Taking photos in rainy or cloudy weather may not seem enjoyable at first. Grey skies can make it challenging to capture dynamic or colorful photos. However, you can improve your rainy-day photography skills or learn techniques to capture better pictures on overcast or grey days.
My layover was only a few hours in Chicago, so I decided to plan a great urban adventure that included exploring the city and taking a river cruise. Arriving early in the morning on a cold, cloudy and rainy day dampened my excitement and plans to enjoy the day outdoors. But I decided to take it as a creative challenge and get even more creative despite unfavourable conditions. What should you do if the weather is not cooperating and making it unpleasant? Try these 8 photography tips on grey skies or rainy weather. Hopefully you will improve your creativity and skills when the weather is bad.
Why take pictures of a grey sky or on a wet day?
Even though rain and drizzly days can be unpleasant, they are even more so when your time is restricted and you have to visit a location or attend an event outdoors. You can find golden moments that work for gray days, and better lighting conditions to be taken advantage of. You can enjoy rainy and dreary days in photography by using some of the ideas listed below.
Rainy Day Photography Ideas or How to Take Cloudy Day Pictures
1)Remove those dull skies. There’s no worse skyline than one with a flat, boring sky. The best way to fix this problem is by cropping out the skies. You can crop sharply to focus on important details.
2) Detail, detail– Finding interesting architectural features, quirky and fun signs, landmarks, or other unusual items that you see as you walk down the streets is the key to urban photography.
3)Take those iconic photos but amplify the presentation. You’ve probably seen a lot of photos of the Bean on Chicago’s waterfront, and the ones with the city skyline are the most common. It’s a fun idea, but it’s also boring. Why not explore the area around or underneath it to see what else you can photograph? You’ll discover some fascinating photo opportunities by taking time and watching what people do in front of famous images.
4)You can focus on the indoor shots and forget about the outdoors, but why not challenge yourself to see what you can do with the rain? Try experimenting with shutter speeds and f-stops to create rainy effects, or zoomed in details on hazy background and subject matter.
5)Capture the reflections. Rainy days can be fun because of reflections! Rainy days are a great time to focus on reflections and other effects. Play with your creative controls or use the automatic settings to make your camera work. 7) Boost your ISO setting. There’s nothing worse than taking a picture and not being able to get it sharp. You can try a low ISO setting like 400 to see if you get a sharp photo.
6) Try different settings for your white balance. You can experiment to find the best settings for you.
7)Search for color saturation in the subject matter. Gray skies work well for some types of photography, such as flowers and landscapes. They also bring out the details in colors and more saturation. While walking, look for details in color and patterns. Find someone in a vibrant color wearing it against a grey background or with an interesting texture. This will help your subject pop out and bring the picture to life.
8)Try out. Grey days and dull skies produce very boring images. Try a new way to look and interpret by experimenting with different camera techniques or, better still, go for the art interpretation. When the sky is grey, why not think outside the box? You can really boost your creativity in this situation.