The Looks Library
Landscape Photography Looks: 33 Conditions Worth Chasing
A look is a specific set of sky and weather that produces one recognizable photograph. Each of these 33 explains what makes it, when it happens, and what a forecast can and cannot see.
Light quality
The quality of the light itself, from soft overcast to low golden sun.
- Overcast Softbox A thick, even cloud deck spreads the sun into soft, shadowless light across the whole scene.
- Golden Hour Warm Light Just after sunrise or before sunset the sun sits low and its light travels a long way through the air, which warms it to gold and softens shadows.
- Blue Hour In the window just after the sun drops below the horizon, an even sky holds a deep, cool blue.
- Twilight Pastels Look away from the sun after sunset.
- Dappled Light Broken clouds and a little wind sweep patches of sunlight across the land, spotlighting one ridge or field at a time.
- Spotlighting Through Gaps Under a mostly cloudy sky, a moving gap drops a single shaft of sun onto the scene, like a spotlight on a stage.
Sunrise & sunset
How the sky colours at dawn and dusk, from a clean gradient to sky on fire.
- Cloudless Clean Gradient An empty, very dry, very clean sky fades in one smooth ramp from warm at the horizon to deep blue overhead.
- Pastel Gradient Sky A nearly clear sky with a touch of moisture softens the sunset into gentle pastels, pinks and soft oranges rather than fire.
- Vibrant High-Cloud Sunset High and mid clouds well above the horizon catch the last direct sunlight and light up in oranges and reds, while clean low air and a clear horizon let…
- Afterglow After the sun has set and the ground has gone dark, high clouds are still lit from below and glow pink and magenta.
Atmospheric
Fog, frost, haze and smoke, and what the air does to the light.
- Radiation Fog On a clear, calm night the ground radiates its heat away, the air just above cools to its dew point, and fog settles into low ground and valleys.
- Frost A clear, calm, freezing night lets water vapor deposit straight onto surfaces as ice crystals, edging grass, leaves, and windows in white.
- Dew Mornings A clear, calm, humid night above freezing beads water onto grass, webs, and petals.
- Rime Ice Freezing fog on the wind coats everything it touches with feathery white ice on the windward side.
- Atmospheric Haze Fine airborne particles and humidity veil each successive ridge a little paler, stacking the distance into soft layers of grey-blue.
- Wildfire Red Sun Smoke high in the atmosphere scatters away the blue light and leaves a deep red or orange sun, dimmed by the smoke enough to look at directly.
- Smoke-Choked Killer Dense smoke at the surface flattens contrast and drains the color out of everything, the unshootable end of wildfire haze.
Storm & drama
Drama around storms: lenticular stacks, god-rays, underlit cloud, lightning.
- Fiery Underlit Storm Clouds As a storm clears, a gap opens on the horizon and low red sunlight shoots underneath the departing cloud deck, lighting it from below.
- Lenticular Clouds Strong, steady wind flowing over a mountain or ridge stacks smooth, lens-shaped clouds that hang in place like flying saucers.
- Fast-Moving Cloudscapes Fast wind high up drags textured cloud across the sky.
- Post-Frontal Clearing As a cold front clears, the barometer climbs and a sealed overcast breaks into moving cumulus with clean, rain-washed air behind it.
- Lightning When thunderstorms are in the forecast, the code and a convective downpour are the only hints a point forecast gives that lightning is possible.
Wind & motion
What moving air does to water and grass, from glassy calm to motion blur.
- Glassy Water With almost no wind, water goes mirror-still and returns a perfect reflection of the sky and shore.
- Wind Texture On Water A steady moderate breeze, roughly 10 to 25 mph, brushes the water into fine rippled texture that catches light.
- Wind Blur Motion A steady 15 to 28 mph wind moves grass, branches, and flowers enough that a slow exposure blurs them into soft motion against sharp, still elements.
Precipitation
Rain, drizzle, snow and ice, and the moods they bring.
- Moody Rain Steady rain under a full overcast drains the color and simplifies a scene into mood and texture.
- Drizzle Mood Fine drizzle and near-saturated air soften everything into layered grey, with just enough haze to separate near from far.
- Falling Snow Snow falling through still, sub-freezing air hangs visible flakes in the frame and blankets the scene in quiet white.
- Ice Storm Glaze Freezing rain lands as liquid and freezes on contact, coating every branch and blade in a shell of clear ice that catches the light.
- Rainbows A rainbow appears when the low sun, behind you, lights the rain falling in front of you.
Coastal
Swell, spray and marine-layer fog along the coast.
- Storm Watch Giant Surf A large, long-period ocean swell unloads giant surf onto headlands and rocks, throwing spray and drama.
- Marine Layer Fog A saturated coastal airmass settles into a low fog deck that drapes the headlands and isolates sea stacks above it.
- Sea Spray Strong wind lofts spray off a heavy swell and holds it in the air as a glowing sea mist when a low sun backlights it from behind.