Shooting in the snow

/3 Comments/in , , /by

YES we have snow in the Netherlands, well actually we have had snow since this weekend. The funny thing about the Netherlands (well actually not funny) is that immediately the whole country lies flat on it’s back, incredibly long traffic jams, no more trains and I wonder how long it will take this time before the salt runs out. Yes you read it correctly we use salt to make “sure” the roads aren’t slippery. The last few years every time the government claims that they have learned from the last time and that there will be more than enough salt, and every time it’s gone within a week 🙂

But of course we also photograph in the snow and this brings some problems, so today some small tips and a small video containing the tips.

Make sure you’re warm
Well Duh I hear you think but sometimes photographers forget one vital thing, gloves.
And the reason is very simple, when you wear gloves operating your camera can be difficult, but that’s very easy to solve. I bought some runners gloves from the sport store and they are awesome. It’s very easy to operate the camera, and although they are not nearly as warm as my normal gloves they do keep my hands relatively warm (at least warm enough) and at the moment we have temperatures of -22.7 degrees Celcius and some wind so it feels a LOT colder and the gloves work nicely. We also ordered some new gloves that make it possible to operate your iPhone and the sports edition has a nice grip surface on the inside, I hope to receive these this week and will let you guys know if they are working out.

Shooting the snow
Our camera is using reflective metering inside and although that works great in most cases, it will fail when shooting in the snow. The technique of your camera is very simple, it will calculate certain areas of the frame (depending on what you set your metering to) to be app 18% gray (12% on some cameras). This means that when you are shooting an image that is mostly white, for example a white sky with new fresh snow it will be too dark (or a little grayish). To correct this you can use EC (Exposure Compensation) on your camera.

There actually is no golden rule that will always work, you will have to be a little bit “smart”.
Analyze your scene and determine your compensation.
For example if you have a white sky, fresh snow you will probably need somewhere near the 2 stops, but when there is a nice dark blue sky and “older” snow you will probably only need 1 stop. If the snow reflects very brightly you will probably need a little bit less. What you will find out very quickly is that when you practice this you will start to recognize the compensation you need automatically, and don’t worry if it’s not 100% correct, with these kind of shots you can always correct in Photoshop, but make sure that if you shoot a series that you keep it constant.

One more quick tip, batteries will run down much more quickly in the cold, make sure you carry enough and when a battery is half empty it can help to switch batteries and keep the half emptied one in a pocket inside your coat to get it warm again.

The video
During my DSLR for beginners workshop we shot this small video with some tips about shooting in the snow.

3 replies
  1. Henrik Sewell
    Henrik Sewell says:

    Thanks for the tip about runners gloves – I will try them!

    Loved your expression “Older snow”, and by the way – here in Denmark, only a little further north, everythings stops working as well, when the snow comes.

  2. Frans Geurtsen
    Frans Geurtsen says:

    I use neopreen gloves that you can buy at the fishing stores. They are very warm, very good grip and you can “open up” 3 vingers (Index, middle finger and thumb) to operate your camera.

  3. Kurt Pas
    Kurt Pas says:

    Thanks Frank! Very useful
    information again.

     

    I have done a few snow
    shoots in the past. Mainly dog breeds (Malamutes, Husky’s, Akita’s etc…) for
    magazines and calendars and a few mushing events. As I like to shoot dogs from
    there eye level, this means that I,m often laying on the ground. Some shoots
    have taken a hole day outside.

     

    I practice alpinism
    and use the same clothes and system to stay warm. Layers Layers Layers. Inner
    layer of thermal underwear, mid layer of alpine or softshell vest and trousers
    or fleece and an outer layer of Gore-tex ore again softshell. Putting some aluminum
    foil between the inner shoe soles and the base of the shoe can help to stay warm (some
    trick I used in climbing frozen waterfalls).

     

    I
    use a pair of gloves where I cut the thumb and index finger. Above that I wear
    an pair of mittens witch cab be fold back at the finger part, so that my
    fingers are free when I am operating the camera.

     

    To
    lay down in the snow for a while, I use a Therm-a-Rest’s  camping mattress (not the self inflatable
    system, go for the one with closed cell structures.)

Comments are closed.