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Grey, cloudy, and overcast days can be pretty uninspiring for some when it comes to photography. However, I don't think those days should lessen your chance of getting some nice images. In this post, we're going through key tips for taking better photos in dull conditions.

Let colour guide your photography

On overcast days, finding dramatic highlights and deep shadows can be challenging, leading to a flatter overall image. While occasional bursts of light might occur, let's assume a consistently dull scenario for the sake of these tips.

In such conditions, focusing on colour can be a powerful tool. Remember, cloudy days simply diffuse and reduce the intensity of light, but colour remains a constant. By seeking out vibrant hues in your surroundings, you can inject much-needed visual interest into your photographs.

Much like the coastal scene below, the overall scene might appear rather flat due to the lack of strong contrasts. However, the presence of colorful elements like the sand and grass can still provide great visual interest.

Imagine walking through a village on a dull, cloudy day, it's easy to feel that everything looks flat and depressing. However, if you actively seek out colour rather than light, you'll significantly increase your chances of finding compelling photo opportunities.

Whether it's a vibrant hue on someone's rain jacket, a colorful shop sign, a patch of lush green grass, or a striking mural, these are the elements to prioritize when light is scarce. These vibrant colors can serve as the focal point of your image, compensating for the lack of dramatic lighting that photographers often rely on.

Even if the colors appear subdued in the moment, you can easily enhance them in post-processing by increasing luminance or saturation. Alternatively, you can slightly overexpose the image during capture to make the scene feel less drab.

No sky shots

If you really dislike the appearance of cloudy grey skies in your photos, consider excluding the sky entirely from your composition like the two frames above. When also combined with a focus on vibrant colours within the scene, this approach can yield striking results.

Alternatively, if the sky provides valuable context or enhances the composition, you could just minimise its presence in the frame by pushing it further up the frame.

Perhaps controversial, in fact definitely controversial, but I believe that skies are often overemphasised in photography. Unless the sky itself is the primary subject (like a rainbow or the Northern Lights), I don't dedicate excessive attention to it. As long as it's well-proportioned and not overly manipulated in editing, I find it less crucial than any other elements. Far too many photographers will see a wonderful sky and forget about the rest of the frame.

This is an extra personal preference of mine, but it's worth experimenting with. I typically brighten cloudy skies in post-processing to add life and brightness back into to the image, this all depends on your own style of course and I acknowledge that a moody approach can work in certain situations. However, I find that going the other way and overly darkening the sky can sometimes make the overall image feel a bit lifeless, especially when the rest of the scene is already lacking in light on a cloudy day.

Subject and foreground heavy

Next.. on overcast days, consider adopting a subject-heavy approach. You can fill the frame with the primary point of interest to compensate for the lack of dramatic lighting and hide a uninteresting sky that might not be complimenting the rest of the frame.

For example, when photographing a weathered old building on a dull day (shown above), I chose to fill the frame with its details rather than stepping back for a wider perspective. In brighter conditions, I might have sought out areas illuminated in a particular way. However, with the even lighting of the overcast day, emphasising the building's texture and character proved to be a successful approach. Kicking a bit of blue back into the highlights in post also helped the sky that was present feel a bit more in keeping with the feeling I wanted.

Alternatively, prioritise the foreground like below. If you focus on interesting colours and textures in the foreground, it can significantly enhance the overall composition and prevent the image from feeling flat and boring. Foreground heavy shots work in all conditions if executed properly, but I like to hunt for them even more when I know light and shadow isn’t going to play a major role in the images on a given day.

Find or create contrast

As mentioned at the start of this post cloudy days are like having a giant diffuser in the sky, which leads to less light and shadow, which leads to less contrast, especially in quite open spaces.

But contrast doesn't have to come from the sun directly, you can create it by using structures and framing to add darker or lighter areas to your images. I mean technically it’s all still coming from the sun, because it’s all still light or lack of light. But its up to you as the photographer to look out for, and position yourself in a way, to create contrast using whats around you.

You could also use branches, telephone wires, railings or anything similar to cut through the image or the grey skies to help create contrast.

In camera on those above examples I made sure the highlights were nice and bright to increase that separation between light and dark in an otherwise pretty flat grey scene. Also notice I went black and white for the edit on the right, there was no colour in the sky, no real colour under the bridge there, if you have a huge separation from deep blacks and bright whites on cloudy days, black and whites a great option for when you haven’t found that all important guiding colour.

Get inside

Speaking of me getting under that bridge, something else you can do that simply takes away the fact its cloudy outside is, is get inside and shoot interiors and textures, you’ve got churches and cathedral's, architecture from the inside. Just a little bonus one for you there.

Look for minimal scenes (if you like them)

So let me just bring it back for a minute and talk about cloudy days, or grey days where the sky is actually interesting, maybe theres a lot of textures in there, or maybe its grey but you've got those nice fluffy clouds.

If you feel yourself being drawn to the fact that the sky is actually really interesting, then you could go on the lookout for low horizon minimal scenes, which is where you have a subject and the horizon very low at the bottom of the frame, allowing that expansive sky above it to act as negative space, creating a really nice airy and vast feeling.

If your subject is strong enough, you can do this with plain grey or white skies too, then consider black and white if the subject lacks colour, if the subject pops off the screen, then you know where I’m going with this, leave it in colour.

Use your friends, pets, products.. stuff?

Lets wrap this up with an obvious but powerful one. People, pets, lifestyle products, cars etc still look fantastic under cloudy conditions, again you’ve got that soft box light coming from above you which makes positioning them/it way easier. I’m a proud dad to a golden retriever, I love taking photos of him on grey days because, well he’s gold, and he pops of the screen, it doesn’t matter all that much where he’s running or deciding to sit and pose. The lack of harsh light and strong shadows makes it much easier to photograph him candidly so grey cloudy days are normally when I take my favourite images of him.

Aside from dogs, obviously people are one of the most interesting elements you can include in photographs, anywhere at anytime. If you don’t want to shoot strangers, take your friend, your partner, your neighbour, your grandma - they don’t have to be portraits you can incorporate them into landscape images, you can create minimal scenes with them, you could have them wear a bright jacket, or carry a red umbrella, and before you know it, you’re cooking.

I hope some of these tips help you out on dull cloudy days, I’m not saying they work in every single scenario but they have certainly helped me come away with better images, especially being based in the North of England where these conditions are a regular occurrence.

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