The Rain Thread

[arith]

Just thought with the weather set to be stormy forever; how do you actually depict or photograph rain?

From this


To this in the same place in less than 6 minutes


and this was taken earlier but


How exactly do you capture stormy weather and inparticular rain? Examples please.

[Mike Buckley]

One way to depict rain is to use a shutter speed that is slow enough that streaks of rain appear in the image. Based on my very limited experience, they begin to show up at about 1/80 if there is a dark background behind the rain. EDIT: As Dave points out below, I should add that that's using a 35mm lens on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

Mike's suggestion of showing against a dark background is the key, of course the background can be light too, as long as the raindrops are illuminated brighter themselves, such as in vehicle headlights. I haven't tried, but perhaps a subtle amount of fill flash might illuminate the nearer ones.

Using a long focal length can help, the maginification means that the drops turn to streaks at slower shutter speeds, here's a single sunlit rain drop at 1/250s.


Nikon D5000 + Nikon 70-300mm VR: 300mm, 1/250s, f/8, iso1600 (175-33869)

This coming Saturday is supposed to be nice I hear
Although that'll probably change

Cheers,

[arith]

That's a great picture Dave, and cheers Mike. It's cold as well here Dave.

[Geoff F]

I had a few experiments of shooting rain in my Project 52 thread - Week 35 Project 52 by Geoff F

Mostly doing similar things to what Mike suggested. Getting a suitable plain background seems to help the rain drops to show up better.

[MrB]

A quick search for rain images on the Web seems to lead mainly to shots of things or people in the rain, rather than showing the actual falling rain.

The nearest I have managed to produce is from an attempt to photograph a farm gate in heavy rain during last year. So the following messy image is from my hand-held shot, taken through the wet car window, against the light - I assume the white streaks are falling raindrops, which I guess would each move a foot or two during the 1/50s exposure? -



There surely must be some members who have done this sort of thing effectively?

Philip

[darknight]

One good way is to photgraph something that shows the rain, i.e water,puddles etc then use a noise layer then motion blur to symulate the rain.

[FrankMi]

How exactly do you capture stormy weather and inparticular rain? Examples please.

How about showing reflective surfaces, like water, being hit with raindrops?



On the other hand, if the rain is heavy enough, as it was in Geoff's and Phillip's images, - or this rain forest in Dominica in the Caribbean, it may just be all too obvious.

[Mike Buckley]

That second shot isn't too obvious, Frank. The rain is no more obvious than the greenery, which in my mind is as it should be. Very nicely done!

[arith]

I had a few experiments of shooting rain in my Project 52 thread - Week 35 Project 52 by Geoff F

Mostly doing similar things to what Mike suggested. Getting a suitable plain background seems to help the rain drops to show up better

.


I like the idea of using a flash Geoff, it looks like light direction might be important.

[arith]

A quick search for rain images on the Web seems to lead mainly to shots of things or people in the rain, rather than showing the actual falling rain.

The nearest I have managed to produce is from an attempt to photograph a farm gate in heavy rain during last year. So the following messy image is from my hand-held shot, taken through the wet car window, against the light - I assume the white streaks are falling raindrops, which I guess would each move a foot or two during the 1/50s exposure? -



There surely must be some members who have done this sort of thing effectively?

Philip

I think it is the dark background Philip; I can see the rain in this.

[arith]

One good way is to photgraph something that shows the rain, i.e water,puddles etc then use a noise layer then motion blur to symulate the rain.

Cheers Mark; I think your ideas are a good addition to the rain drops.

[arith]

How about showing reflective surfaces, like water, being hit with raindrops?



On the other hand, if the rain is heavy enough, as it was in Geoff's and Phillip's images, - or this rain forest in Dominica in the Caribbean, it may just be all too obvious.

This has been a useful exercise Frank, and your second illustrates that direction of light or dark background as well as speed are useful. I wished I had took time to evaluate the first image after St Pauls instead of just panicking about the speed of the onset of the storm taking the pic and running for it.

[Mike Buckley]

Steve,

If the foreground area of your image had been in focus, I think the rain would have been more apparent. It's not lost on me that that might have resulted in a less pleasing image.

[arith]

Steve,

If the foreground area of your image had been in focus, I think the rain would have been more apparent. It's not lost on me that that might have resulted in a less pleasing image.

It was a matter of looking at the black cloud to my left and thinking; now I've set all this up for the lights to come on the Cathedral and wait, I wonder where that cloud is going. Then the heavens opened up so I just spinned the camera round and took the pic on the settings it was on and I always use Manual.

I think your right though Mike, nothing would be lost if I focused on the forground.

[Mike Buckley]

I think your right though Mike, nothing would be lost if I focused on the forground.

Maybe I wasn't clear; I think there's a good chance that the image wouldn't have been as nice if you had done that.

[FrankMi]

That second shot isn't too obvious, Frank. The rain is no more obvious than the greenery, which in my mind is as it should be. Very nicely done!

Thank you Mike! I had a hard time with bringing myself to take that shot as I couldn't get a good view at a subject. In the end, the rain became the subject!

[FrankMi]

This has been a useful exercise Frank, and your second illustrates that direction of light or dark background as well as speed are useful. I wished I had took time to evaluate the first image after St Pauls instead of just panicking about the speed of the onset of the storm taking the pic and running for it.

LOL! I'm glad it helps. One thing that most of us do not consider is that unusual images might just require dramatic weather to be really effective.

Usually we just cut and run when foul weather moves in. But what if we either stuck it out (with the proper precautions of course) and looked for the shot that made effective use of the weather? OR - planned in advance to get a particular shot when the weather becomes appropriate? We might just find ourselves praying for a deluge rather than hulking down to quietly grumble!

Not being one to have a previously composed scene in mind for these occasions, I do keep a rain sleeve for my camera handy so that I can hunt down the unusual shot should the weather provide the opportunity.

I also tend to think about bad weather more as a stroke of luck for getting a dramatic shot than as an ‘oh crap’ event!

[Bobobird]

I love going out and photographing in the rain.

1. With light.


2. Slower shutter speed on tripod.


3. Intensity caught in foreground water.

[arith]

I love going out and photographing in the rain.

1. With light.


2. Slower shutter speed on tripod.


3. Intensity caught in foreground water.

These are really nice shots Bobo; I especially like the first.