B&W Challenge No. 28 - Weather

[hmca]

Weather is something that is always a concern to photographers.  While images submitted for this challenge can reflect a beautiful sunny day, I want to open the door for those less than perfect conditions the photographer often faces.
Hopefully, we can explore the possibilities that fog, rain, wind and snow offer.
This article will get you started thinking about bad weather in a more positive way.  

Bad weather ideas are presented in this article. 

I always think street photography is a good candidate for a rainy day.  Be sure to check out the tips mentioned here before you head out.

In preparation for this challenge, I took the top two pictures a week or so ago.  They were quick grabs and hand held.  I hope to get out better prepared before the months's end and try again.


NIK Silver EFex was used for B/W conversion with lots of adjustment along the way.






The foggy pictures below were from the archives.

Black and white profiles from Camera RAW in LR were used for the conversion.

[Peterj]

On my visit to Del Mar, CA fog played a big part. I was captivated by the Torey Pines. I had very little to do removing color from this as the fog did a wonderful job. 

[pontiac1940]

Helen: what a great topic. Who does not pay attention to the weather every day? 

I recall this day well. My wife flew to Hawaii .. and I did not.   I was working on a small book and she had a chance to visit the kids. All good. I drove her to the airport and on the way home, the fog had been thick and, as it was cold, the hoar frost coated the trees. 

[pontiac1940]

We live on the great plans and summer storms are commonplace and every year a few wicked storms pass through our area. This is the backside of a storm that passed north of our home and as I recall this storm looked a lot worse than it really was. Of course, the contrast is jazzed up a bit in PSE. I shot this just 4 or 5 km north of our house. 

Love clouds and storms. (Always pray no one gets hurt and there is no damage.) 
 

[hmca]

Peter and Clive, three great photos to get us motivated to go out and brave the elements! Would love to come upon trees like the ones you have both shared. And that is quite a dramatic cloud image, Clive.

[pontiac1940]

Less risky than it looks. But at about this point you ask yourself, "Did we pack a shovel?"
A great day. We got into Police Lake, skied down to the lake and ate soup and sandwiches for lunch. 
And yes, that's a tiny church on the right and there is a graveyard there that is still used...some ranches here have been on operation for over 100 years.   
SW Alberta. January 2009. 

[pete61]

Evening storm clouds gathering over Georgia Strait:



Black and white conversion & tweaking using Sliver Effects Pro.

640x360 (0x0)

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[pete61]

Another bad weather one.  Juneau, Alaska - Mount Roberts tramway cable cars passing by each other in low clouds and misty rain.

[hmca]

Definitely wouldn't want to be in one of those, pete61. Perfect for this theme.

[tonyw]

Today was a good day for this theme as we're in the middle of an unusually early snow storm. So here's the driveway this afternoon - I did put the driveway markers out yesterday in anticipation. It was snowing at the time but all you can see in the image are out of focus gray blobs - I saw snow but the camera didn't record it the way my eyes did. Still trying to figure that out and I did try several different settings with no success. Any suggestions?

Taken in RAW and converted using the B&W08 profile in Lightroom after some basic adjustments.



Tony

[tonyw]

Couldn't figure out how to photograph the snow so I resorted to adding noise in Photoshop … not quite what I saw but closer than the camera recorded :



Tony

[hmca]

What a great idea, Tony! I had taken a look at a few of mine from the archives and they looked similar to your first shot. I will have to remember your solution.
That being said, billz or pontiac1940 might have some good input here.

[billz]

Tony, one thing you can try is some fill-flash. A little goes a long way, but sometimes it works nicely. Aside from that, I like the snow you added ... and that you didn't add it in my driveway! ;-)

[hmca]

Thanks, Bill. I'll have to try that next time.

[pontiac1940]

Nov 12, 2019 0:15:58 GMT hmca said:

What a great idea, Tony! I had taken a look at a few of mine from the archives and they looked similar to your first shot. I will have to remember your solution.
That being said, billz or pontiac1940 might have some good input here.

Thanks Helen.
Falling snow is difficult and, although I've taken a few photos, they are never like the real thing. If the shutter speed is fast then the flakes are more or less stopped and ... meh. A slower speed blurs the flakes but then they lose impact. A long lens makes it worse since the DOF is narrow and only flakes in the DOF are in focus and the rest out of focus and have no impact. There seems to be no happy middle ground. I recall taking some recently and must have binned them as they were unmemorable...or just bad.   
Clive