How to deal with boring overcast skies?

mrbez

mrbez

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Hi Guys,

What do you do when you are shooting but the skies are overcast and dull, and in my case from the weekend, almost all of them look blown.

Saturday was such a poor day weather wise.

Can it be fixed in PP or should i be doing something else with the shot?

Or, just put up with it and move abroad? Ha.

Cheers.
 
Dull overcast skies are great for shooting people - just don't shoot landscapes in these conditions! No you can't fix it in PP - not really.
 
You can balance things a little using graduated neutral denity filters on your camera. However, if the sky is flat and boring, it is best coming back another day.
 
Another vote here for grad filter or go back and shoot another day...
 
If you're shooting people and using flash, then switching to a tungsten white balance and putting a cto gel on the flashgun will turn a grey sky blue, whilst leaving the subject their correct colour :thumbs:
 
OR.... have a little folder of 'sky images' that you can slip into different shots to perk them up.

it's not too difficult to swap the sky over in PP if you have a great foreground image and want to finish it off with a nice sky. obviously, depends on the reason for the shot and if you want to capture the sky as it was at that particular time or not. just another option.
 
Grad filter or underexpose a second shot and do a layer mask job to incorporate the darker sky.... but even then it's all dependant on having some detail in the sky.
 
+1 for going back another day or shooting something else. Part of the skill in great landscapes is being in the right place at the right time. Dull skies are definitely not the right time. Grads are fine when there's detail to be balanced but if its flat you're flogging a loser. Sounds like a great time to photograph people TBH.

Andy.
 
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I often suffer from the opposite here .... dark blue skies often with no cloud at all. Which sounds wonderful doesn't it .... but it aint always that interesting when it comes down to photography.

Having bought a set of ND filters I also need to build myself up a sky library
 
Have you tried bracketed exposures and HDR? Dull skies are great for this treatment.

One example of mine
120635066.jpg
 
I think the best bet is to simply "embrace" the less than perfect weather and "go moody".

I actually prefer moody bad weather shots than those ubiquitous "blue skies fluffy clouds" shots that you see on picture post cards.
 
tirc83 said:
Have you tried bracketed exposures and HDR? Dull skies are great for this treatment.

One example of mine
120635066.jpg
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call that sky boring overcast.. it's more like stormy/cloudy.

Boring overcast would be dull gray with no details at all :D

Best thing to do would be either try to avoid including sky in your shots...
 
existent said:
I wouldn't call that sky boring overcast.. it's more like stormy/cloudy.

Boring overcast would be dull gray with no details at all :D

Best thing to do would be either try to avoid including sky in your shots...
Click to expand...

If you tweak the levels you can make a boring overcast sky look surprisingly "stormy"
 
existent said:
I wouldn't call that sky boring overcast.. it's more like stormy/cloudy.

Boring overcast would be dull gray with no details at all :D

Best thing to do would be either try to avoid including sky in your shots...
Click to expand...

Yes that was my point - IT WAS a boring sky (to the eye) but the HDR transformed it into something different.
 
It's a good point, there's quite often a bit more detail in the sky than it looks to the naked eye. You don't need to HDR it (unless you've totally blown the sky in which case bracket) but you can e.g. pull a -2EV grad over the sky in Lightroom to reveal what is there. It's not a replacement for a "real sky" however. For example, when looking at tirc83's example it looks like the houses and rocks are lit by soft diffuse light (as they would be when overcast) when my brain is expecting more "texture" to the light from a stormy sky. The houses are also that bit brighter compared to the top of the image. I think tirc83's done a great job of getting "something from nothing" and all I'm saying is that changing the sky might mean the rest of the image doesn't look "quite right". As an example, those midday shots where the sky is turned red-orange in post still don't convince as sunset/sunrise shots.

In terms of overcast skies, I think it depends on what you shoot. Clearly it's not the ideal time to go for a "wow" landscape shot, but there are other shots that are perfectly gettable or indeed preferable when the sky is overcast. I often think that architecture shots can look better with a blue/white (if in B/W) background - clouds in the sky can add clutter that distracts. I find that many "olde worlde" shots tend to have a fairly blank sky, which may be something to make use of. Also consider that not all landscape shots need to include the sky. Shooting in woods/forests also tends to work better on overcast days, where bright sunshine can make the scene too contrasty.

I think it's important to think of the sky as just another compositional element - perhaps an area of solid white/blue works well with other elements in the image, where a stormy/busy sky becomes a distraction from your subject.
 
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picassa 3 has a grad filter but makes a dull sky just a different colour
oloneo photo engine will bring up a sky a bit...hdr stuff...but hardens the rest of the shot
i try to get them as much as possible out of the shot
or bin it
 
Mitzyboy said:
I often suffer from the opposite here .... dark blue skies often with no cloud at all. Which sounds wonderful doesn't it .... but it aint always that interesting when it comes down to photography.

Having bought a set of ND filters I also need to build myself up a sky library
Click to expand...

Having been to the Med a few times, I must agree with you here. It must be really boring with blue skies all the time.....

Certain subject matter, even landscapes, suits dull grey skies...... anything where the contrast you get between brightly lit and shadow areas might cause a problem. For example woodland and waterfalls, and if you want to emphasise the dullness of a certain landscape - use dull light.
 
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I have a folder of spare skies of varying qualities, sunny, cloudy, sunset, etc and have associated them to Photoshop actions. Works a treat!
 
ziggy©;3226616 said:
That is excellent. Do you mind posting the unprocessed original?
Click to expand...

No I don't mind - I'll just have to dig out the external hard drive it's on. Give me a day or two.
 
gnirtS said:
Sadly grey dull skies make up 85% of the year in the UK. Makes photos frustrating.
Click to expand...

As mentioned by Garry (Tirc83), Dull overcast skies rarely have no detail that can't be brought to life with some HDR style treatment.

First exposure has very little detail in the sky, Jpg straight from camera, as it was set to high contrast mono.

_DSC8812 by npurdie2003, on Flickr

from 3 bracketed exposures -2, 0 and +2EV layered and masked in PS

_DSC8812 by npurdie2003, on Flickr

Graduated ND filters could have helped... IF I had them with me :bang:
 
Using Canon DPP process one image as normal and then again with the Linear box ticked.
In photoshop elements layer the two images with the dark sky behind, and just delete the bright sky.

1D4_6150l.jpg
 
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