Gray, overcast weather

I'm posting in the PP forum but there's obviously also a link with the actual picture-taking, so feel free to post any tips you know.

I'm in Venice right now and having crap luck with the weather. Looks like I won't see the un for the entire trip. Yesterday, all day long, the sky was a dull, completely even, just a tad too bright overcast goo. Clouds wouldn't be such a problem. Is there anything I can do in post to make the pictures less bland an flat and taking attention away from the grey slab that is the sky? Any other tips about landscape and architecture photography in poor weather are appreciated. Should I just forget about including the sky in the picture and focus on details?

Hmm, I'm usually jumping for joy when the sky is flat and gray, it means no shadows (or very diffuse ones, at least) or heavy contrast anywhere. To each his own I guess.

Kolor-Pikker wrote in post #13872462
Hmm, I'm usually jumping for joy when the sky is flat and gray, it means no shadows (or very diffuse ones, at least) or heavy contrast anywhere. To each his own I guess.

Me, too. But sometimes at dawn or dusk you can catch a few minutes of sunlight, which isn't a bad time to shoot, either.
And since you asked this question in "RAW & PP", you could always add a sky if you felt that you really needed it?

This is a fine time to think about HDR, although you have to watch it with featureless skies because they can get artificially spooky looking fast. Alternately, just take a darker copy of the same shot and manually blend the sky in later.

IMO,at times, a contrasty sunny day with blue skies is a far better option than an overcast gray day. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work as we wish For gray days, I would suggest leaving as much of the sky out of the photo as possible....although you can "replace" the sky in PP, it will not usually look natural to have a clear blue sky coupled with a flat, low contrast light. From there, you can boost the saturation and contrast to add some "pop" or go the complete opposite way and convert to a black and white.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #13873276
Me, too. But sometimes at dawn or dusk you can catch a few minutes of sunlight, which isn't a bad tome to shoot, either.

Which is why Russia just before & after winter is such a great place to be, nice flat lighting during the day, and mornings/evenings with golden hours that literally last over an hour, sometimes two.

IMO, a contrasty, sunny day with blue skies is a far better option than an overcast gray day. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work as we wish For gray days, I would suggest leaving as much of the sky out of the photo as possible....

Pretty much. I didn't say flat lighting was good for landscape photography, but for everything else where you generally don't see the sky, it's like having a softbox the size of a country.

Kolor-Pikker wrote in post #13877245
Pretty much. I didn't say flat lighting was good for landscape photography, but for everything else where you generally don't see the sky, it's like having a softbox the size of a country.

I made a mistake on my original statement, I meant to say "At times, a contrasty, sunny day with blue skies is a far better option than an overcast gray day". I didn't mean to imply that it was always better. I edited my original reply to reflect what I meant to say

jra wrote in post #13879009
I made a mistake on my original statement, I meant to say "At times, a contrasty, sunny day with blue skies is a far better option than an overcast gray day". I didn't mean to imply that it was always better. I edited my original reply to reflect what I meant to say

I agree -- if you have just a flat overcast, even HDR won't save it!

If the sky is going to play a meaningful role in a shot, well, it either needs some kind of feature, rich blue color or clouds with detail, which can be "brought out"/enhanced with processing, or it might as well just be a grayscale "blanket"!

In fact, you do see a lot of photos where the photog has resorted to a grayscale conversion. I personally am not big on doing such conversions, but to me that means that with such skies I'll tend to take photos where the sky plays a minimal role if any at all!

I hope you work it out for your Venice shots! Maybe you will get a "sun break" once in a while!

Well, guess I lucked out - the weather ended up turning around and being pretty decent, in spite of the forecasts I saw. I hadn't thought about going B&W but that's something I'll keep in mind, thanks for the tip.

The problem is that while clear blue skies aren't really that interesting either, at least you get more contrast and poppy colors from the sun than with a bland, flat, gray day. Overcast skies are great for portraits or detail shots but I just can't seem to use them for landscape/city photos. I know you could try to convey the dreariness but eh, it just doesn't work for me, not past the first couple pictures.

With overcast skies, I tend to drag Lightroom's Adjustment Brush with Clarity set to 100% over the sky only. This brings out cloud edges more and can look dramatic if you apply it more than once. In Ps (I have Elements 10), I'd be doing a sharpen with a small amount and a large radius to have a similar effect.

Here's one where I used Lightroom to get the effect.

armis wrote in post #13872305
...Should I just forget about including the sky in the picture and focus on details?

Got it in one