Where's the Sun gone? We've been having some unseasonal weather in England this summer. Luckily we haven't had the floods in Somerset that people in some other parts of the country have had to cope with. But the weather has not been great for photography. There is one particular field of barley that I want to snap that I have not been abel to get under the right weather conditions at the right time of day. It's very frustrating.

What I have found is that there are some places that actually benefit from the lack of sun. The contrast in woodland is greatly reduced in overcast conditions. This makes judging the exposure far easier and I get far high percentage of usable pictures when the sun is in.

I was photographing some flowers in a meadow the other day. The sun was in and out. The sort of conditions when you can often make a good landscape photos. I have to say that the images I got when the sun was in were far better to those when the sun was shining on my composition. Very interesting.

In the days of film, overcast conditions would drain the saturation from photos. With digital equipment this is no longer a problem because saturation can easilty be increased on the computer.

There is another type of picture that it is easier to take when the sun is in and there has been lots of rain. I'm talking about the classic shot of flowing water with a slow shutter speed. The water is flowing faster so you can use a faster shutter speed than normal. The lack of light means that it is easier to get the correct exposure with a slow shutter speed. Even so, a tripod is more or less essential for this type of shot.

 
Copyright © Greg Wright 2005-8 Photography from Frome - All rights reserved
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