OVERCAST SKIES
LIGHTING - overcast skies
The images (a & b) are almost monochromatic, apart from the small bit of blue sky and stonework. They portray rather cold, moody atmospheres. If this is what you feel when you see a scene you wish to shoot, then bring it out, make it dramatic, or brooding. Try and dig inside you to locate what you feel, then honour the moment by bringing this out. As a photographer, you are a visual story teller to show others what you feel, no matter what is inside you. Although these two images are what the camera recorded, post production is very effective in helping to bring out the feeling you have. You can add contrast or darken the image, desaturate it or burn in clouds. If the point of the image is to portray a moody atmosphere and it is what you feel, then that is what you create. But you must edit your imagery quickly as like a dream, it is easy to forget what you felt at the time. I try and write down on my phone what I felt at the time.
But try and steer clear of flat grey or white skies, unless there is some drama in the sky. Often a mono treatment can rescue an otherwise dull scene. In the mono shot in Iceland (c), we are left with just tonality, in which case subtle humour seems to have more impact.
All photography and text © Jon Davison 2022.