’ll stop at this point as this post is only about trying to get the most from two sources of light. While this technique will not work in every instance, it is handy for photos when a second light sources is seeping its way into your enjoyment of the image.

Post from: Digital Photography School

View the original article here