The light right now is beautiful!
Maybe not. But that doesn't mean that it's a bad time for photography. Right now, you could
actually take some really good pictures, even under this pretty dreary, midday, overcast light.
Now, of course, this video is going to show you how to take good pictures in bad light.
But the key, really, is that there's no such thing. Bad light doesn't exist. The only thing
that exists is light that doesn't match the subject that you're photographing. In other
words, you could take really good pictures on a cloudy day, if it works well for your subject.
You might be taking pictures of a waterfall. Slot canyon.
Birds. Pretty much the whole genre of macro photography.
There's actually a ton of subjects where light like this is actually exactly what you'd want.
But let's say that you're not photographing one of those subjects. If you're taking pictures
at a really beautiful landscape, and you'd love to have this crazy, dramatic sunset light overhead,
what can you do if you've got a really dull sky instead? Well, there's actually still
two things that could really help you take a good photo. The first one is to just go
crazy. Use a super wide lens. Neutral density filter. Convert that photo to black and white.
Tons of contrast. Put a unicorn in there. Maybe not, but if you want to, you could.
And, I will say, this method definitely is not perfect. You're pretty much taking pictures
of a post-processing style at that point. You're not really even photographing the landscape any
more. But if all you want is a photo that you can take back, post to Instagram, and get some likes,
this probably will actually do that. But the other method is a little bit better, in my
opinion. And that's just to wait. So, something really interesting happens after the sun sets on
a very dull day, and that's you start to get these amazing, vivid blue colors in the sky. This blue,
overcast light also works really well for cityscapes, because then you've got these deep,
blue shadows and really nice, orange highlights that can complement each other really well.
Now, if you don't have time to wait around for the blue hour, my favorite trick
still is just to try to find a different subject - whether that's a close-up photo,
or some wildlife, or some other genre. That's usually actually going to be your
better route. But if you've got no choice, you've got to photograph that landscape,
stick around until blue hour, and you'll end up with some great shots.
Today is another example of some so-called bad light for photography. It's actually a
really nice day right now. The sun is shining. There's no clouds in the sky. But that means,
for photography, my subject is going to have these dark shadows going down it.
Makes for a pretty chaotic look, and a lot of times that's not going to be what you want.
So, let me do a quick demonstration. This is my friend, Spence.
"Sup."
I'm going to photograph him in the shadow area right there, and then out in the sun,
so that we can compare how the light looks in both cases. That work for you?
"I'll do it. But man, if you went to the gym more often, they would look a lot better."
And you can see why putting your subject in the shadow areas is just such a good
idea on a sunny day. Personally, I like that photo much better.
Now, something else that you could do on a really sunny day like this is to point your
camera straight at the sun. And, I don't mean that as a joke. I've actually taken a lot of
my favorite photos that way. Because, if you point your camera at the sun, you're going to
end up with some backlighting. Usually, that's going to be a lot better than having that harsh,
overhead light. You can see that in this example photo. I pointed my camera at
these palm leaves right here, and when the sun was shining on them,
they don't look particularly interesting. But I was able to walk around to the other side,
take another photo where they're backlit, and, to me, this just looks a lot better.
And then, last of all, you could just embrace it. Sometimes,
those really dark shadows actually make for some nice patterns on your subject
that will help your photo rather than hurt it. Remember, there's no such thing as bad light,
there's just light that doesn't work well for your subject. So, if you can find a
subject that looks good under that harsh light, you've already solved your problem.
It's raining right now. It's raining a tremendous amount right now. And,
the light isn't actually that good. It's basically what I was describing
about a gray sky. I'm not going to - holy cow! This is ridiculous.
I'm not going to end up getting these photos right now where you've got magical light. But
what you will get, when the storm is over, is this amazing clearing. Maybe there won't actually be
a rainbow, but maybe there will. Maybe there won't be these incredible clouds at sunset,
but you won't know unless you actually go out there. And, you won't like it when you are out
there. I can tell you that just from my current experience. But it's worth it. I've taken some
of my all-time best photos when I was being poured on like this. And if you don't go out
in cases like that, you'll never know. So, that's why they say, "bad weather makes for
good photos." Maybe the light isn't good right now, but on the edges of the storm, the light
is going to be fantastic. It's some of the most beautiful light you could capture in photography.
And, my goodness, I hope you'll grant me a reprieve from talking about this for
10 minutes, because it is absolutely pouring right now. So, I'm going to just end the video,
how about that? My name is Spencer. This is Spencer Cox Photography. Like,
subscribe, comment! I'll catch you next week!