Photo Tip of the Week: Composing Landscapes During Bad Weather
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- What time of day is it?
- Is the thunderstorm the main subject, or will it play a backup role in the shot?
- Is the horizon uninterrupted, or is there an object or figure breaking it up?
Sometimes it’s just too easy to look out the window, see that the weather is less than ideal, and choose to stay home and binge-watch Netflix. While those days are sometimes warranted, there are all kinds of amazing photographic opportunities awaiting you when the weather turns south.
This week’s Photo Tip of the Week dives into these bad weather situations and gives you some tips for composing gorgeous landscapes under the shroud of thunderstorms.
Why Shoot in Bad Weather?
Part of the purpose of photography is to convey mood to those that view your photographs. What better natural mood-creating device than a thunderstorm?
In what would be an otherwise mundane landscape, the thunderstorm in the image above gives the scene far more depth. The threatening skies are both ominous and beautiful, foreboding and threatening. The range of colors and tones present in this thunderstorm add richness to the shot as well. This is precisely why you should shoot in thunderstorms!
Composing the Shot
How you compose your stormy landscapes will depend on several factors:
Let’s examine these factors in more depth.
Time of Day
The time of day you’re shooting thunderstorms will greatly impact the manner in which you compose the shot. During the day, thunderstorms often have a flat, gray coloring, which you can either strive to match with a fairly nondescript color palette in the landscape, or you can choose to bring a lot of contrast into the frame by selecting a landscape that is booming with color.
In the photo above, the prevailing color in the sky is gray, so the photographer matched that relatively sterile color palette with a landscape that mirrored it. The resulting shot is highly dramatic, with the eye drawn immediately to the swirling storm above the plains.
On the other hand, this image takes the higher contrast approach, juxtaposing the deep greens of the field against another mostly gray sky. The image is just as dramatic as the one above, but in a much different way. The storm is less intense, but the strong difference in colors and tones between the foreground and the sky make the scene much more dramatic.
What is the Primary Subject?
Your composition will also depend largely on the primary subject of the shot, that is, does the thunderstorm take center stage or is it merely adding additional drama to the shot?
The images above illustrate the dramatic differences you can achieve depending on your primary subject. In the first image, the impending storm is used as a tool for creating mood for the primary subject, the girl. Although her attire is dark and her face is obscured, she nevertheless stands out against the backdrop of the stormy skies.
In contrast, the image on the bottom demonstrates how the storm itself can serve as the primary subject in your composition. Notice that unlike in the first image, this one has virtually no foreground, thereby forcing your eye to the center of the storm. The bolts of lightning are certainly the star of the show, with no competing elements to distract viewers.
What’s the Horizon Like?
You can get great stormy shots with an uninterrupted horizon or one that’s full of visual interest, as seen in the images below:
The image above is an excellent example of how an uninterrupted horizon can enhance the depth of the shot, as well as provide a feeling of the storm moving across the frame. The low horizon used in this image gives the storm a greater sense of height as well, while keeping the scene grounded with the inclusion of some foreground interest.
This image of a stormy cityscape takes a different approach, yet ends up in the same place – with a well captured, visually interesting shot of a stormy scene. Without much texture and color in the sky, the increased interest along the horizon line breaks up a storm that is otherwise fairly flat, apart from the bolts of lighting interspersed among the buildings. The height of the horizon reflected in the lake in the foreground offers even more interest, both in terms of the horizon line and in terms of light, shadow, shape, and texture that is missing from the storm itself.
Final Thoughts
Composing stormy scenes doesn’t have to involve hours in the car, trying to find the perfect storm, the perfect foreground, or the perfect colors and tones to get a dramatic shot. Instead, what you should take from this lesson is that if you compose your shot according to what the local landscape gives you, you can end up with an image that is truly breathtaking.
The next time you see the skies darkening and hear the thunder rolling, resist the urge to curl up on the couch, and instead grab your gear, head out into the storm, and practice composing stormy scenes. Just remember to be safe!