HOME ABOUT CONTACT CONTRIBUTE SUBSCRIBE TWITTER FLICKR ADVERTISE Photography Degree Online Earn Your Photography Degree Online at The Art Institutes. Learn More! AIonline.edu 8 Tweet Tweet 11 414 Tips Helpful Tips for Shooting in the Snow by Christopher B. Derrick As the winter time approaches, and the snow begins to fall you might not think that now is a phenomenal time to break out your camera and take photographs. But it is. The snow, like the rain (in fact, like all inclimate weather) presents unique opportunities, challenges and inspirations for the photographically inclined. Adjust Your Exposure The one thing to be most aware of with snow is that it’s white (duh!), so therefore your photos will have a predominant, highly reflective background throughout. To get stunning photographs you need to take this into account and adjust your exposure accordingly. And part of exposing correctly is specifically exposing for the darker subject(s) that you have in your frame – birds, people, animals in the snow drift are all much darker than the snow, and in many cases your TTL meter will flub the photo. Due to the way the the Through-The- Lens Light Meter is designed the most “accurate” exposure registers at 18% Gray, so your whites will typically be underexposed if you trust the meter. When you’re shooting with such large expanse of white as your background, you need to make an adjustment; and that adjustment can usually be achieved by opening the aperture 1/3 of a stop (so you’re going to want to set the camera to Manual to perfect shooting in the snow). With digital cameras it’s a lot easier to see the affects of a 1/3 f-stop adjustment — if your eye is trained — and you’ll need to make at least 1/3-stop increase when shooting in the snow to ensure that the snow is bright white. Advertise Here The Photo Argus Like 18,079 1 Weird Photography Trick UglyHedgehog.com Check out this one amazing trick for taking breathtaking pictures. How to Sell Your Photos ThePhotographersLife.com Turn Your Pictures into Cash -- A Free Quick-Start-Guide Lauren Modny Photography www.laurenmodny.com Wedding & Portrait Photography Washington DC, Virginia & Maryland Auto Portraits Retoucher ArcSoft.com A Must-Have Software To Retouch Portraits. Save All The Tips! 129 Like
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HOME ABOUT CONTACT CONTRIBUTE SUBSCRIBE TWITTER FLICKR ADVERTISE
Photography Degree OnlineEarn Your Photography Degree Online at The Art Institutes. Learn More!
AIonline.edu
8
TweetTweet
11
414
Tips
Helpful Tips for Shooting in the Snowby Christopher B. Derrick
As the w inter t ime approaches, and the snow begins to fall you might not think that now isa phenomenal t ime to break out your camera and take photographs. But it is. The snow,like the rain (in fact, like all inclimate weather) presents unique opportunit ies, challenges andinspirat ions for the photographically inclined.
Adjust Your ExposureThe one thing to be most aware of w ith snow is that it ’s white (duh!), so therefore yourphotos w ill have a predominant, highly reflect ive background throughout. To get stunningphotographs you need to take this into account and adjust your exposure accordingly. Andpart of exposing correct ly is specifically exposing for the darker subject(s) that you have inyour frame – birds, people, animals in the snow drift are all much darker than the snow, andin many cases your TTL meter w ill flub the photo. Due to the way the the Through-The-Lens Light Meter is designed the most “accurate” exposure registers at 18% Gray, so yourwhites w ill typically be underexposed if you trust the meter. When you’re shoot ing w ithsuch large expanse of white as your background, you need to make an adjustment; and that adjustmentcan usually be achieved by opening the aperture 1/3 of a stop (so you’re going to want to set the camerato Manual to perfect shoot ing in the snow). W ith digital cameras it ’s a lot easier to see the affects of a1/3 f-stop adjustment — if your eye is trained — and you’ll need to make at least 1/3-stop increase whenshoot ing in the snow to ensure that the snow is bright white.
