How I do Street Photography on a Rainy Grey Day

Do you struggle with street photography on a rainy, dull day with flat light? Well then this video is for you.
On a street photography walk in Rotterdam I take you along for the ride and give my tips for the best way to make good photos in bad light.
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[@timjamiesonphotos]

🔴 If you enjoyed the video please drop a like to help it spread to more people to see. As always, thanks for watching!

[@scotskinner4350]

My street photography has really improved since I started watching your channel. Thank you Tim.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Scot, that has made my day. Thank you, comments like that really make KZbin worth doing 🙏🏻

[@Mascorvus]

This is exactly what I was looking for! I live in Belgium and it's been raining non stop for the past few weeks. Everyday is gloomy and dark and it's hard to make good street photos.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Hey! So happy to hear that, I’m glad you enjoyed it and found it useful 🙏🏻

[@sherbaju]

Yep, I also live in Belgium so I understand the struggle

[@trevorbrooks813]

Light is light,,, use what you're given. Rain can offer up some great shots you don't get in those bright days, go for it. Thanks for posting.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks Trevor! You’re quite right 🙏🏻

[@davidclode3601]

Thanks for some good tips, Tim. I loved the water reflections photos. I think the toys are called yoyo's.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, David! I appreciate that mate. I did a bit of research and the riots are called ‘royal kendama’, a variation of the ball in the cup game - had never seen it before! Should have asked them about it really haha

[@NunoLosch]

Man I was in all those places taking photos just last weekend and now I see this haha

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Haha! I’m sure you smashed it

[@muzicgr8]

dude at 1:12 in the video while climbing the stairs, was an amazing shot got get it

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, Ray! I’m glad you think so 🙏🏻

[@joeredski]

Great video Tim. There are some helpful tips here. I sometimes find it difficult to shoot on grey days, but you have given me some inspiration. Thanks 👍

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, Joe! Really happy to hear that mate. It can definitely be a drag to go out and shoot in the grey, but living in the UK if I never went out on grey days I’d never do any street photography 😂

[@straatmoment]

Okay, Rotterdam is not Amsterdam ( 😜 ) but so now and then I'm there for a photo-walk. Here you've got lots of beautiful images, I did not know the Luchtsingel ( yellow street above ) so.... have to go again !

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Haha yeah it’s certainly not Amsterdam, but it was a fun place to photograph! 🙏🏻

[@CourtneyG.]

Really enjoyed, Tim! I love the pay-off at 4:11

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you so much mate! I had planned to make this a Q&A video which completely flopped so talked through my grey day process instead, glad you enjoyed 🙏🏻

[@CourtneyG.]

@@timjamiesonphotos It was very insightful, as always mate!! :-)

[@julianhignell8452]

Really like the reflection photos in the water and the texture ones. Love looking for patterns and the abstract. Nice one! 👍🏻

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks a lot mate, I haven’t made photos like that in a while, was a lot of fun! 🙏🏻

[@grantrobertdavies]

Great Video Tim :)

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you, Grant! 🙏🏻

[@mrwebname]

Another enjoyable video. Yep doesn't matter what other street 'experts' think, learn from others but progress and enjoy your own work.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks a lot! And yeah definitely agree with that 🙏🏻

[@SeanPDurham]

Interesting video, I like your attitude about taking an interest in how we all live together in a city. Urban/street photography can broaden the mind on how we think about our environment, architecture, and how cities develop - I love to read about city development and what and who is behind it. A great book that I can recommend, "Places of the Heart", by Colin Ellard, is totally inspiring for anybody interested in understand how cities work, and what effect the city environment has on individuals. Your shots are great, autumn is a tough time to find inspiring scenes to photograph - especially when the mind is still full of summer vistas. thanks, Sean

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you, Sean! Will check out that book too for sure 🙏🏻

[@gerarbara]

I went to the centre of my home city, Preston Lancashire, on a very drab, colourless day, and shot in mono. The raw files looked no different to the mono jpegs, which were okay.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

I forgot to mention that to be fair, b&w can be a good move when you’re shooting on a dull grey day :)

[@GS7snaps]

Really nice video, Tim. Great advice.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you, Graeme! Much appreciated 🙏🏻

[@paulm8157]

Lots of useful tips and advice, well illustrated, Tim. Yellow bannister shots my fav. Prudent words about developing style, patience, and keeping expectations reasonable. Overcast days help improve saturation - easier to see LCD, too.😊 Didn’t quite get the focal length/grey skies connection. The toys at the cube venue are “yo-yos” - some chaps can do amazing tricks with them - worthy of action photos, IMO. Cheers!

