Glut of cloudy weather..ugh

[pineywoodsman]

The weather here on Long Island,NY has been less than ideal this summer, with the sunniest days being very hot and humid, and the cooler days, like today, featuring plenty of clouds. I find in order to get good landscape photos, a mostly clear blue sky is the best situation. Yet this summer, it's been hard pressed to get any of these days. On cloudier days, I find contrast and saturation take a big hit. You can always "photshop" it, but I prefer the look of natural photos. Unfortunately a stubborn high pressure system over the Western Atlantic has kept our area in a hot, humid flow since the beginning of July, and has stalled any cold fronts that try to get south of here.

Back in early June I was taking photos in Rocky Point,NY nature preserve. One day was partlycloudy, the same a day a week later was sunny with blue skies. Some clouds, such as the ones in the first photo, are quite bad. These hazy, high clouds tend to wash out the photo quite a bit. Small, puffy white clouds (cumulus) against a blue sky are fine with me, but those hazy high clouds (cirrostratus) are a photo ruiner.

Both photos are more or less in the same spot, auto mode, Powershot A75 camera.

[mactek]

Have you tried using a polarizing filter?
If not, I'd highly recommend it.


mactek