"Good Light" - Shooting On a Cloudy Day

If you live here in Oregon with me then you know... you know that weather is NOT always your friend but just because you see some clouds outside does NOT mean you should put your camera away until brighter skies return. Oh no, no honey, get that camera clicking and thank your creator for making a perfect diffuser! Clouds are awesome for photography. They allow the natural sunlight to illuminate but not burn the frame. It's a beautiful thing and I love shooting on most cloudy days. Now if you live in Oregon with me you also know that sometimes clouds can be so heavy and dark that the sunlight doesn't translate through the clouds and that can be annoying! So here are some things to help you all shoot better on a cloudy day!

First, don't ignore your natural reflectors. Since the sky is usually white or light gray (can you say gray card gray :) on a cloudy day then it's totally on our side! White surfaces are the perfect reflectors. If you were to lay down on a cloudy day and look straight up at the sky you would notice something that I call "sparkle". It's when you look at something and you can literally FEEL your eyes light up. I know, when I feel the "sparkle" that my subjects eyes are going to be wonderfully illuminated if they face whatever I'm facing. So, lets be practical, while some laying down shots are pretty we can't just do a whole shoot with our subject supine so we have to look for other places that will reflect the sky. Brick walls, metal, water, concrete all of these things will bounce that gorgeous light onto the subject. Sometimes if I'm having a hard time figuring out where my light is reflecting then I'll just take a minute and start spinning :) Yep, I do it on shoots.... in front of people... who think I know what I'm doing... then they realize I'm crazy and start laughing and I snap snap snap :) But seriously if I can spin around and find where my eyes sparkle then I can start there and be assured that the light is good. Here is an amazing pintrest article on finding good light that will blow this one out of the water be eh, I try :)

Second, if its one of those really dreary days when the light is so diffused that shadows are happening and nothing looks well lit then don't be afraid to use a photography reflector... or a piece of foam board! Or something covered in foil! You can get as hillbilly as you want. In fact I used to use an old piece of a cereal box wrapped in foil for my newborn shoots... then the client laughs and viole! I look crazy but they look happy :) Anywho, back to the reflector:

 
This is a reflector. It's pretty much a big shiny silver disc that folds up like a pop tent. It is used to, wait for it, REFLECT! These things are amazing. They are inexpensive and work magic... not evil voodoo magic but amazing fairy God mother magic. Be warned they can be hot and can do something my sis in law Jamie and I call "ritzing" which is where the subjects face starts to un-naturally glow like you've got a pin light shining on them or something. If that starts to happy just tilt the reflector down a smidge until the direct reflection of light is not shining right at your subject but slightly below or to the side or above. That will take the edge off.


So those are a couple of my cloudy day shooting tips that might help you out when you're facing a challenging dark and dreary day... which sadly happens WAY more than those beautiful sunny sunsets around my neck of the woods ;)

I've been working on this post for the past 6 months!!!! Things just aren't settling quite as I expected them too after having my Willow so while I hope to be able to post more around here I'm not sure it will happen. I'm totally not going to close this here blog down and really encourage anyone who needs help to post but I've just run out of hours in many of my days. So post here or email me your questions and I'll try to help as best I can!