Photography on a Shoe String Budget
Cloudy Days
We all like bright, sunny days. But it sometimes seems that every event you've been looking forward to ends up happening on a cloudy day. Clouds don't need to mark the end of a photo excursion, though. They even offer some advantages.
When it's cloudy, all of the bright sunlight is still around--it's just that the clouds are scattering or absorbing it. This makes them very bright. So on a cloudy day, the sky will be much brighter than a train, or any other subject, that's standing out there in the open.
(Dallas Engine 20, April 2001)
This scattering makes for nice, diffuse light--but it doesn't reflect from the ground the way sunlight does. So if your composition includes a lot of sky, you end up with dark objects on the ground. If you don't allow for this, trains and the like will be too dark when the pictures are processed or viewed. There are three ways to deal with this:
(1) you may have a camera with a metering system that's up to it--an evaluative system, such as Nikon's Matrix metering. You may also have a spot meter, which will read only the center of the photo. If you do have either one of these, you'll probably need to use your automatic exposure setting, because the meter won't react properly without the subject in the frame.
(2) if you have manual controls, meter something else on ground level, excluding the sky, and use that reading. Grass, trees, and grey asphalt are good choices.
(3) set an exposure override. Some cameras have a knob or buttons that you can set to "0", "+1", "+2", as well as the same negative settings, and possibly some intermediate points. You'll need to experiment (as you will with any of these, because all meters are different), but +1-1/2 is a good starting point. Most point and shoot and digital cameras have a button that you can set to increase the exposure. It may be called "backlight control" or something like that, and you don't usually have any control over the amount of change it causes, but it's usually +1-1/2.
(Conrail 2360, South Bend IN)
Far less common, but a lot easier to deal with, is when you can get above the subject (so the sky is not in the photo), or when the subject is entirely shaded or surrounded by something that blocks the sky. In this case, the clouds above you act as a diffuser, so the light is evenly scattered on the subject and ground. Here, your meter will usually work just fine without compensation. This can turn what would be a difficult situation on a sunny day, because of shadows, into an opportunity. If it's raining (or someone has just washed the truck), you can even capture some reflections.
(Dallas Truck 39, February 2001)
If you are photographing on a cloudy day, be alert for breaks in the sky. It's the kind of thing that you can never plan on, of course. But a bit of sunlight shining through in one spot can give you the best of both worlds: diffused light without hot spots or point reflections, a bit of sunlight to add shadow and depth--all while you can still get the clouds, maybe even with some of their color to add some drama to the picture. Keep in mind that the sky will be even brighter. A good (and time-honored) technique is such situations is "bracketing"--take several shots, varying the exposure on each one. For slide film, bracket in half stops; for print film, go whole stops and be sure to include one at 2 or 3 stops extra.
(Dallas Truck 37, October 2001)
