Any tips for photographing kites on a cloudy day?

-halli-

-halli-

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I'm planning on going to the kite festival at Whitley Bay tomorrow, but the weather forecast says it is going to be cloudy.

Does anyone have any tips for getting good shots of the kites without blown out skies? Which metering mode and preferred apertures etc? (I have the firmware hack that allows incremental ISOs and spot metering on my 400D)

Would an external flash make any difference?

I'll be using my Canon 400D and a range of lenses, including MF primes.

Cheers :thumbs:
 
First of all I wouldn't bother with flash. A flash won't travel far enough in daylight for it to make a difference.

If you meter for the sky then hopefully there will be enough ambient light around to light up the underside of the kits to stop them being silhouettes.
 
Would have thought cloudy should help as there wont be as high a contrast. Surprised at the suggestion to meter for the sky though. Perhaps start with that but then increase the exposure and 'chimp' until the images look ok.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. What aperture/ISO would you recommend as a starting point? My sensor shows the dust bunnies after about f11 (tried to clean with a sensor pen but they are stubborn and will need a wet clean at some point)
 
DorsetDude said:
Surprised at the suggestion to meter for the sky though.
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What would you ahve suggested? I'd assume that if you're taking photos of kites then the sky will take up a large percentage of the image so if you don't want the sky to be blown then you need to meter for the sky.

As for whether that will give a decent image of the kites depends on the kind of kites and the direction of the light that's available.

Also, if the OP is using a 400mm lens and zooming right in on a single kit to fill the frame then my advice would be different but I don't know enough about what the OP is doing to advise precisely.
 
-Rob- said:
Also, if the OP is using a 400mm lens and zooming right in on a single kit to fill the frame then my advice would be different but I don't know enough about what the OP is doing to advise precisely.
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I've got a 300mm lens and might be trying a 200mm prime with a 2x converter too.

I'll try my ND8 too.

Would a polariser help?
 
-halli- said:
Would a polariser help?
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Not much on a cloudy sky the ND8 will certainly do a better job of balancing the exposure latitude between the kites and the sky but your ND8 will drop you 3 stops so watch your shutter speeds.
 
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