Create Awesome Photos In Crap Light

[@MutantMycology]

Your style of teaching is exactly what I needed. You are by far the best all around photography instructor on RUclips ,in my opinion. I feel like I should be paying you for your knowledge.thank you for passing it on so freely. Your videos have been monumental in my development as beginner ,knowledge I will carry with me on this fascinating journey. Thanks again.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

That’s awesome, thank you for watching

[@HansvanMeteren]

Thank you from Nijmegen, The Netherlands. You are such a great teacher. Every time I see a video of yours I want to junp up from my chair and go photographing :-)

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@andrewgallup3890]

The conditions you highlight can be dramatic. Yet, what often I find my reaction to such photos is that "I can feel it." The temperature, the dampness, the chill in the wind, even the natural odor. Another good topic well presented.

[@EM-yi4bp]

It doesn't need to be always colourful, happy, juicy looking photographs... Why not to take a mood such as romantic, peaceful, melancholic, quiet, mysterious, ect.? I love that! BTW: Thank you so much for your great work here, sir. Every time I watch and listen to your videos, it is like you speak from your heart straight to my heart. So calming, inspiring, teaching, assuring, giving speace and courage, lessons. Priceless! My best regards!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you so much.

[@gregsmith6373]

Thank you soo much for the video. I love listening to you about photography as art. You are opening a new beautiful world of photography. Pls Dont stop. Hello from Poland

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Hi Poland, thank you for watching

[@davidskinner274]

A giant soft box... a great way to describe grey light. I love it to photograph flowers, spring flowers. No filters required

[@paulroyle-grimes8279]

Flash on a cloudy day is a forgotten art!

[@ddsdss256]

Even since seeing the term "extract" photography (maybe in Ansel's The Camera), I've used that term. I approach photography from the perspective of an abstract painter (often inspired by nature) but when viewing the world through a viewfinder, I often find myself "extracting" only what is essential to support the composition, often to the macro level (less is so often more).
One of my favorite situations is dark clouds behind trees with the sun behind me, illuminating the trees against the clouds, but that's a relative rarity. I'm not a fain of waiting for "perfect" light. "Good" or "bad" lighting are nebulous concepts--differing conditions only serve to present opportunities to produce different images. I happen to love "crappy" weather (we get a decent amount of overcast, but not much fog around here, so I jump at every opportunity to get out there, whatever the conditions)!

[@llIlllllIll]

I actually love grey skies when travelling, cause all photos you ever see of these places are taken at golden hour and have a clear sky, so it feels like I'm doing something new and turn it into a more moody photo

[@llIlllllIll]

@5:40 that flying squirrel 😂

[@derricksansome236]

Just had a full week on the Northumberland Coast with a stunning sunrise and sunset everyday. My favourite image? One of the quiet, blue hour, subtle toned shots I got before that (admittedly) awesome sunrise with its fantastic in your face colours. Give me autumn and winter softness any day of the week.

[@ExploringCanadaInfo]

Autumn is here and soon the snow will be EVERYWHERE. This video gives me a lot to think about. Must get out and shoot more in the coming "giant soft box." 👋🇨🇦

[@tedbrown7908]

A red or yellow rose will pop out in total darkness when a pen light is held over it at the proper distance. I've done it many times and have some great photo's.

[@Bethos1247-Arne]

thank you, Alex. I am in the phase of transforming my photography and videos like this help. Being less a documentary. More a visionary.

[@triplewinlin5576]

My whole last photoshoot was outdoors and over time, the day became very overcast. The images under the dreary, darkening skies turned out to be my favorites of the bunch! Subtle colors are just as nice- if not even nicer than- the bold ones I typically shoot.

[@ThePuddlediver]

It's never the tools... it's the craftsman's ability to make use of them... :-)

[@davidcurrie4122]

Brilliant video as always Alex. I am no beginner and studied at Art College back in the day in the 70s-80s not just photography but drawing painting sculpture graphics, you get the idea the main thing you are taught though is how to SEE how to study what's in front of you and to translate the emotions you feel, all of this helps you to draw from from your creative knowledge in finding a route to how you want to interoperate the subject matter, and no better place to find inspiration is in books not just on photography but painters etc or indeed just watch your channel Alex as you fill everyone with bucket loads of inspiration, thanks again looking forward to watching another video.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Wow, thank you. Thanks for watching

[@sara505sings]

Gray moody skies are the best!

