An EM5 II and Bad Weather Can be Your Friend

During a recent trip to Narita Japan, the weather was pretty nasty.  Everywhere I went, I got soaked.  Preparing for the trip back to the U.S. was no different.  However, the rain slowed to a gentle mist for a few minutes and I was able to take advantage of the lull to complete a preflight and to grab a few pictures using the Art filters on the EM5.

Rain, contrasty light, and ominous clouds can many times present some great opportunities to make an ordinary situation look unique and interesting.  Tonight was no exception.

No EM5 Art Filter

EM5 Dramatic Tone Filter Applied

You can see that the pooled water, the bright Halogen lights and the heavy clouds helped make these pictures appealing.  Well, at least to me.

In the first 2 images, you can see the lights reflecting on the water and on the engine nacelle.  The sky looks blown out because I was shooting into the lights.

The next 2 images give you an idea of how low the clouds were and the EM5 II Dramatic Tone II filter adds some drama and depth to the clouds.

Here is an image of the Raw file with only contrast added.  Not really much to look at in my opinion.

EM5 Image Without Art Filters

Here is the same raw image converted to Black and White using DXO Film Pack.  I chose the Kodak TRI x 400 simulation as the starting point

The moral to the story:  Bad weather can give you opportunities to make some interesting images.  Many times you get interesting clouds and crazy reflections to play with.