Here’s the second entry in my Starting Out series- a series of tutorials designed to give tips and tricks to those just figuring this whole camera thing out.  Some of it is pretty technical, but I try to make it as simple and user friendly as possible.  If you ever have any questions, please leave them in the comments, so that everyone can benefit from the answers.  And if you are more knowledgeable than myself (highly, highly likely), please feel free to leave extra tips in the comment section.

They say that a cloudy day is your best friend when taking photos outdoors.  It essentially means that you don’t have to worry about direct sunlight.  You can go anywhere, find the prettiest background, and go to town.  NOT SO.  I’m here to set the record straight.  Shooting on a cloudy day can be VERY tricky- as I learned on Saturday.

And here’s why.

1.  Although the light LOOKS even, it really isn’t.  Underneath those clouds, the sun is coming at you from an angle.  And if you shoot from the wrong angle, you’re going to get dark shadows on the face, just like you would do if you shot from the wrong angle in shade.  Unless you’re doing something artsy and creative, you’re going to want the faces of your subjects properly exposed.

2.  Your light meter might be TOTALLY wonky.  ”I’ll just switch to the A-setting” I thought.  ”Then I won’t have to worry about working out my shutter speed with all these moving people.”  BAD IDEA.  I took ten photos in rapid succession, all were too too too dark.  The camera could somehow sense that light was floating around, but didn’t understand it wasn’t radiating off the face.  Even though I use spot metering.

So- just to show you what I mean, I’ll give you some straight out of the camera (SOOC) shots.  Then I’ll show you why Photoshop can be your best friend.  And then I’ll give you some advice for a way to prevent such a situation (trust me, I’ll be taking my own advice on the next cloudy day shoot!).

Here’s a side by side of Emily and Raymond, SOOC.  The first one was of them facing North, the second of them facing South.

Do you see the huge, gaping difference?  In the first photo, their faces are SO DARK.  Shadows everywhere.  The light meter was telling me I was a-ok.  In fact, it told me I was overexposing (that the photo would be too light).  NOT SO!  Luckily, I quickly realized this and had the kids walk at me from the other direction, towards where I knew the sun was behind the thick layer of clouds that surrounded us.

In that case, it didn’t really matter, because the landscape was the same no matter which direction I shot from- it was all forest.

But what about the sea?  Unfortunately, around here, the sea surrounds us on the South side, meaning people have to face North if they want the sea in the background, meaning the sun is hitting them from behind, EVEN IF IT’S CLOUDY.

And if you set your camera so the face is exposed perfectly, chances are you’re going to blow out the scenery in the background- that gorgeous blue sea will just be a whole lot of white blank space.

Like this photo of Raymond being silly SOOC.

If I had set the camera so that his face was any lighter, then the background would also be lighter.  And you wouldn’t be able to tell that the sea was behind him at all.

So, I had to sacrifice a perfectly exposed face for a somewhat-exposed background.

And then Photoshop came to my rescue.

The first thing I did is what I do with all my photos- enhance the contrast.  I do this with PW’s Boost (Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop actions are FREE, by the way, and come for both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements ).

Nice definition, yes, but it’s made poor Raymond’s face even darker.  You’ve got one of three options here.  You can either

a.  Use PW Slight Lighten until the face is properly exposed.

The problem here is that you then have lightened the WHOLE THING, including the sea behind him.  And you want that sea to have some definition, you don’t want it to be too dark.  What you do next, then, is take your paint bucket tool, select black, select the layer mask and then dump your black paint all over it.  This essentially turns your Photoshop Action OFF, so your photo will be all dark and gloomy again.

And THEN you take your paint brush tool, select white, select your layer mask, and paint over the parts that you wanted lightened.  This will turn the action back ON, but only where you want it on (like over Raymond’s face and perhaps over his clothes).

OR b.  run Kubota’s backlight compensation 1x- It lightens the dark bits without touching the light bits.

The problem with this action is that it can seriously wash colors out (Raymond looks a bit pale there there), so play with the opacity and the order of the layers a bit.

Your third option is c.  create your own backlight compensation Photoshop action.  Use this tutorial to sort it out.

I opted for option 2- I love Kubota’s actions with all my heart (although they are decidedly NOT FREE).  And then I played around a bit more with Photoshop actions until I got what I wanted.  And I cropped it a bit, too.

Here’s the before and after, side by side.

Now, what should one do on cloudy days to avoid this mess in the first place?

First, figure out where your light source would be coming from if the sky were clear.  In the Northern Hemisphere, your light would be coming from the South, so that’s a good place to start- start by facing South.  If it’s the afternoon, the sun’s going to be coming at you from the West, so face West.  This will eliminate a lot of the shadow that overcomes the subject’s face.

If your background is South and you are just going to have to suck it up and face North, then compromise between exposing for the face and exposing for the background.  When you get home, Photoshop it using one of those three methods (or another method!  Share in the comments!)

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  You know where to find me…

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Tags: Espoo, Finland, photography tips, professional photographer