The weather has been rainy and overcast in Taipei for two weeks now, so I haven't shot many photos lately. So I'd like to share what I do on bad weather days and hope you'll find it useful. This is a long exposure photo I did last weekend of Taipei Main Station, a busy public transportation hub in Taiwan's capital.
On days like this, I try to avoid shooting the sky during the day, since it usually comes out all white, which really detracts from the photo. At night, just before the sky turns all black, there is still a chance to take photos in the "blue hour", a small window of opportunity after the sun has set and the sky turned a dark blue. As you can see, it's still possible to shoot a nice photo on an overcast day, you just have to wait until the right time to shoot! If it has been raining, the reflections and colorful night lights will also create interesting photographs!
Pro tip: use a small aperture such as f/16 or f/22 to turn light sources into mini sunbursts! This increases your exposure time so the use of a tripod is strongly encouraged. The number of rays in the sunbursts will depend on the number of aperture blades in your lens, an even number will give the same amount of rays, while an odd number gives you twice the amount of rays! For example, this photo was shot with a lens that has 6 aperture blades, resulting in sunbursts with 6 rays. If I had used a lens with 7 aperture blades, I would get 14 rays in the sunbursts.
"Taipei Main Station" |
Camera: Canon EOS M
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I hope this will inspire you to take photos outside on a rainy/overcast day. Have fun and remember to keep shooting!
