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Bad weather Many landscape photographers
aspire to shooting in heavenly light but, with the
right scenery, poor weather complements coastal
shots in my mind. Rugged ledges, sea stacks and
shipwrecks often don’t suit a big colourful sunset as
much as a slate-grey, stormy sky. The same way a
sandy beach fits below a golden sky, moody weather
is suited to moody scenery.
It can be tempting to ‘overcook’ a tonally-rich sky
with a strong ND grad to emphasise the sky's volatility,
but I never use a heavy grad to bring out detail and
drama. If tones are even throughout the frame, I may
not even use a grad at all to keep the in-camera shot as
natural as possible; instead I may use a digital grad to
subtly refine the look. I will, however, use a polarising
filter as while there may be less polarised light than
with a clear blue sky, the sea can look silvery and a
polariser will help replicate what’s going on in the sky.
Colour balance changes when shooting at sunset
versus a stormy day, and many photographers will
switch their White Balance to counterbalance this.
I, however, always have my camera set to Daylight
White Balance, which on days when it’s overcast can
make a scene blue, but I think that works better than
switching to Cloudy to warm up the image.76 Digital SLR Photography Ma y 2019