Gear Protection
Before we even get into the technique, the importance of protecting your gear cannot be stressed enough. Wetness and humidity can damage your photography equipment in more ways than one. Not only can water cause the electronic circuitry in your digital camera to fail, but it can also cause growth of fungus on your camera sensor and lenses. And fungus as most of us know is the worst enemy of good photographs.
Except the new-generation waterproof point and shoot camera’s which can actually shoot underwater till 10 metres or more, none of the other camera’s are waterproof. In fact there isn’t a single DSLR camera that is waterproof without accessorizing. Bear in mind that the term ‘Weather Sealed’ does not imply ‘waterproof’. It simply implies a better resistance to the elements, ability to sustain a higher level of abuse than normal. But you still need to protect it in extreme conditions like normal to heavy rains.
The best way to protect your gear is to get a rain cover for it. Rain covers can be bought from most camera stores or online, quite easily. And if you aren’t quite in the mood to spend on one, there are plenty of DIY tutorials to making your own rain covers, on the Internet. And if all else fails, a simple plastic bag thrown over your camera with a small hole cut out for the lens, should serve you well as a temporary rain cover. Underwater housings are also available for DSLR’s but cost significantly more and can be unwieldy enough to make them impractical for day to day usage.
Showing the Rain
With the gear secure, you’re now all set to get clicking. Rain pictures can be captured in a variety of ways to achieve vastly different looks. You could achieve a hazy look for a landscape or a portrait (almost like fog) or you could shoot pictures with the rain clearly visible as streaks. You could also freeze raindrops in mid air or eliminate them altogether. Shooting in the rain is one of the few techniques in photography that gives you ample opportunity to play with shutter speed vis-à-vis aperture in most cases. There are no set formulas to achieving each of these looks since a lot also depends upon the intensity of the rainfall. However in general, as long as the rainfall is more than just a ‘drizzle’ a long exposure like 1 second or more should render a nice hazy looking scene , a slightly faster shutter speed like 1/30 or 1/60 should render nice streaky rain images. And fast shutter speeds like 1/200, 1/400 and beyond should nicely freeze the raindrops mid air or eliminate them altogether if the picture is correctly focused on the subject. As mentioned earlier, the key is to experiment with shutter speed and see what works for you basis the intensity of rainfall.
Preserving Tones
One of the easiest things to get wrong when shooting in the rain is White Balance. Set on ‘Auto’ or ‘Cloudy’ a lot of cameras tend to over-compensate the white balance and render warmer tones even in a rain image. And while many photographers seem to have a liking for warm tones, such images are clearly an inaccurate representation of an actual rainy atmosphere. Setting a custom white balance on your camera usually yields better results and of course, is best done only through experimentation. If shooting RAW, this can also easily be tweaked later in post processing.
Using Props
The use of certain props can imply ‘rain’ and add interest to an image. Colourful umbrellas, raincoats and rain shoes are amongst these. If people are the subject of your rain photos, these props can even add life to an otherwise dull image.
Creatively Lighting Rain
Because rain drops are reflective as well as refractive in nature, they present a unique opportunity to create stunning photographs by use of artificial lighting. Rain portraits shot at night time can be lit so that each rain drop glows and is frozen in place. Playing with shutter speed can further enhance these pictures by rendering glowing streaks or spots throughout the image. Usually the best way to light rain like this is to strongly backlight your subject from a fair distance so that the lighting is diffused and spread over a large area. Of course, precautions must be taken to protect your lighting equipment if it is being placed in the rain. For small speedlights, a transparent polythene bag thrown over them is good enough. However if using high intensity lights, you need to find an alternate solution since the intensity of the flash and heat created can cause plastic to melt and damage the equipment. Also remember to keep the lights out of the frame to avoid flare. Placing them directly behind the subject so that they are hidden from the camera works very well.
Post Rain Precautions
Despite taking all precautions, often when shooting in the rain, equipment does end up getting exposed to the elements in some way or the other. If the exposure hasn’t been too prolonged, there is usually no cause for worry. Once you are in a secure location the first thing to do is to give your equipment a quick but thorough wipe down with a dry cotton cloth and then put it away for storage in a dry location. Usually this should be enough. However, if you want to be extra cautious, there are some home remedies which can de-humidify your equipment and ensure 100% dryness. One way is to place your equipment in a large carton and then insert an electrical bulb into the carton through a cutout. When lit, this bulb will emit enough heat to cause your equipment to dry out completely. About 20 minutes of storage in the box should so the trick. Be careful however, not to overdo this and not to keep the equipment too close to the light bulb as excessive heat can itself cause damage to equipment. Another precaution that one can take is to store the equipment with sachets of a desiccant like Silica Gel which can absorb even the tiniest traces of moisture.
With the use of these techniques and observation of these precautions, you can produce some fabulous and creative rain images while never having to worry ruining your precious gear. So go out there and shoot worry free… its the season for beautiful pictures.
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Surely you can post your pictures to us. Looking forward to it.
Thanks,
The Editor.