[@wolfgangtoeglhofer1710]

…and again a fantastic selection of winner photos

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Very timely as I’m headed to Cape May NJ with a forecast for a solid week of cloud.

[@tedbrown7908]

Today I photographed two leaves side by side on the same branch. One was green and the other was yellow and the thought came to me as Life and death.

[@MegaSoundscapes]

Thank you Alex for sharing your experience with us. It's always great to hear your insight into things, situations a.s.o. . It's an inspiring thing and that's awesome. I am personally fighting more with harsh light situations.

[@lisajoseph5817]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I LOVE shooting in overcast conditions.

[@ericlahra8373]

You did it again Alex👏👏👏

[@swiper1512]

Thank you so much for crediting my photo and all the other artists photographs in your video! It really means a lot to us.

[@denisesavage2382]

Thanks for the encouragement to play on grey days. I'm not often inspired to lean into grey days. I dread them. They don't do much for my mental health at all. But perhaps if I reframe the creative opportunities . . . . .we have so many days in Tasmania that are grey murky lacking of any dynamic days as we hit into winter, and even now, still waiting for spring light and warmth to arrive . . . . It ain't coming. It's how a day might invite us to play . . . . . Thanks so much.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@davidmcculloch8490]

There is no such thing as good light or bad light - just different light. Not forcing the result and reacting naturally is a great message in suiting the subject to the light.

[@christopherclarke6184]

One of the things I do when I’m taking black and white , is put my camera in monochrome mode , and put the camera in live view or look through my evf . This gives me a starting point . Even if the image Looks flat I can look at the sky and see what the image would look like if I put a filter or use lightroom and see what the flat B&W image my camera is now showing me , would look like . As I’m shooting in raw I also have the advantage of bringing out the colour if I wonted to. I find using the camera in this way stops me taking a picture of say a grass field that might look good in colour but turn out with very little contrast when turned into a B&W image.

[@maggiedormer1208]

Great video. As an inhabitant of East Lothian we get our fair share of dreich days. I’ve never really bothered with black and white photography but maybe I should give it a go 🙂

[@peterlieberzeit3138]

Very good food for thought, thank you very much! In fact, I took some of my own favourite winter photos at "crappy" conditions (snowstorms etc. ...).

[@ChrisHunt4497]

Very timely Alex. Thank you. I love grey weather, I just need to know how to use it. You have helped me once more. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@gregkiserphotography]

You have described my favorite light to work with. The flat light allows me to add contrast as I feel it is needed.

[@joetrent4753]

If I thought that grey and overcast skies was bad light and not suitable for photography, living in the UK, I’d never take photos for most of the year.

[@KristinkaSkl]

Wow! Thank you so much for this change of perspective! I'm struggling a lot with high fog blocking actual sky and sun from me. But it's so true, that tonality can be so rich!

[@howtosober]

I always relied on warming, ND, and circular polarizing filters to get the color saturation and gold tones I've wanted out of flat light scenes. It's cool to be able to learn photographic tools to maximize the light as it is rather than alter it.

[@chriskelly6574]

Well you nailed it. I live on Vancouver Island Canada and boy, did it get grey all of a sudden. Brrrr! Wet.

[@marydahl5237]

Luv grey skies! There are so many more opportunities to shoot with grey skies.

[@ChrisHamilton911]

Feeling inspired. Thank you.

[@gustavohartel5159]

That's right! As almost always

[@Photovintageguy]

Even full sun is still pretty good you just need to shoot in the shade. The light still does make it to the shade just reflected. If it's a portrait make sure the eyes catch a bright spot in the sky.

[@jimhood1202]

I stopped dead at "dreich". I've never heard anyone other than Scots use the word and then only amongst other Scots. To use it in a RUclips video and so aptly, wow. Today you have impressed even more than usual. Thanks as always for your insight and inspiration. Greeting from Panama.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Haha, I’m half Scottish. My mum is a weegie, and I lived in Edinburgh for 3 years too… thanks for watching

[@jimhood1202]

@@ThePhotographicEye Thanks for the explanation. I'm originally from Edinburgh myself and take great delight in educating (confusing) our little circle of friends with the occasional Scots word. 😉

[@lensofsolacephotography]

Truly appreciate this video … thanks for the encouragement Alex 🙏

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@Rob.1340]

Thank you. All the best. 👍📷😎

[@malteplath]

I feel heard! Great images, no interspersed stock footage. And a great message for those complaining about less than perfect light.

