(Image: by Ernest Lilley. If this porch had been shot on a sunny day, the bright exterior light would have forced the inside of the doorway into deep shadow. Taking advantage of an overcast day let me put the entire picture within the dynamic range of the camera's sensor)

Nature's Softbox

Even overcast provides what would be a miracle for many studio photographers, turning the outdoors into nature's softbox, filling the world with even diffuse light that opens up shadow detail and softens images of everything from forests to faces.

Cool Colors

You can take cool colors two ways, and I happen to mean both of them. First off, the light from an overcast day is a bit bluer than that of sunshine, or about 7000 degrees Kelvin, as opposed to 5500 K, the standard for mixed sunlight. It's a lot "cooler" than early/late sun, which gives a great warm tone to everything. As a result, it's a good idea to set your camera's white balance to "cloudy" or to do a manual white balance. If you're not comfortable with doing that, get out your manual and read up on it…it's not hard and it gives you color confidence under a wide range of conditions.

The other way overcast days make colors "cool" is by looking for vibrant colors on detailed objects and taking advantage of the even lighting to get details that would normal be lost in the higher contrast provided by harsher light. Flowers, faces, leaves, tree bark…the world of detail opens up on gray days. Overcast conditions lower both contrast and saturation, so this is a good time to look for objects that might be over the top in sunlight to see what their softer side looks like.

Composition over Contrast

A good photograph needs to be interesting as well as well exposed. On overcast days this is more true than ever, and you need to use all your compositional skills to find subjects that intrigue the viewer, as well as take advantage of the light. In general, this is a good time to take shots of detailed objects, and a bad time to take shots of landscapes or anything with much sky in them.

If you do want to push up your contrast in the field, or cut through haze in general, a circular polarizer can be helpful here. Polarizers screen out light from more than one direction, so they put some of the directional aspect of sunlight back into an image. Not so much that you'd think it was a sunny day, but maybe enough to put some contrast back into the image.

Exceptions Prove Rules

All that being said, that doesn't mean you can't break all the rules and make a great picture. If you see one you like, go for it. The value of rules isn't to lock you into doing things one way, but to help you think about what you're doing and to make choices rather than simply letting the pictures happen.

Get out, take your camera….and don't let a cloudy day spoil your shots.