Advertise Here
The Photo Argus
Like 18,079
1 Weird Photography TrickUglyHedgehog.comCheck out this one amazing trick fortaking breathtaking pictures.
How to Sell Your PhotosThePhotographersLife.comTurn Your Pictures into Cash -- A FreeQuick-Start-Guide
Lauren Modny Photographywww.laurenmodny.comWedding & Portrait PhotographyWashington DC, Virginia & Maryland
Auto Portraits RetoucherArcSoft.comA Must-Have Software To RetouchPortraits. Save All The Tips!
MeteringSince you don’t want to trust the camera’s matrix light meter mode (too much), what you’ll want to usewhen shoot ing in the snow is the Spot Meter (if you don’t have a spot meter feature, then use center-weighted metering) for the crit ical port ion of the image that you want to have the most accurateexposure. Now if you’re intended photo is predominant ly the snow and ice, you might get away w ithusing the center-weighted meter mode, but what makes snow-filled photos most capt ivat ing is the richdetails and texture of the snow (even more so if the snow and ice formations are the main subject). However, the spot meter w ill serve you best to get most accurate photos. You’ll want to examine thenegat ive or the histogram (one of the great under-used features on digital cameras) to see if the whitesare clipping. You’ll want to adjust your exposure (shutter speed and/or aperture) to reduce the amountof clipped whites. You’ll get some regardless, because of the power of the sun (even on an overcastday).
Light SourceIn addit ion to the f-stop compensat ion, you must pay part icular attent ion to your light source(s) andwhere your subject is posit ioned relat ive to the key light and the reflect ing light. It ’s too easy to under-expose subjects when the surface area in front of and behind the camera is a gleaming white (it ’s similarto a studio sett ing w ith a white cyc, but more intense). Depending on the subject, you’ll want to blowout the white, snowy background in any event to obtain that subject ive not ion of “proper” exposure. While you might be forced to live w ithout the hi-lites in the snow and lose a considerable amount ofshadow detail, this would arguably be acceptable.
Photo by Bob Fornal
If your digital camera allows you to adjust the color temperature in increments, then you can either cooldown or warm up your photographs. But even if you can’t make minute adjustments in the colortemperature, by sett ing the White Balance for tungsten and you shoot outside in the dayight your imagesoverall w ill be t inged w ith a blue “cooling” cast that w ill be most notable in the shadows of snowybackgrounds. If you’re one of those people who st ill shoots film, then here’s quick t ip that w ill giveevocat ive images. Load tungsten-balance slide film into your camera, photograph your subject(s) in thesnow-filled sett ing and cross-process the film when you’re done. You’ll not ice that water w ill have anunusually blue-black color that is velvety, endless and reflect ive. Of course you could always do an HDR photo if you’re photographing a snowy landscape or st ill life. Butthat ’s another discussion…
Top image by laszlo
Chris Derrick is a writer, photographer, screenwriter and director living and working in LosAngeles. He studied film production and screenwriting at the University of Southern California, and
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Lu Logic said:This is a good post, quite informative.
Jeffrey Bennett said:Another great reason to photograph in the snow is generally, there are fewer peopleand animals out, which really opens the landscape!
Jore Puusa said:Being a professional photojournalist from Finland and living w ith snow half of year Ihave some opposite ideas.Spot metering is certainly a no.Do like this when You work in bright sunshine and snow.1. Use matrix metering.2. Choose a place where there is only snow and it is is even and flat.3. Make a manual measure so that nothing else but snow is in the screen.4. Open the 1-1,5 f stops-depending how clear the place is.5. Use that value. ( do some chimping though)Done this for 37 years.
Bill Jones said:Thanks for the great t ips Jore!
Mark - Devon Wedding Photography said:I’ve never been happy w ith my snow shots, well we only get a couple of days a yearin the UK to try, but w ill hopefully do better this year by combining the advice fromChris and Jore who kindly added a comment w ith extra info.
Siva said:Thanks for sharing your experience Jore Puusa!
Dumitru Brînzan said:Thank you Jore for your t ips, I w ill them as well.Now all I have to do is wait for the snow.
Howard Fritzke said:I live in an area where the w inters produce a good four months of snow. one of thetools not mentioned here which is always help me a great deal for proper “in thesnow” exposure, is a handheld meter w ith an incident dome I am quite surprised thatit was never mentioned.
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