The Flash Photography Field Guide

Overcast Day Flash Balancing

Overcast days often produce flat, lifeless skies and soft overhead lighting for your subject. If you are shooting outdoors and expose for your subject’s face, there is a danger that the sky will melt away into an insipid wash of off-white.

However, if you’re armed with a flashgun or two, this needn’t happen. Gray days mean a lower level of ambient light than on bright days, so it can feel like your flash has been super-charged with power. It’s easy to overpower the ambient light if you want to, and you can use an array of lighting modifiers without worrying they’ll be draining power.

As with any situations where you are mixing flash with ambient light, it is the ambient light that is the overriding factor in deciding ...