These have been rainy days in North Carolina, especially due to the “visit” of tropical storm Andrea during the weekend. I had to dust my umbrella off and literally walked on the water on Friday and today. If one sees the positive side in terms of photography, the nice thing about torrential rain is the smooth light that accompanies it. This particular type of light (what we could call a “grey-day light”) allows you to creatively play with overexposure (when the major bright areas of an image are brighter than the original allowing the spectator to “see more”) and underexposure (when shadows tend to the black, covering up areas that were originally visible in certain degree in the original) to create desired effects by the photographer. Precisely because it’s all about the effect the photographer wants to produce, the “appropriate” exposure is up to her (although a great number of photographers generally prefer underexposure over overexposure).
This “grey-day light” gave me the opportunity to photograph Duke’s chapel today. So I will share two pics of it: one taken before getting on the bus bringing me back home and the other one taken on the bus.
(Before getting on the bus)
(On the bus)
Now, compare these two pictures with their originals, and see how by playing with cropping, highlights, contrast, and exposure, I was able to make the edited versions more appealing than the originals (or at least that’s what I want to believe!) The colors of the chapel are more potent in the edited version and so are the grey tonalities of the sky:
(Before getting on the bus)
(On the bus)
So if one of these days you find yourself in the middle of the summer rain, don’t hesitate and take some photographs of the place you are at that moment. Then, proceed to crop and play with exposure accordingly. You’ll be very impressed by the cool final versions you get!…
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