Exercise: Cloudy Weather and Rain

For the first part of this exercise, I had to take a few sets of photographs, with one photograph in clear weather, and one in overcast

1/125 f14

A tall mirrored building on a busy street. The photograph above in clear weather, and the one below in overcast. In the top photograph, the colours seem a lot brighter, the sky a lot whiter and the sky is reflected a lot better in the side of the building. It almost looks as if the the building is see through. The photograph below is a lot bolder and darker. The bidding looks a lot stronger due to the lack of blue sky and cloud shape you can see reflected in it.

1/640 f6.3

1/125 f11

 A white building against a white cloud filled background. The top image is in clear weather and the one below in overcast. The green of the tree above above is a lot brighter and more lively than in the photograph below. Below both the building and the sky look grey. Very dull. Above, they both look white, in particular the building . The sunlight is reflected slightly off some of the windows in the photograph above making them appear different colours slightly. In the photograph below they all look rather flat and almost the same colour no reflections are really present here.

1/640 f6.3

1/320 f5.6
Taken from a bridge in the city centre, looking over the river towards the town. This photograph is very bright in colour,  and the sunlight is reflected off the still parts of the river. I revisited this scene on an overcast day, the sky is very grey, the colours are a lot darker and duller in comparison and don't seem to pop as much, or at all really. A lot of the shadows are different within the pictures too. the second image looking a lot flatter than the first.

1/160 f6.3

1/100 f10

Here i took a picture of my mother hanging out washing. The top picture in full sunlight, and the bottom in overcast weather. The bottom picture seem quite white, because of the light whilst the top picture has a golden glow cast by the strong sunlight. There are more shadows in the top photograph, making my mother look more defined and the washing more 3 dimensional.

1/200 f14

In full sunlight, a lower shutter speed is more commonly used around 1/100 - 1/25 where this is a lot higher in the overcast photographs. Apart from the last overcast photograph I have unintentionally used f6.3 for all the overcast photographs. The f stop slightly lower for bright photographs.


For the second part of this exercise, i had to take three photographs in overcast weather. Making use of the shadowless light and enveloping.

A photograph of a damp tree stump during overcast weather. Due to the lack of sunshine, there is no shine or shadows on the surface of the stump. The lack of shadow makes the subject look extremely flat and the lack of light/shine means no detail is lost on the flat surface.

A field filled with yellow. The overcast condition makes the yellow quite flat in colour and shadows from the slight hills are not visible. Only the gaps in the plants.

The only nine on the sea here is from the odd cap in the clouds, although not very great at all. A very still , grey scene. The sky and the sea both shades of grey broken up by the small strip of blue sky in the distance in the centre of the image. The dull building the only thing reflected in the sea, creating quite a strong shape.

No glistening sand or sea, due to the very overcast weather. A very grey, mono tonal picture created by the dull overcast weather.

A town and lake captured from above, there is no shine or reflection in the water, and no shadows or real depth created by the roofs due to the lack of sunshine. The colours of the houses however, are quite bold albeit dark. The scene if captured in the sunshine would have a fair bit of depth, however the overcast weather makes it appear quite flat.

For the final part of this exercise, i had to take a few pictures in the rain, I felt a little uneasy about this task in the beginning, my hatred of cold wet weather and the idea of standing out in it was not appealing and i was also worried about water getting in my camera or constant rain drops on my lens effecting my photographs in a negative way. However a terrible storm hit and i thought its now or never! i bit the bullet, and here is my outcome.

Here i took a photograph of the splashes created by the rain hitting the ground from behind a glass door. the blurred lines in the foreground are from the rain drops on the actual door. Some may think they obstruct/ ruin the photograph, however i think it adds a sense of busyness, and gives the photograph a different energy which i quite like. I added a black and white effect to this photograph , quite stereotypical of this kind of weather, it also made the splashes a lot more predominant and visible which i like, i wanted them to stand out.

Rain drops running down a window.
I added a black and white filter to add to the sense of emotion rain often creates. Loneliness, sadness, etc

Rain frantically hitting the ground

Here i took a photograph of rain drops hanging off the bottom of a window, i cropped the photo slightly to really focus on the drops.
I love this photograph, i love how the white little sits at the bottom of each droplet.