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks Paul, glad you enjoyed the video! They weren’t yo-yos, they were these wooden cups with a ball on a string - had never seen them before but on further investigation they are called royal kendama, should have asked them about it really haha. Longer focal length you can stand further away, isolate a subject and compress the scene, works well when it’s quiet which is often the case on grey days :)

[@qimsim_]

Awesome video, lots of great shots and inspiring thoughts. 🙌✨

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks a lot mate! Appreciate that 🙏🏻

[@theCree]

Useful tips and inspiration. I got a copy of Harry Gruyaert's photobook, Irish Summers, which is full of images taken on dull days. Somehow, he manages to find enough light to pick out subjects with colour. Patience may be the key there too, not just waiting for subjects. but subjects in light. If you have spent much time in Ireland, you'll know how cloudy it can be for much of the time 😁 Really enjoy your videos.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks a lot mate! I’ve not go that book but do have one of his, one of my fav photographers. And yeah that’s exactly it, gotta be a bit more patient and work harder for the shots in overcast light, but they are there to be found! My dad is Irish so I’m certainly familiar with the weather there! Pretty similar to England to be fair haha 🙏🏻

[@ImagesbyAsh]

Another great video, Tim. Went through the same issue this weekend in London. A very dull overcast day and I struggled to see any images. Wish I had seen your video before I went out. 🙂

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, Ash! Appreciate that mate. Yeah it’s that time of year, it’s definitely a drag but gotta persevere 🙏🏻

[@TDtog2112]

Very inspiring again Tim. Always images to be found even on the dullest of days as you have shown. Since seeing your ripped poster images I now find myself looking out for them when I am out so thank you for that🙂. My favourite images from your vid are 0:56, 3:10 (your Bresson moment 😂), 6:50, 8:04 and 9:45. Thanks again 😀

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you, Tony! Your comments are much appreciated as always 🙏🏻

[@markusb.6730]

Nice one, thanks for sharing.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, Marcus! 🙏🏻

[@hugovangool]

Nice video, such a great city for streetphotography

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks, Hugo! 🙏🏻

[@ofitography]

Inspiring as always, thanks for this one too! As for "chimping" I catch myself doing it the more the bad the light gets, because my EVF lights up in dark environments (which helps with the composition), but I'll worry how much light actually has hit the sensor. 😅

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thank you! And yeah haha I think I’m a bit too harsh when it comes to chimping, as long as you’ve checked that there isn’t any potential shots immediately around you then it’s fine, might as well use the modern tech to check you’ve got the right exposure!

[@TryingtoLearntheuke]

Great video Tim. Question-Do you zone focus while doing street photography?

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Hey Pam! Thanks for the comment. I do yeah, unless the light is bad then I switch to auto focus when I have to open up the aperture :)

[@fnvtyjkusg]

Thank you for not making the title a question

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Haha no problem

[@badger67]

👍

[@timjamiesonphotos]

🙏🏻

[@TheUrbandilema]

Tanks for the tips.which lens did u use by chance its looks like the 35mm Fuji..overall I struggle with bad light and kills my mood I have recently trying the abstract..the car photo is really killer it's an illusion great eye I didn't know u did landscapes too

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Thanks mate! I used the Fuji 23mm for most, apart from the shots of the water 😀

[@craigianmenzies]

When the light is flat, I do find black and white works much better.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Yeah definitely! Should have mentioned that in the video haha

[@SourPlanet]

I'm curious, what made you choose to overexpose the image at 9:17? It happened as you talk about finding contrast with artificial light. Wouldn't exposing for the artificial light and letting the values come down for the rest of the scene generate the contrast you meant?

[@timjamiesonphotos]

It’s not over exposed :)

[@SourPlanet]

​@@timjamiesonphotos You turned murky overcast values into faux bright daylight. The sky is completely blown to pure white. In the video footage- which is of course just POV, but still- there is clearly tons of range to work with there. It seems when talking about pushing contrast in artificial light sources... it would make sense to expose for light sources literally in shadow which would make the entire image full of rich contrast. Instead, it's all pushed to high value and there's essentially zero contrast- and the artificial light source is 100% lost.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

There’s plenty of contrast in the photo from the food van and the people. The image, while a pretty boring one, is perfectly exposed, the GoPro footage was way under exposed. I was talking about what we could potentially use on the street, the scene I found wasn’t a great example of that, but the sentiment remains the same :)

[@bosiefoobar]

It seems when it is grey and wet, you seem to go pretty highkey? How come?

[@timjamiesonphotos]

Depends on the environment but that’s just how I like to edit my photos, I’ve gone off contrasty edits and I prefer photos that look a bit more natural to the human eye :)

[@bosiefoobar]

@@timjamiesonphotos they definitely look a lot more happy, fun and cheerful

[@c0ldc0ne]

7:15 Shame you missed the shot of that lady leaning back while looking up.

[@timjamiesonphotos]

I’m happy with the shots I got :)

[@c0ldc0ne]

@@timjamiesonphotos Let's call it the one that got away then. 😉