Overcast photography tips

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LN Strike Eagle
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Overcast photography tips

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

As it looks like it'll be overcast at best on Sunday, does anyone have any pointers to help deal with the conditions?

Using an EOS 50D + 70-300 L combination, so I suspect the bulk of my photos will be limited to take-offs and landings anyway, but any tips to help with the lack of light are welcomed.
"You really are an oafish philistine at times!"

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AlexC
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by AlexC »

What's happening on Sunday?
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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

Scampton for me.
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Skyflash
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by Skyflash »

Don't be afraid of boosting your ISO settings. Most modern DSLR bodies have decent performance even at what would formerly have been considered high ISO ranges, and noise reduction software can work miracles these days. Even the in-built NR filter in Lightroom for example will do a decent job in all but the most hopeless of cases.
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AlexC
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by AlexC »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:Scampton for me.


Oh yes, of course. Thanks.
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by Aslaug »

I'm afraid I may also have problems with this, but a few good tips about this I read on http://fixthephoto.com/
Last edited by Aslaug on Sat 06 Oct 2018, 11:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Tommy
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by Tommy »

Skyflash wrote:Don't be afraid of boosting your ISO settings. Most modern DSLR bodies have decent performance even at what would formerly have been considered high ISO ranges, and noise reduction software can work miracles these days. Even the in-built NR filter in Lightroom for example will do a decent job in all but the most hopeless of cases.


This is a mantra I find myself sticking by - better to have a noisier shot that you can deal with in post (or put up with) than a softer shot that's lost.

Depends on gear, too. My D5100 has appalling noise performance at iso 320/400, but my new D7200 handles noise at those levels a hell of a lot better, and gives me that little bit more flexibility.

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boff180
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by boff180 »

Yup never be afraid to increase your ISO.... the trick in this situation is to shoot RAW.
Lightroom (or Topaz DeNoise) can handle RAW noise reduction very effectively.

The other tip is to over-expose, depending on the "darkness" of the overcast, plug in 0.3 to 1.0 +EV together with centre weighted exposure mode. That should help bring out more than a silhouette.

Also, even if the image is over-exposed, there is far less noise created/visible in post processing an over-exposed shot than caused when boosting shadows on an under-exposed shot - regardless of ISO.

Andy

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phreakf4
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by phreakf4 »

Or switch to manual mode and expose for the subject (whether it's an aircraft or any other subject likely to end up otherwise as a silhouette)

I have had people tell me this is "wrong, because the sky is washed out". Unfortunately, that is a limitation of photographic sensors (as it was with film). You can't have it both ways, either the exposure for the aircraft is correct, or the exposure for the sky is correct except in a few circumstances, one of which is a clear, deep blue sky but the problem with that is that one then gets very harsh, deep shadows which require even more "creative processing" thus introducing the risk of even more noise.

I still often use the same trick which worked when using "wet film". Using a "medium" telephoto lens (about 200mm) frame the distant horizon with the horizon about 1/3 from the top of the frame and set exposure using the needle, LEDs or whatever indicator the body uses. That should give a usable setting. Of course with digital it is so much easier to tweak the exposure by taking a test shot and then checking the histogram and correcting as required. Another option which I still often use is a hand-held incident light meter, after all, in the majority of cases, the light falling on the subject is pretty much the same as the light falling on the photographer, you just have to know which way to point the meter...

Even when shooting motorsport I still mostly use manual exposure (or sometimes shutter priority if using a fast enough lens) because in any other mode there is too high a chance of "freezing" the wheels even though there is far less chance of the background causing exposure problems.

Also Boff180 is absolutely correct, always shoot RAW, far more opportunities to correct any exposure errors, white balance problems etc. Or, since memory is now so cheap, buy more cards and shoot "RAW+jpeg".....
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AlexC
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by AlexC »

Have you seen the price of XQD cards?! :shock:
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by phreakf4 »

AlexC wrote:Have you seen the price of XQD cards?! :shock:


I hadn't, but then I use SD so for me it's not a problem. Another point is that if (like me) you have ever experienced a card failure, then massive card capacities have little appeal. I would rather change cards several times a day than lose everything because one card fails.....

I would suspect that as with all memory devices, the price of XQD cards will eventually reduce over time.
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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by speedbird2639 »

I would suspect that as with all memory devices, the price of XQD cards will eventually reduce over time.


Hmmm - I don't know ... they seem to be becoming a bit of a 'niche' thing

In June 2017, Micron announced it was shuttering the Lexar brand. This leaves Sony as the only XQD manufacturer. Currently, SanDisk and Kingston have not announced plans to produce XQD cards.


So its seems to have basically dwindled down to being little more than a Sony proprietary technology and we all know how those tend to go in the long term (MiniDisc, ATRAC, MemoryStick etc)

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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by boff180 »

Nikon technology actually ;-) All Nikon high end cameras now use XQD as their primary slot or have variants where XQD is both slots.

Argument being SD cards are now at or close to their speed limitation which is too slow for a 35/40mp image to be recorded on a high FPS “sports” camera.

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Re: Overcast photography tips

Post by Pen Pusher »

boff180 wrote:Nikon technology actually ;-)


SanDisk technology actually but for some reason they dropped it to concentrate on CFast cards.

The main motivation for faster storage cards, though, is to keep pace with video capture needs. A few years ago, camera manufacturers were all racing to see which could provide the best HD capture, and now they’re racing to add 4K video support, which pushes four times the data that HD video creates. Uncompressed (and therefore the best-quality) video requires a huge amount of bandwidth.


For the near term, adoption of XQD or CFast will be purely optional. If you’re a shooter of the Nikon D5 or D500, you can use XQD or you can not. Canon shooters will be able to use CFast in the EOS-1D X Mark II, and certainly other Canon cameras are being developed right now with a CFast slot.

Soon, though, one of these type of cards will be what you reach for when you’re shooting with any camera. Those SD and CF cards on your desk will become a distant memory, and the faster speed of XQD and CFast will make the whole shooting experience better. Which card will be the champion—or if both will coexist in the same way that SD and CF do now—remains to be seen. But ready or not, a new era of storage is coming, and we’re going to have some memory card purchases to make.

https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/pho ... t-and-xqd/

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