"You picked a great day to take pictures!" is a phrase we often hear upon arriving to photograph a house on a blue-sky sunny day. While getting to pick great days is something we wish we could do, it is certainly true that bright clear weather can ease our task of showcasing the exterior of structure. The colors pop, sharp shadows add interesting texture, and the sky is its own painterly backdrop. All of those factors contribute to great images.
On the interior of a building, it is very often a different story. Bright light on the outside turns into glare on the inside. Windows, doors, and other openings concentrate the light, creating hot spots that can drown out the details of the surrounding objects and surfaces. A common problem for the photographer is proper exposure to show detail without heavy shadow or extreme brightness.
Thoughtful camera positioning and skillful editing can overcome many of the difficulties associated with glare, but an overcast sky offers a huge boost in terms of evenly lighting interiors and exteriors. On the exterior of a structure this softer, even light can enhance the texture and detail of a house through the elimination of heavy shadows, thereby showing more features to greater effect.
This soft light is akin to the north light that painters are known to seek out, or the type of controlled lighting that portrait photographers often use on their subjects, and can ease the photographer's task of picking out details and colors to be emphasized in a given shot. Another benefit of the overcast light is the absence of glare. The soft light adds ambience along with detail highlights. Spaces thereby pick up depth and sparkle.
If on your next shoot, a gray sky has you concerned, do not fret. The challenges of subdued lighting can be overcome. Gray skies may not be blue skies, but through our skilled camera placement and thoughtful editing, soft lighting can make your properties shine bright to garner increased interest, hopefully leading to quicker offers.