[@alexgimagery]

This was a great narrative.

[@kevinmarshall7604]

Great content for this time of the year, wise words that really makes me think more deeply about autumn light.

[@thedarkriver1]

Excellent info 👌 ...as usual👍

[@nzlemming]

Before I got into reading about photography (and watching vids, obvs), I used to call the "golden Hour" as "chewable light". It seemed so substantial, to pre photographic me, that you could actually bite it, well before I learned to take pictures in it.

[@nzlemming]

Also, I wish I could Like this vid more than once. It has wisdom.

[@jurgenchristoffel1699]

Thanks for the autumnal inspiration. Just yesterday I took close-up photos of mushrooms in the woods, some of them dark brown on similarly but lighter colored moss. It was interesting to see the tone in tone result. While the difference between sharp and unsharp made the strongest impression, the tone-in-tone image had a nice quality itself.

[@PaidMeToWrite]

You nailed it! Perfect

[@pattysmith5403]

Thank you for this

[@Black_Jesus3005]

Thanks Alex✌🏽

[@davidtaranzaphotography3324]

I love the presentation of "crap light" as an opportunity to create something else. In my opinion, generally there is no such thing as crap light. "Crap" light is only a subjective perception of existing conditions in relation to what would I desire for a photo I have in mind at the moment". But there are tons of photos that can be made and the existing light is just perfect for them, be it whatever. We only need to let go this mindset of "no epic light with bold colors = no great photo" and let ourselves think of how we feel at the moment and how to get in in our photos instead. Thanks for another great video!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@samjourneyman5007]

Such an eye opening guide. Thank you!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@dougdavis5808]

Great video, I just watched Your video about black and white and went out to take black and white pictures. This video was perfect timing. Thanks🙏.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@wolfgangtoeglhofer1710]

Yes 👍 🙏

[@howardeaton6675]

Thank you, excellent video

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@johnclay7644]

thought provoking on light (good or bad) informative 12mins.

[@davidskinner274]

Hey, we get grey light down under too.

[@Gosurfbasis]

Wow. So good and I inspirational.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@chriskelly6574]

Great squirrel pick at 5:43. Did he do his own stunts or is that Cliff Booth making him look good?

[@Steve-mo4qp]

fantastic

[@Dan-C-71]

When I bring my camera to the Arboretum I’m never as happy with my pictures on a clear sunny day as I am with a cloudy day.

[@lighthouse222222]

Thank you for romanticizing photography!

[@markwitzberger492]

How do I deal with ISO in bad light- I feel like I really have to raise my ISO and get very noisy photos. My camera is a micro 4/3, and I typically don't like ISO above 800. And your videos are my favorites!

[@gemstyxwalls1419]

Can using a flash help?

[@briley7090]

Were the shots displayed the originals or was there some post editing. Not that I think one way or the other just looking for a goal in my shots. Thx

[@Call_Me_Mom]

You have a 4 year old? My grandchild is 4. :D They are a hoot aren't they? What camera would you recommend for a 4 year old? I have tried a few but she doesn't seem to "get" them. She also has a small learning tablet thing that allows her to experiment with both photos and videos that she enjoys a lot.
Different light is an opportunity for me to "see" things differently. Which requires that I bend to what is, instead of sticking to what I wanted when I went out.

[@arneheeringa96]

A very basic film camera would be good, preferably without light meter, to learn basics. I think that spurns the love for photography more deeply. Developing films and prints are pure magic. I remember the old days with my father in the darkroom, but unfortunately my first camera was already partially automatic (Agfa Sensor 335, great quality though) and I have never learned lightmetering correctly.
But nowadays not every child has the patience to learn a basic film camera, like my kids for instance. In that case a cheap compact digital camera will be good, preferably one that resists shocks.

[@danielscheerer3032]

Love your educational/inspirational subject matter, free of gear-talk! (Seems I've seen a video about that recently ;-) This was a good one with great accompanying images. Thanks!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@RogerHyam]

Aye right pal. Great in theory but you don't live in Edinburgh anymore 😉

[@test40323]

Great tips, here is a tip reciprocated. Thanks!

[@c64club]

Enjoy the silence of that light.

[@s.alexiangardner1302]

Do you know any black photographers?

[@ThePhotographicEye]

There’s a whole heap to choose from, but if you are looking to start with someone then I would suggest Gordon parks.
There is a video on this channel where I looked at one of his books.
Do a search for him, and you’ll find it.