Waiting for the overcast

Sun sells houses. Soft cloud shows what the architect actually built, so I book two days for every shoot and keep the second one free for the sky.

Hard sun draws its own building on top of yours. Shadows cut a facade into shapes that were never on the drawings, and white walls burn out before the camera has seen them.

What cloud does

A thin, even overcast turns the sky into one large softbox. Concrete shows its texture, timber keeps its colour and glass stops mirroring the street.

How I plan for it

• Two days on the calendar, one held loose
• A forecast check at six, a decision by seven
• Interiors first if the sky is wrong, exteriors when it turns

Clients sometimes ask for blue sky. I give them one frame of it, and the rest of the set in the light the building was designed for.