Simulating cloudy conditions

[hankchinaski]

Hi,

I like to take photos of drab urban landscapes under heavily clouded skies, ideally just before it starts to rain, which give me soft shadows and grey light (colors pop out like crazy).
Unfortunately, it is sunny now and I have to take the photos anyway...I'd like to have at least the colors pop out.
This is the setup:

- Location: Lithuania (so it's northern sun, not so harsh)
- Film: Kodak Gold 200 (maybe change film? Use filters?)
- Time of the day: when should that be? Sunrise? Mid-morning?


Any suggestion is appreciated!

 

[petrk]

Before sunrise, or after sunset, if shadows and contrasts is what you need to suppress. Blue hours generally. Shadows will disappear. But as the term Blue hour suggests, colors wil not be great.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

When it's sunny, you can't get rid of shadows, but you can try to fill them in order to reduce contrast. If the subject is close enough, fill-flash or a reflector may help. If not, then pre-flashing your film may help a bit.

To help with color saturation in the sunlit areas, a polarizing filter can help.

Shooting subjects in open shade eliminates the sun and approximates the type of soft illumination of cloudy days. However, unless there are a lot of white clouds in the sky, the light from the sky is often predominantly blue. In this case, a warming filter like one of the 81 series filters can help.

Best,

Doremus

 

[MattKing]

When I first read this, I missed the fact that the location was Lithuania, looked at the OP's location information that said Glasgow, and wondered to myself:
"You need to simulate cloudy conditions in Glasgow???!!!"

Open shade or early morning or early evening are your friends.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Move to Rochester New York. Why, you ask?

Start with why George Eastman founded Eastman Kodak in Rochester New York?

Because Rochester New York is the world's largest natural darkroom.

Most days Rochester New York is cloudy from the lake effect clouds. There one would have many cloudy effects to choose from. Problem solved.