Overcast Day
The light on an overcast day is completely flat with little or no
shadows.Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Don’t photography instructorsalways
say that this is supposed to be good portrait light? It’s anatural softbox,
right?
Well, they were wrong. While your
subject may not be squinting fromthe sun, they are lit with such flat light
that they may take on a flat, shapelessappearance themselves. An overcast day
will create a hot spot on theirforehead and nose, and it will probably give
them bags under their eyes,too—not very flattering. Just because everything is
lit evenly doesn’t meanit will guarantee a flattering portrait. No studio
photographer places a hugesoftbox directly above the head of his or her model
and expects flatteringlight.
Our goal, therefore, will be to give
this all-encompassing, all-consuminglight some control and direction. The good
thing about an overcast day isthat the light is consistent. Sometimes you can’t
even tellwhere the sun is in the sky behind all of those clouds;9:00AM looks
like 3:00PM. That consistency is an advantage,because you can take your time to
shape the light inwhatever way you desire.
The following is an image 1-1., 1-2.sequence forshooting on an overcast day. In this example, the model stood on
the stepsin front of a building. The sun was buried behind the clouds above and
tothe left of the camera position. The light created unflattering results. Theeyes
became dark and the nose caught excessive light
 |
| 1-1. An overcast day created flat light with no shadows. |
 |
| 1-2. The overcast sky gave the subject dark eyes and produced hot spots on the nose and forehead. |
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