Photocyco2000 wrote:
I'm doing a late afternoon photoshoot today and the weather sucks. It is misty,overcast ,gray and chilly.What tips,suggestions and Recipes(camera settings) do you have for this type of day? I'm going to be using my 50mm 1.8 and my 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS. I figure the IS will be better for lower light. I'll also be using my back up body,my main camera and lens I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

perfect soft light.  yay for overcast.  mist/fog is cool to.

Photocyco2000 wrote:
I'm doing a late afternoon photoshoot today and the weather sucks. It is misty,overcast ,gray and chilly.What tips,suggestions and Recipes(camera settings) do you have for this type of day? I'm going to be using my 50mm 1.8 and my 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS. I figure the IS will be better for lower light. I'll also be using my back up body,my main camera and lens I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

Misty won't affect your camera.  I've had both my cameras (neither is weather sealed 1-series) out in wet snow and fine wet drizzle and both were fine.  I took care to minimize wet time.

Use flash, especially if you have an off-camera flash cord, to liven up the light on the subject.  Just enough flash to boost a little, not overpower.

P3nudes wrote:

perfect soft light.  yay for overcast.  mist/fog is cool to.

But the sky always looks washed out in these shoots. Any cure for that pre photoshop,that can be fixed in camera? I hate changing the sky in photoshop,I'm not good at it and it always looks fake when I do it.

Photocyco2000 wrote:
I'm doing a late afternoon photoshoot today and the weather sucks. It is misty,overcast ,gray and chilly.What tips,suggestions and Recipes(camera settings) do you have for this type of day? I'm going to be using my 50mm 1.8 and my 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS. I figure the IS will be better for lower light. I'll also be using my back up body,my main camera and lens I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

Overcast days are like having a big softbox for the sun , they give you a soft light! your 50mm f/1.8 could be better since light levels will be diminished and the wider aperture will allow you to use faster shutter speeds  but carry the 28-135mm in your bag just in case. While IS let's you hand hold at low shutter speeds it won't freeze motion from your subject so be careful there .

As for settings that's a hard one, light isn't a constant in every place where is overcast and you should meter accordingly to your needs -wide or narrow Depth of field?, as an example-.

Good luck!

Photocyco2000 wrote:
But the sky always looks washed out in these shoots. Any cure for that pre photoshop,that can be fixed in camera? I hate changing the sky in photoshop,I'm not good at it and it always looks fake when I do it.

Composition, composition, composition -

Keep the sky out of your shots, if at all possible. If its not possible, minimize the amount of sky.

Photocyco2000 wrote:
I'm doing a late afternoon photoshoot today and the weather sucks. It is misty,overcast ,gray and chilly.What tips,suggestions and Recipes(camera settings) do you have for this type of day? I'm going to be using my 50mm 1.8 and my 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS. I figure the IS will be better for lower light. I'll also be using my back up body,my main camera and lens I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

I would rather shoot on an overcast day than sunny anytime.  Great because you don't have to worry about shadows and color saturation is better.

Photocyco2000 wrote:
But the sky always looks washed out in these shoots. Any cure for that pre photoshop,that can be fixed in camera? I hate changing the sky in photoshop,I'm not good at it and it always looks fake when I do it.

You have to light your model. It's that simple. If you are exposing for the midtones and shadows you are going to wash out the sky.

If you choose flash as your main you can balance the sky out. The problem is blasting the light on your subject that doesn't equal or shooting for 1 stop more than the ambient overcast sky.

The problem with fill flash or using flash as your main is the balance between ambient light and the flash itself. This is where one will have problems with the light looking fake or forced.

Again unless your sky is more important, you can direct the subjects towards the sky and shoot at a much higher angle. Forcing the light to look down on your models per say. It really doesn't get any easier than that. Models don't always have to stand up and look right at the camera either. Just understand where the big soft light is coming from and stop forcing your subjects to have to look directly on camera and let the light fill features.

J T

John Mathys wrote:
Set up near a bubbling stream, in front of traffic, anywhere else where there is noticable movement.  The dimmer conditions will be good for longer exposures.

That's interesting,I didn't think of that aspect.

Photocyco2000 wrote:

But the sky always looks washed out in these shoots. Any cure for that pre photoshop,that can be fixed in camera? I hate changing the sky in photoshop,I'm not good at it and it always looks fake when I do it.

Don't shoot the sky, shoot the model.  Fill the frame with her or her and the building or wall or statue or whatever is behind her.

Why do you need pictures of the sky? 

Chris Keeling wrote:

Don't shoot the sky, shoot the model.  Fill the frame with her or her and the building or wall or statue or whatever is behind her.

Why do you need pictures of the sky? 

Example:

This was taken on an overcast rainy day

Dennis Hodges wrote:
Don't worry you will do OK.
Look at it is as on the job training.

I've done them before,just not crazy about the results most of the time. Here is a pic from one such day (18+):         
https://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?pic … id=4621183

and so is this one:

Click Hamilton wrote:

wow, i love this one.

P3nudes wrote:

perfect soft light.  yay for overcast.  mist/fog is cool to.

WORD...just point and shoot

PDF IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY wrote:
Just curious, would ND filter help ?

Fuck the ND, use a Polarizer...

Photocyco2000 wrote:
I'm doing a late afternoon photoshoot today and the weather sucks. It is misty,overcast ,gray and chilly.What tips,suggestions and Recipes(camera settings) do you have for this type of day? I'm going to be using my 50mm 1.8 and my 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS. I figure the IS will be better for lower light. I'll also be using my back up body,my main camera and lens I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

Overcast days= Soft light= awesome portraits

The Best advice is try and experiment.
Nothing wrong with washout skys. If you are shooting a model why the sky is a priority?
For the reasons that many already told you, many of us love and prefer overcast days.

Photocyco2000 wrote:
I really don't like using in the moist conditions.

so was it more of a convenience thing due to the conditions or was it not sure how to shoot in it?  because the mist/fog and the overcast creates a large softbox like has been already stated.  what would you do with a giant softbox?

Photocyco2000 wrote:

But the sky always looks washed out in these shoots. Any cure for that pre photoshop,that can be fixed in camera? I hate changing the sky in photoshop,I'm not good at it and it always looks fake when I do it.

the sun, that perfect soft box as a cloudy day is always called equates very pretty and safe, i prefer some sun to add some drama to the image but I like dramatic images

Click Hamilton wrote:
Have fun!

this is wonderful indeed and has an element of mystery to it, well done man

BlindMike wrote:
Use it.

love these.

logistics wrote:

so was it more of a convenience thing due to the conditions or was it not sure how to shoot in it?  because the mist/fog and the overcast creates a large softbox like has been already stated.  what would you do with a giant softbox?

I was refering to my main camera body and lens,I don't like using them in the rain due to the fact that the body isn't weather tight.So for the rainy days I use my backup body and also my less expensive lenses.

Lost Coast Photo wrote:
Overcast = good.  Nice soft light, no harsh shadows.  Why do some people think it's a problem?

I hate to shoot on bright sunny days.

Soft and directional is great. Completely overcast is usually almost (if not entirely) visually directionless. That makes a great fill, but doesn't do much for shaping.

On truly overcast days (not that I've seen many here!), adding a main light via a handheld flash off-camera adds enough contrast to keep things from being too bland.