Learn to read the weather and understand how this
will affect your images.
High Pressure - With a high pressure forecast there
is a good chance of calm settled weather
conditions, look for locations with water
content for mirror like reflections.
Low Pressure - With a low pressure you can expect cloud
and rain, ideal for ND filters to capture
long exposures showing the movement
of the clouds.
Apps like meteo earth, YR and skippy-sky are a godsend, it will
show you cloud cover, wind speed and direction, precipitation
and temperature.
Your local forecast may say cloudy but open up meteo earth
and check the cloud cover for an hour before and after sunrise
and sunset, you may just get a break in the cloud cover that
will lend itself to colorful dramatic lighting conditions.
Bright Sunlight conditions
What can I do on a bright sunny day, set a low iso, a lens
hoodto reduce flare by shading the front of the lens. A
circular polarizing filter can and will increase contrast in
your scene. Neutral density filters come in various grades,
some will block out a lot of light allowing for slower shutter
speeds and better colour, however ND filters will not help
with flare as good as a circular polarizer and can be prone
to flare from bright areas of your scene like waves, rivers,
shiny stones or rocks leaving glare streaks and spots on
your photograph.
Rain, fog and mist
In bad weather conditions such as rain, fog, mist and poor
light conditions you can capture some of the most interesting
photographs. Rain creates shiny surfaces on most subjects,
in cities rain causes streets to shine and buildings look
gloomy. In the country side, plants, grasses and leaves
will shine and droplets of water will hang from branches
and leaves. The clouds that accompany rain will provide
diffuse light, causing shadows to soften.
Rainbows
Two elements are required for rainbows, falling or spraying
water and bright sunlight. They are most common when a
storm is approaching or receding, around waterfalls and
fountains. Best to photograph them in front of a darker
uncluttered background.
Snow
Snow will change a landscape into a winter wonderland.
The white of the snow tends to add a good contrast to
the normal colors in your scene. The camera’s light
meter tends to see snow as very bright leading to an
underexposed image, dirty looking with dark backgrounds
and objects almost as dark as a silhouette. You will need
to overexpose your photograph by +1 or +2 to compensate.
Shadows tend to have a blue hue, you can set your camera
to a warmer white balance or use a very light red colour
correction (1.5R) filter to warm the scene.
Understanding Clouds
By understanding clouds we can predict lighting conditions
in a scene.
Categorize clouds in their different levels, High, Middle and
Low.
Check out the Norwegian weather web site www.yr.no and
select detailed on the side bar to view different percentages
for the 3 cloud levels.
As a general rule look for the absence of low clouds 15% or
lower and a reasonably high percentage of medium and high
level cloud cover at sunrise and sunset.
For a dramatic Orange sky - Low clouds at 34%, Mid clouds
at 86% and High clouds at 100%.
For a beautiful Pink and Orange and Grey sky Low clouds 0%,
Mid clouds 100% and High clouds 100%.
For a Pink/Purple streaky sky - Low clouds at 6%, Mid clouds
at 0% and High clouds at 82%.
For a calm Blue/Grey colour sky - Low clouds at 100%, Mid
clouds at 88% and High clouds at 99%.
The best light can be just as a rain shower has passed.