Dull overcast exteriors

[Jo Laurits Aksdal]

For dull, flat, overcast and perhaps misty exteriors,- do you guys have any tips and tricks to make it look more interesting? F.ex. use of filters, enhancers etc... anything!

[Guest oscar]

That trick it's usually called "Post production"

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I deal with this constantly. Without a huge amount of flags and stands it's extremely difficult to do anything with a soft fill the size of the sky. I once shot some half-reasonable stuff in London under overcast, using the narrowest canyons of buildings I could to get a vaguely toplit look, but it wasn't anything amazing. This would work better somewhere like New York where the buildings are generally higher.

 

Mist on the other hand I have had better luck with. The countryside around here is typically rolling farmland and I have had the opportunity to shoot some early-morning stuff with watery sunlight casting beams through the mist, it can be quite nice. You do have to get it in the very early morning and hope that there's sunlight above the mist rather than clouds!

 

Otherwise, all you can do is shoot your tungsten stock unfiltered or wind your video camera towards blue and try to sell it as a chilly, dark and sinister location, but this depends very heavily on the storyline and may be totally inappropriate. I am constantly faced with the problem of making English nastiness look snappy or interesting without being chilly, and it's almost impossible.

 

So, not much you can do. Move to LA.

 

Phil

[David Mullen ASC]

In closer shots you can use large black frames to create negative fill and then light more from the side. You can see this approach used in "Last Samurai" for some day exterior stuff. Use more contrasty wardrobe, especially black, to create more tonal range.

[Alvin Pingol]

I have found it very difficult to make overcast days look interesting, epsecially when you don't have the equipment (large flags, powerful lights, etc.). Because of this, I tend to take advantage of the situation by making the overcast day look as completely cold and dreary as possible. I exaggerate all of the qualities of an overcast day, such as that "cold" look, a desaturated color palette, and probably will throw an UltraCon on the lens to get even lower contrast.

 

Of course, if you live in a place where overcast days are the norm, *coughEnglandcough*, this is probably not something you'd want to do.

 

But here in Sunny Sunny California... :D

[Phil Rhodes]

I have GOT to get out of this country....