Shooting clouds: I am fairly new at shooting in different mode other than auto. I took a college class on the other modes and have a good start on my Nikon 5600. I however am finding...

streetglide12

I am fairly new at shooting in different mode other than auto. I took a college class on the other modes and have a good start on my Nikon 5600. I however am finding it hard to shooting clouds and getting the dynamics of the photo. Any help on lens to use and tips are greatly appreciated.

Charlie'smom

I would start by shootong in RAW and go from there.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Agree. Post processing can do a lot with clouds that you won't necessarily get out of the camera. Another thing to try is a circular polarizing filter to make the sky bluer.

AlohaJim Loc: Retired. Hawaii >> N. Arizona.

Circular Polarizer and ND as needed , a must to bring out the cloud shapes, cut down glare, etc.
B+W High transmission polarizers only lose 1-1.5 stops.
jim

wwright Loc: Tucson

Clouds and snow have similar issues. Any automated exposure tries to get the 18% gray white balance. Its been a long time since my last class or seminar, but I seem to remember that you should over expose 1 to 2 stops to get the white, without blowing out the details.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

streetglide12 wrote:

I am fairly new at shooting in different mode other than auto. I took a college class on the other modes and have a good start on my Nikon 5600. I however am finding it hard to shooting clouds and getting the dynamics of the photo. Any help on lens to use and tips are greatly appreciated.

Use a Polarizer.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

wwright wrote:

Clouds and snow have similar issues. Any automated exposure tries to get the 18% gray white balance. Its been a long time since my last class or seminar, but I seem to remember that you should over expose 1 to 2 stops to get the white, without blowing out the details.

I agree!

Nikon1201

I edit all my cloud photos in Lightroom .

willy6419

Auto focus considers everything to 18% gray, so compensation is needed to capture detail

Takes reflected light and makes it 18% gray----which is Ok normally, but NOT a scene that is primarily white or dark, needs compensation

Makes white darker to gray, black lighter to gray!

Whites will be underexposed, so ADD exposure, by dialing + compensation

Black/Dark will be overexposed, so DEDUCT exposure dialing - comp

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

If your camera has a spot metering mode you can use that and expose for the brightest part of the frame. The camera will then put that brightest area at 18 percent gray as a mid tone. Also shoot in RAW so you can have more latitude in adjusting the final photo.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

Quote "wwright

Clouds and snow have similar issues. Any automated exposure tries to get the 18% gray white balance. Its been a long time since my last class or seminar, but I seem to remember that you should over expose 1 to 2 stops to get the white, without blowing out the details." Quote

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

A lot of your success will depend on the light. Along with the advice given so far, you need to be aware of conditions: are we talking puffy white clouds against blue sky, or menacing gray clouds? Early morning or bright mid-day? Sun behind you, to the side (best for polarizer) or are you shooting towards the sun? Are the clouds evenly lit or are some areas much brighter than others? The uneven brightness and higher contrasts will be more challenging, and may be where shooting in raw will give you the most benefit (assuming you want to learn processing, 'cause raw files gotta be cooked

)

I'm not sure about the suggestion for an ND (neutral density) filter as that is usually used as a way to lower the shutter speed in bright light. Seems to me, that unless you're going for a certain dreamy look, you'd want sharp detail provided by faster shutter speed (clouds usually move!). I'm interested if anyone has other insights on this.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

My assumption for the ND was also to have a longer exposure and show the movement of the clouds. But I expected the OP was mostly interested in just getting good sharp cloud photos.

Linda From Maine wrote:

A lot of your success will depend on the light. Al... (show quote)

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

streetglide12 wrote:

I am fairly new at shooting in different mode other than auto. I took a college class on the other modes and have a good start on my Nikon 5600. I however am finding it hard to shooting clouds and getting the dynamics of the photo. Any help on lens to use and tips are greatly appreciated.

Put your camera in Manual mode and experiment with the Sunny 16 "rule." This was a Kodak insert back in the day.

Get yourself a circular polarizer and always use a lens hood. Play around, pixels are free.

DaveC1 Loc: South East US

Once again, as was stated above, the correct answer to your question depends on the light conditions, and where the sun (assuming day time) is relative to the clouds you are shooting. And no, they are not necessarily the same thing.

Those two variables make any given answer potentially correct, or totally wrong.