Hina Akram
Show me ONE person who does not love Snow! its fun, its soothing and its great!
I can dig into a million reasons (literally!!) as to why snow is the best thing that can ever happen in your life. Unfortunately, when it comes to dream vacations, people often overlook visiting the magnificent sights of milky snow show.
If you are headed towards a beach for your vacation fun, we’d suggest you to head somewhere where you can experience LIFE and nature. A pure bliss, Snowy Northern/ Southern areas have a lot more to offer than what they are bargained for! And what is more that your snowy destination comes with absolutely perfect capture worthy moment! Now that we’ve convinced you in how snow is the best! We are here to walk you through a guide of how you achieve amazing snow photography skills.
We have to preserve that snowflake moment!
Depending on where you are located, how often you come across the opportunity for photography involving snow can be somewhere from everyday to never. However, when you do find a great place for your winter snowy shoots, you can always take out your DSLR’s, and follow us through simple tips and tricks to know how you can have great winter photographs.
Snow Photography Preparation Tips
Things can be very challenging, if you are set out for winter photography expeditions. Chances are you might face quite many unwelcome challenges, Therefore it is recommended to be prepared for such unpredictable events. just to be extra and super careful, take your time and be mindful of some extra measures. For example;
Accommodate some handy light accessories with you to enhance your photography skills. For instance,the war golden light breaking at dawn, in contrast with the blue tones of snow will the most majestic sight you can ever capture. Same can be done at the time of sunset. But beautiful blue combined with the cold blue tones of snow, gives off magical effects.
Make sure you carry warm enough clothes with you. Keep some extra clothing if you are not sure, about how long your stay can be. If you are intending to capture deep snow, wear a warm and waterproof suit. hat, shooting, gloves, fur boots, clothing as such should be on your list before you set out to pack your bags.
Have your camera besides you all times. Your camera would need good charge too, so make sure your camera batteries are fully charged and kept in a proper place, such as the camera bag. To avoid condensation of your camera, as soon as you come back, ensure that your camera is placed in a safe cool place and comes to the normal room temperature eventually. Silica bags can always be a good investment if you are not sure about how your equipment will take the temperature.
Experiment with Shutter Speeds
Be aware of the mechanics of your tripod. use slow shutter speed to create a “streaking” effect in the image. You would be surprised at how beautiful your picture can turn out to be. You can adjust your shutter speed, and adjust the mechanics of it determining how fast the winds are blowing. Play around with your shutter speed, to capture various different moments during your winter adventure.
Think Creatively
Be creative! you are out in the wild, enjoy yourself as much as possible, be smart with how you want to customize your pictures. White skies and snow-covered scenery can be very dreamy if you are particular about your angles and color contrasting. For instance, black silhouette effect can be a total winner if you cannot think of any other thing for your photography preferences. If you have an eye for interesting contrasts in colors, your pictures can be a total bummer! oh! and our tip: Red objects photographed against white snow have a very strong impact as a backdrop of your photo.
Do not overdo your photography editing. Less is often more, so don’t even think of trying to cram everything into one single shot. Keep out an eye for beautiful snow covered trees, vintage style huts or buildings, and other crafty objects – then zoom in. Always use RAW formatting, with clean objects against white backgrounds.
With long low shadows, your photography can be enhanced 100 times faster. Use these shadow effects to lead the viewer into the image (watch out for your own shadow in your pictures though)
Use the Correct Exposures
Camera is automatically set to make everything mid-toned, this can further lead to problems when you are rooting for snow. the snow can often confuse your camera, which can lead to underexposed shots with gray color exposure of your picture. to avoid that, that you have to make sure that you set your camera in one of these three ways;
Frame your shot. and slowly zoom into a bright area of snow in the scene. pressing down your exposure compensation button, choose a value between +2/3 to +1 2/3 EV, depending on the brightness of the snow. Take a meter reading, remember your settings, switch to manual, and now dial in the new shutter speed and aperture. This will enhance your overall snow effect, without blowing out other objects in your photo.
Check your settings. Mid -tones can usually pop up, in case you are experiencing any such mid-tone objects visibility (like a gray rock or building), make sure to take a meter reading off these. This will rightly render these settings, to enhance the effect of snow correctly. You may like to choose a specific dial with a little negative compensation (such as -1/3 EV) to avoid the highlight effect of the snow on your backdrop and from being blown out.
Correct exposure with a histogram. Take a testing test shot and keep updated with the histogram. The rising and falling of the hump will help you determine what exactly you should be doing to compensate the overall effects of your highlights of the picture. Google might help you to understand better with some good videos.
Dealing with Reflections
Carry a good lens, Using a lens when shooting photographs in snow, will define the charm of your picture. So much so for the same reason you should avoid using flash as much as possible; it will definitely bounce off the snow and overexpose your picture graphics, especially if its snow falling.
