photos in the rain?

[d3mckinl]

An impressive thunderstorm rolled thru this evening just before dusk and I grabbed the camera trying to catch the rain falling and splashing in the pool. I couldn't seen to blur the falling rain and still show the splashes. I could use fast enough shudders for the splash but it lost the effect of falling rain. then I slowed the shutter down and lost the detail of the splash.

Any tips on rainy photography?

 

[photo_chick]

I think since both the splashes and the falling rain are going to be at about the same speed that it will be difficult to get motion blur for one and not the other. You could try going at it with a shallow depth of field so that the rain ends up being blurred that way, but it may just look like blobs that way.

And I'm very jealous that you have rain. Send some my way please!

 

[Groucho]

You can use the flash to "freeze" the action on the raindrops or on the splash if you like... though in order to freeze it properly, you may have to underexpose the rest of the photo.

I would experiment with flash though; I find it can be handy when you want to emphasize the rain.

 

[zackiedawg]

Flash would definitely help in 'freezing' the raindrops...or look for an area of shadow or dark color that you could place the rain falling against, and find an area where the rain is in the light - from sun, streetlight, or other source...this will help you get the raindrops illuminated and contrasted against a darker background. I find shutter speeds of 1/25 to 1/50 about perfect for rain falling - it lets the raindrops streak just enough to show their motion, but not so much that they just become 'noise'. Here are a few rainy samples where I caught a Florida sunshower - I had the shaft of sunlight illuminating the rain, and darker trees to contrast them against:

This was a backyard snap - I cranked up the ISO to 3200 to get the shutter speed to 1/50, otherwise I was losing the rain completely as the shutter speed was too slow:

I haven't actually tried a flash, but it certainly would be a sound method to illuminate the falling drops and freeze them in front of the lens - though again you might want a slower synch speed to keep the rain 'moving' as opposed to freezing them as perfect round circles - though that might be interesting, it wouldn't really look like rain anymore - it would look like a scene out of the Matrix!

 

[networktek]

those are great rain shoots