I’ve just finished reading a biography of Claude Monet in which the author describes how the great painter, who loved sunshine and light, often despaired of how his work necessitated working in some of Nature’s most inclement weather. Being a wildlife photographer, I can honestly say, I know how he felt.
Weather affects me in two ways. First there are the logistics of handling the camera when it’s pouring with rain or blowing a blizzard or howling hurricane-strength winds. Last year I was working on an assignment in the Great Bear Rainforest on Canada’s Pacific Coast, a place that gets 6.5 meters of rain every year and I think most of it fell while I was there. These are the times I’m thankful for the high standard of weather-resistance of my FUJIFILM X-T2 and X-H1 cameras and FUJINON WR lenses, which seem to keep going and going whatever the weather. The second great challenge is light but, contrary to popular notions around photographing during the “golden hours”, I relish the low, soft light on overcast days.
Hard light creates dense, well-defined shadows, which help produce the illusions of depth and form. In other words, shadows help to make objects on a flat piece of paper (or computer screen) appear three dimensional. However, the intensity of hard light also creates high contrast, which can be burdensome. For example, a beam of bright light hitting the nose of a white horse or the white whiskers of a tiger’s jaw can completely blow the highlights, all but ruining an image. Flat light, on the other hand, opens up lots of creative opportunities.
Overcast weather also helps me with one of my favourite techniques. Something I’ve noticed during my years in the field photographing wildlife is that animals are never still; they’re constantly moving, either to find food or to avoid being turned into food. To capture this sense of movement, I use motion blur a lot in my photography. Although the exact value varies, this technique typically requires a shutter speed in the range of 1/10th – 1/30th second, ideal for conditions where low intensity, flat light prevents setting a shutter speed any faster.
As a backdrop, inclement weather may also be the best weather for setting a dramatic scene or conveying a serene or melancholic mood, something a bright day and plain blue sky rarely achieve.
Top 7 tips for shooting in inclement weather
1. Make sure your camera and lens are well protected. Weather resistance is all well and good but there’s no need to test it to the limits unless it’s absolutely essential.
2. If you can’t set a fast shutter speed, set a slow one and experiment with intentional camera movement (ICM) and motion blur.
3. Include the weather in your visual story. Soft, flat light is ideal for calming compositions, while storm clouds create dramatic backdrops.
4. Add a graduated neutral density filter (GND) over dark, stormy skies to make them even more dramatic.
5. Use a high White Balance value (>6,000K) or set the Shade WB pre-set to give a warmer tone to the image. Or, go the other way and set a cooler white balance value (<4000K) or use the Tungsten WB or Fluorescent WB pre-sets to get a more creative, dramatic effect.
6. Get up close and focus on the detail. A tight shot of raindrops on an animal’s fur, for example, makes great abstract images that tell a powerful story.
7. If using a tripod is impractical, turn on the lens’ OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and IBIS (In-body Image Stabilization (available on FUJIFILM X-H1) when hand holding the camera at slow shutter speeds to ensure sharp detail (except when shooting ICM).
