You can feel it in the air, The nights are getting colder, The leaves are falling from the trees, Winter is coming. Don’t put your camera away just yet, the cold winter months offer amazing opportunities for some outstanding photos. The bleak frozen landscape can make for some atmospheric, and abstract shots. Most people don’t want to venture out when it is cold, windy, and rainy. Instead they want to stay inside watching TV, all while you are outside exploring the beauty of Winter. There are fewer people out and about during Winter, and hotels are usually cheaper. It is a perfect time to travel someplace new for some Winter photography.
But with the cold weather also comes some challenges to overcome. Not only is it cold for the photographer, but your camera can start to misbehave in freezing temperatures.
Tip #1: Overexpose the shot
When your camera sees the bright white snow, it will meter off the snow and try to “properly expose” the white snow at 18% gray. This means the snow will look dull and gray instead of bright white snow. To prevent this, increase the exposure compensation 1 full stop or 1 1/3 stops. Now the camera will see the bright white snow, and instead of trying to “correctly expose” the snow, it will make the snow 1 or 1 1/3 stops brighter. Now the snow will be bright in your photos. But make sure to keep an eye on your histogram and not let the data touch the right side of the chart. If the data of the histogram touches the right side, then you are completely blowing out the whites in your photo and you will lose all details in those spots. Snow is easy to blow out especially when it is sunny out.
Tip #2: Batteries
Batteries and freezing temperatures do not go well together. When a battery is cold, it can dramatically reduce the amount of power in your battery. When you are out shooting in cold temperatures, try to have at least one extra battery with you. Keep the extra battery close to your body in a warm pocket. Your body heat will keep the battery warm and fully charged. When the battery in your camera starts to run low of juice, swap it with the warm battery and keep on shooting. Take your cold battery and put it back in your pocket where the warm battery was. Your body heat will warm the cold battery back up, and you often keep using that battery once it has warmed up a bit.
Tip #3: Protect your gear
Winter weather can be brutal, rain, freezing rain, hail, snow, wind, freezing temperatures, all things that can damage your expensive camera. It is important that you keep your camera as dry as possible. Some cameras even have a weather sealing to keep water and dirt out. It basically means there are rubber seals on all the ports to keep moisture out, but it does not mean you can go swimming with your camera. Rain covers are excellent at keeping your camera try. Think of it as a rain jacket for your camera. I suggest this one. It is extremely affordable and the #1 selling rain cover on amazon. That rain cover will protect your camera, but what about all your other gear? Make sure your camera bag has a rain cover. Many bags come with a built in rain cover that you can pull over your bag when it starts to rain.
Tip #4: Sunny weather
When the sun starts to shine, if you can, move into the shadows and keep shooting. Sunlight causes glare on all of the snow which causes you to lose detail in the snow. If you can not move into the shade, a polarizer filter will help reduce glare.
Tip #5: Stay warm
Make sure you are dressed for cold weather. You don’t want to be focusing on how cold you are instead of focusing on your photography. Nothing drains you of your motivation to take pictures than being cold. You are there to shoot, nothing else. Wear a warm jacket, wool socks, a warm hat, warm gloves, Long underwear, and warm pants. I also like to bring a hot drink in a good Thermos.
Tip #6: Condensation
So you have been out in the cold shooting all day, and it is time to take a break and head back indoors to warm up. When you go inside with a cold camera, condensation will collect on the lens. It is just like a pair of glasses, when you walk into a warm room from the cold, they fog up. The same thing happens to your camera lens. One nifty trick to prevent that is to put your camera into a plastic bag then go indoors. This will cause all of the condensation to collect on the plastic bag but not on the camera itself. After the camera has warmed up to room temperature, you can now remove it from the bag fog free.
Tip #6: Footsteps in the snow
Your footsteps will show up in the snow. So before you go marching out into the fresh snow to compose that perfect shot, decide where you want to take your shot from and what of, Now you know where to walk so you can avoid having your footsteps cut right through the frame. It may take a few minutes to walk to your destination, but it will save you a lot of time not editing footsteps out of your picture in Photoshop.
Now with these tips, you are ready to face the frigid temperatures and get out there to make some amazing winter photos.