Go Neutral for Gray Days

No Filter, Wolcott, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

If you have ever headed out photographing at midday on a cloudy day, you have noticed that the light is even and great for shooting. Shadows and harsh contrast are reduced if not completely eliminated. And If you have ever taken a landscape image during this time of day, which included the sky, you have noticed that it became completely washed out. You may have also noticed that there is no exposure that will allow you to bring back detail in the sky while maintaining the light on your foreground subject.

There is a very simple way to compensate for this, while achieving an even exposure that includes both your foreground subject and your background overcast sky; use the graduated neutral density filter that you would normally use during sunrise and sunset images. It will effectively darken the sky and allow those foregrounds to be properly exposed. I tend to choose a 3-stop or darker filter, depending on whether I want the sky to look like a foreboding stormy or a simple overcast gray sky.

With Filter, Wolcott, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

To use it, I handhold the filter in front of my lens while pressing my depth-of-field preview button. This allows me to better see the gradation line present on the filter. You should note that your f-stop should be f16-f22, otherwise you will not see the gradation. Once I have it positioned where I want, I press the shutter release. It’s that simple. And this is the result.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 11:02 am. It is filed under photography tips and tagged with cloudy day, landscape photography, nature photography tip, technique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.