Shooting in Any Lighting Conditions
It’s true that amazing lighting conditions can really add to the depth and style of an image, and chasing a perfect golden hour is a very fun and rewarding experience when you bring home that epic shot. But when fitting photography into family vacations, you likely won’t have the time or bandwidth to get up every morning before dawn for a hike. Often, the weather while you’re on your weekend excursion just may not be conducive to epic light.
The old saying “You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather” is absolutely true of vacations. Plan all you want, the reality is: a lot of time it rains on vacations. Or it’s overcast. Or it’s just a clear day without a cloud in the sky (looking at you, American Southwest trips I’ve taken).
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get amazing photos. Learn to use what each lighting condition has to offer, and you’ll be proud that you did the best with what you had.
Mostly Overcast
I love shooting when it’s mostly overcast. You’re not going to get a lot of dramatic shadows and parts of your image can turn out kind of flat, but what I really find fun is that Nature basically chooses your subject for you. On a family travel vacation, you don’t have a lot of time to linger in one spot to wait for the sun to light up the exact peak you want, or that farm building off in a pasture. Just work with what you have and find joy in the fact that you are truly capturing a certain, unrepeatable moment.
My best example of this is the top left photo above. Of course I would have loved it if the clouds had opened up and sent sun shining down on those two skelligs off the coast of Ireland. But I only had a few moments at a stop by the side of the road, I took the photo opportunity I had, and I actually love that the sun instead sets a stage in front of the islands, almost beckoning them to come forth.
What I like about shooting in mostly overcast skies is that the time of day is not as important. The sun is actually more likely to poke through any holes in the clouds the higher it is, so late morning and early afternoon shots are perfectly viable. Perfect for a little stop-off by the side of the road on a family road trip.
Completely Overcast
I find shooting in completely overcast conditions to be the extremely difficult. There are no shadows to work with, no highlights, and at first glance it appears there aren’t any interesting clouds to make for an interesting sky. But what I’ve found is that there is often a lot of visual interest to a gray, overcast sky, our eyes just may not be great at picking it up. Take your photos back into Lightroom and you’ll find that there’s a lot more depth in those clouds than you thought.
Overcast or rainy days can create some really moody shots. Play around with your saturation levels in Lightroom to make sure you’re capturing the ‘bleakness’ that you experienced on that day, like the image on the left above. Black and white can also be an option to help bring out that cloud depth, like the image on the right.
Partly Cloudy
When it’s partly cloudy, think about using the shapes of the clouds as composition elements. You’ll still benefit from lower sun angles for dramatic shadows and depth, but with a partly cloudy sky you can take advantage of patterns in the sky.
The photographs above were shot at dawn, midday, and dusk under varying lighting conditions. What works with each of them is that the clouds help to compose and balance the image. On the left, the streaky, wispy clouds help to mimic the lines and angles in the weathered rock. In the middle image, the negative space of open blue sky mimics the puddle in the middle of the foreground. And in the right image, the heavy clouds on the left half of the image help to balance out the subject of the small pool of water in the lower right.
Blue Skies
Ugh. Blue skies are tough. The light is harsh, and there’s no visual interest in the sky, so if you include a horizon you’re not getting any value out of that top portion of your image. When shooting in completely or nearly clear skies, consider:
Minimize the amount of sky that’s visible
Use Lightroom to desaturate just how BLUE the sky is (that pop of color can be distracting)
Consider capturing a vignette with no sky at all?
Maybe landscapes just aren’t in the cards. That’s why I have a back-up: wildlife photography!
Think about what a photo will look like in black and white. Blue skies and bright sun create harsh, contrasting shadows. This can look great in monotone!
Perfect Lighting
Amazing Light at Gap of Dunloe, Co. Kerry Ireland
Sometimes the lighting IS perfect. The tone is golden or pink and the angle of the sun creates long, dramatic shadows. The sun is poking out from underneath the clouds so you still get an interesting sky in your shot. If it’s all lining up perfectly for you, now’s your chance to focus on composition, and how to make the most of this gift you’re being given.
When I crested the hill and found these conditions in the photo above, it took me a while to find the right vantage point. Here’s what I was focused on:
Angling the photo in such a way that the shadows mimicked but countered the angles from the mountains in the background.
Getting around the rocks to be able to catch that bit of reflection on the left-hand side.
Being patient! It was windy and the sun kept dipping behind the clouds. I spent a long time waiting for the perfect combination of the wind dying down (to be able to freeze the waving grasses as best I could with a relatively low shutter speed), and making sure the sun was out and bright enough to give me the highlights I wanted.
