How often do you shoot photographs when it is overcast and there aren't any shadows to help you with a strong light to dark value pattern. If you are like me I tend to have a lot of shots that don't have direct sunlight and shadows making it a little harder to get that distinct larger value pattern.
These kind of scenes are usually
not as bright as a scene with sunlight and shadows but one of the benefits of this kind of scene is that it usually has more of a moody feel, more greys which in turn make your brighter colors stand out more.
The way you handle a composition and value pattern where you don't have direct sunlight and shadows is to use the local color of objects and figure out what value those colors have to create your value pattern.
The
way to figure out what value a color has is to turn it black and white, which I illustrated in the photo below.
This can be done in may ways now with digital photography. There are apps and programs and even many camera phones now shot an image in B&W.
Then to make the value pattern even more evident you can usually use the same app or program to posterize the B&W image to see the value pattern even clearer.
If after you have manipulated the image to B&W and you find it needs changing, that is when I tell my students they need to do a value sketch with paper and pencil or if they are digital savvy they can draw on their phones, tablets or computers. Either way, it is good to draw out a value sketch when you have to rearrange things to better the composition and value pattern of a photograph that doesn't have a good composition or
pattern.
To learn more about good composition, read my first book I published with North Light.... you can get it at
Amazon for under 5 bucks.
