Solid gray days are great for?????

[stradibarrius]

What is your favorite thing to shoot outdoors when the sky is evenly gray so the light is very even???

I know some people love this type light. I want to know how to use it as best I can.

 

[removed account4]

it is my favorite light ...
i shoot architecture, paper negatives
and portraits in this kind of light.

and it is perfect light for over exposing film 4 stops
and over developing by 400%

 

[jp80874]

It may be an attitude thing. I am told Paris has the same abundance of gray days as Cleveland, OH, but they refer to it as “silvery.” We call it pollution. When I commented on my hair turning gray, my barber said, “it is going platinum.” Celebrate the beauty, the lack of contrast and hope to see fog.

John Powers

 

[Andrew Moxom]

wet plates

 

[ntenny]

I really like the combination of overcast lighting, slide film, and an uncoated lens. There's something about the way colours are rendered under those circumstances that just does it for me. (The attachment is on Provia 100F, shot with a wartime Nettar folder.)

-NT

 

[lxdude]

What is your favorite thing to shoot outdoors when the sky is evenly gray so the light is very even???

I know some people love this type light. I want to know how to use it as best I can.

I like it for pictures of people. It flatters.

Its evenness makes it very nice for taking flower shots, though a tripod is sometimes necessary. The lack of deep shadows reveals a lot of detail, and strong colors, especially reds, will tend to pop from the surrounding foliage.

I find around midday is best. Too late in the day everything goes blue.

 

[MattKing]

Shots like this (a recent Monthly Shooting Assignment entry):

 

[Mike Wilde]

It may be great for outdoor shots, but getting the will to get going to go shooting on an all grey day for me is a challenge.

I have a hard time getting anything going on such days, let alone creative photography exposures.

Most days like this one, grey, grey, grey, I eat my sandwich at 11:45, and then crawl under my desk and sleep for 50 minutes over the lunch hour.

Then at least I have the energy to make the best use of my day.

I get household chores done after dinner, get the kids to bed around 8pm, and then leavie my wife to watch her Larry King etc on her own.

I get revved up to print the spring, summer, and fall's backlog of negatives to be interpreted and brought into prints down in the mancave - my darkroom.

With the nap at lunch I am good to print til midnight, and not feel too wiped out when the alarm clock goes off at 6:20 the next weekday morning.

 

[naeroscatu]

Shots like this (a recent Monthly Shooting Assignment entry):

People love to recycle, don't they

There is no doubt about the quality of light on such a day - great for portait (people, pets, flowers) or architecture photography. The problem is when? I go to work in the morning - it is dark, I come back in the afternoon - it is dark. I have to try night photography perhaps.

 

[Wayne]

Fuji chromes.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Its good for EVERYTHING, absolutely the most beautiful light for photography

 

[Steve Smith]

Earlier today I posted a picture I took as a test with my Speed Graphic after putting it back together. The mist that day was the thickest I have ever seen. It lasted all day and was still around the following morning.

I know it's not quite the same as the grey, overcast days you are referring to but I would like to try more experiments in mist.

I'm sure there are ways of predicting when the mornings will be misty but I don't know what they are.... yet!

Yes, I know I should have moved a bit to the left to separate out the distant tree from the foliage on the right!




Steve.

 

[2F/2F]

Solid gray days are great for taking pictures that you want to look like they were shot on solid gray days!

 

[Maris]

Landscapes with water foregrounds. Placed on zone VII water reflecting a grey sky can deliver beautiful mother-of -pearl modulations.

 

[Adrian Twiss]

When I was a wedding photographer I used to pray for sold gray days. It made things much easier. Harsh sun on a white wedding dress was a bugger to get right. Also there were no unflattering shadows on the face. My flash was not sophisticated enough to use for fill in. The worst was the "peeping" sun that used to dash out from behind a cloud at inconvenient moments.

 

[Ian Grant]

Grey days can be fun.

ian