So it's cold and grey!

gramps

gramps

Messages
42,080
Name
'Gramps'
Edit My Images
No
So it's cold and grey and you really miss the light and the sky (not to mention the warmth!) - where do you go to get your fix of photography ... what do you concentrate on?
 
I walk along my local canal pretty much every other day regardless of weather (I rarely see people, but when I do I'm always the only one without a dog!), always interesting things to see/photograph plus I need to walk to get fit after a serious illness. Today was gloomy and drizzly but the robins were out and about on good form and I had a good random chat with a narrowboat owner about kingfishers, owls and foxes. Every single walk is different, even on the same stretch of canal.
 
Last edited:
I was down along by the canal in my old home town over the weekend too. Surprisingly the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds, but it's been grey and cold since.

Time to get the light stands out, do some home portraits, maybe some product-style shots, macro, that kind of thing. Just to keep shooting.
 
I've just come back from an 8 day trip, chasing the weather around the country. I went to Scotland, as far north as Duncansby head (John O' Groats) Skye, Glencoe, Northumberand and north Wales. The weather still wasn't that good and the forecasts were even more inaccurate than normal but I did manage to find some sun. I did almost 3,000 miles.

Sod's law...... The day I got back, there was a beautiful sunset right on my doorstep!
 
Cold and grey, I don't mind the cold, it comes with my job so the cold I can handle. The grey,,,, most of my pictures come from outside, mostly of birds, and on days like this my camera just sits doing nothing waiting for better light, and as for photography fix, hmmm none, I just browse the web looking at lenses that will do better job in the dim light. I keep looking at ef400 f2.8 and wonder, would it get me outside, would it handle this lack of brightness. The wondering continues :LOL:
 
footman said:
I seem to get quite low when it's like this. There's simply no light for the kind of photography I like to do.
Spent the morning watching birds in the garden, ho hum.
Click to expand...

It's worth investigating your local area in serious depth. I've had an enforced 3 months off work but still need to walk as much as I'm able, as a result I'm out every other day shooting stuff I would never had considered before, regardless of the weather. The best bit is, unlike most of my preferred subjects (motorsport and travel) it's free to wander around locally.
 
Keep checking the Met Office 5 day forcast for a hint of sun and hope they get it right!
This grey weather is getting boring now and no....we don't want rain to replace it either.
 
Get an off camera flash. Practice some still life indoors. Helps you stop getting in a rut.
 
Perfect weather for this sort of thing ...

IMG_8994BW.jpg
 
Cagey75 said:
What about it?
Click to expand...
(Photoshop)
While away the grey, in the warm, coffee to hand, sorting out all the pictures already taken; filing them into folders; indexing them; Maybe even tidying a few of them. Making back-ups.

Or even, JUST looking at them!

Plenty of stuff to do with your photos, other than just take more. And very good likelihood, that you DON'T look at the ones you have already taken enough.

Reason why I take pictures of pretty sunsets on the beach with my kids (or whatever else).... so when I'm stuck on a grey February day, about as far from the sea as its possible to get in this country, with the foul grey weather, surrounded by grey grumpy people, and in the durge that is the mundanity of every-day life..... I CAN look at that beautiful sky of a long ago day, and remember it fondly.

And... you look at your existing pictures.... you zoom in, pan about, you often find little details in them you missed. In any wide shot, there's often two or three detail shots that could be lifted out of them. There's ALWAYS those little flaws, imperfections, defects of critasisms to take from them, to challenge you to do better next time; but meanwhile, studying your existing pics, can reveal a few you never knew you even had....

Then of course there's all that scope to get experimental on them. Pics that aren't all that interesting, and doing stuff to them that may make them a tad more interesting; converting to B&W, to look at them in a different way. Perhaps making lith seperations, or dithers, possibly more complicated montages; creating new images, possibly with more interesting sky's than is outside at the moment, from what you already have; possibilities within a photo-editor are almost boundless, why not explore them? There's more to photoshop than spot healing & HDR merging!

And all without leaving the comfort of your armchair!

But? JUST looking at what you got, can be enough to fill the photo-fix.
 
Does explain why I have been prolific with my cartoon drawings lately. :D
 
Teflon-Mike said:
(Photoshop)
While away the grey, in the warm, coffee to hand, sorting out all the pictures already taken; filing them into folders; indexing them; Maybe even tidying a few of them. Making back-ups.

Or even, JUST looking at them!

Plenty of stuff to do with your photos, other than just take more. And very good likelihood, that you DON'T look at the ones you have already taken enough.

Reason why I take pictures of pretty sunsets on the beach with my kids (or whatever else).... so when I'm stuck on a grey February day, about as far from the sea as its possible to get in this country, with the foul grey weather, surrounded by grey grumpy people, and in the durge that is the mundanity of every-day life..... I CAN look at that beautiful sky of a long ago day, and remember it fondly.

And... you look at your existing pictures.... you zoom in, pan about, you often find little details in them you missed. In any wide shot, there's often two or three detail shots that could be lifted out of them. There's ALWAYS those little flaws, imperfections, defects of critasisms to take from them, to challenge you to do better next time; but meanwhile, studying your existing pics, can reveal a few you never knew you even had....

