Bright sunlight can be a gift to the photographer, creating deep shadows and contrast that accentuate shapes and forms and give your images a vivid intensity. But the flat, gray light of an overcast day has its own special atmosphere and mood that may be better suited to more contemplative scenes.
There is nothing better than the sun shining in the clear blue sky to make you want to grab your camera and go outside to take pictures. Conversely, nothing reinforces the desire to stay indoors and snuggle up on a cozy couch like the bleak, wind-swept humidity of a gray, cloudy day. There’s a natural tendency to regard such weather as doubly unpleasant for outdoor photography, as it is, offering the potential agony of being cold and wet for the reward of struggling to create compelling images in a flat, unforgiving light. Which spoils the texture. Out of every scene.
But this perspective may underline a failure of imagination – an unwillingness to step outside a creative comfort zone that can deprive the photographer of some wonderful photographic opportunities. That’s the topic of the thoughtful, personal perspective presented in this new video photographic eye,
This video really resonated with me, because I realize so much joy and creative opportunity in my photography in the flat, gray light of the kind of cloudy days it describes. There’s a kind of cool, subtle and restrained stillness to this lighting that can really complement certain subjects, the dilapidated and abandoned farm buildings shown in the video are a perfect example of this.
This video serves as a very gentle exhortation to reconsider the often overlooked charm of subtle light that a cloudy day can bring to your photography. This demonstrates well how the willingness to reshape your photographic perspective can provide new creative opportunities that you may have previously missed.