Then of course there's all that scope to get experimental on them. Pics that aren't all that interesting, and doing stuff to them that may make them a tad more interesting; converting to B&W, to look at them in a different way. Perhaps making lith seperations, or dithers, possibly more complicated montages; creating new images, possibly with more interesting sky's than is outside at the moment, from what you already have; possibilities within a photo-editor are almost boundless, why not explore them? There's more to photoshop than spot healing & HDR merging!

And all without leaving the comfort of your armchair!

But? JUST looking at what you got, can be enough to fill the photo-fix.
Click to expand...


Ah ok, I get ya ;)

I thought you meant something like - photoshop, to fix the weather - add in fluffy clouds or something :D

Yeah, sometimes looking through your old images can spark up some ideas, maybe you'll give those ones you thought too dull to process another go. I often do it. Sometimes I'll find some favourites in there that I hadn't really given a chance.
 
gramps said:
So it's cold and grey and you really miss the light and the sky (not to mention the warmth!) - where do you go to get your fix of photography ... what do you concentrate on?
Click to expand...

I'm doing a 365 and I tell you, it is HARD when the weather is like this. I'm not naturally inclined toward indoor stuff and still life or whatever but have had to do a few. I've actually yearned for days when it's not a total white/grey sky but as nasty overcast one so I can at least see some variations there.

It's all been about concentrating on a fraction of what I normally like...church doors instead of the church, for example. A flower instead of a field.

I feel like I have been in hibernation TOO long now!! :LOL:
 
10/10 for perseverance Sam (y)
 
Teflon-Mike said:
(Photoshop)
While away the grey, in the warm, coffee to hand, sorting out all the pictures already taken; filing them into folders; indexing them; Maybe even tidying a few of them. Making back-ups.

Or even, JUST looking at them!

Plenty of stuff to do with your photos, other than just take more. And very good likelihood, that you DON'T look at the ones you have already taken enough.

Reason why I take pictures of pretty sunsets on the beach with my kids (or whatever else).... so when I'm stuck on a grey February day, about as far from the sea as its possible to get in this country, with the foul grey weather, surrounded by grey grumpy people, and in the durge that is the mundanity of every-day life..... I CAN look at that beautiful sky of a long ago day, and remember it fondly.

And... you look at your existing pictures.... you zoom in, pan about, you often find little details in them you missed. In any wide shot, there's often two or three detail shots that could be lifted out of them. There's ALWAYS those little flaws, imperfections, defects of critasisms to take from them, to challenge you to do better next time; but meanwhile, studying your existing pics, can reveal a few you never knew you even had....

Then of course there's all that scope to get experimental on them. Pics that aren't all that interesting, and doing stuff to them that may make them a tad more interesting; converting to B&W, to look at them in a different way. Perhaps making lith seperations, or dithers, possibly more complicated montages; creating new images, possibly with more interesting sky's than is outside at the moment, from what you already have; possibilities within a photo-editor are almost boundless, why not explore them? There's more to photoshop than spot healing & HDR merging!

And all without leaving the comfort of your armchair!

But? JUST looking at what you got, can be enough to fill the photo-fix.
Click to expand...

....nicely put!
JohnyT
 
Most of my photography seems to be product type shots these days so the weather is incidental. Mind you my studio is cold enough to freeze the whatsnames from a polar bear!
 
gramps said:
So it's cold and grey and you really miss the light and the sky (not to mention the warmth!) - where do you go to get your fix of photography ... what do you concentrate on?
Click to expand...

I don't get much chance to have a day out with my camera and since the new year the three times when I have managed to get out there's been a white or grey sky and completely flat and dull light.

It was a nice day yesterday when I couldn't take my camera out and today it's been a return to no sky naff light. I'll be out with my camera tomorrow but I just don't need any more no sky completely flat shots :( so if it is like that the camera might stay in its bag.
 
Last edited:
woof woof said:
I'll be out with my camera tomorrow but I just don't need any more no sky completely flat shots :( so if it is like that the camera might stay in its bag.
Click to expand...

Make sure you give it a go :)
I was out for a bit today and it was grey but just did some mono conversions and some shots avoiding sky.
 
I'm going to try...

This is what I was reduced to yesterday...

I decided to compare the bokeh of my 28, 57 and 135mm lenses at f5.6 on my G1 by shooting the banister at the top of the stairs with some artificial flowers on the window sill behind.

First I took three shots with roughly the same framing and then I cropped them so that the background was the same size.

1-28_zpsb85c9387.jpg


1-57_zpse91dd86a.jpg


1-135_zps4327e837.jpg


Then I took three shots from the same position and cropped them so that the foreground was roughly the same size.

2-28_zps3e2d6d11.jpg


2-57_zps22623de0.jpg


2-135_zpsf3a57663.jpg


:help:

I don't mind if it's a nice day tomorrow or a horrible day just as long as it isn't a uniform grey/white sky and dull flat light.
 
Last edited:
Time to process that heap of shots I'm always going to get around to doing
Nahh I'll do them later
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top