Winter has always been my favorite season. The idea of a slower moment in life to make us more introspective, thoughtful, a growing inner time in a beautiful season.
Colder days, but that does not mean that we can go back to the cave and come out after 3 months. This reclusive time allow for wonderful photo opportunities.
Winter provides some unique scenes all over the planet, with its variety of different winters.
In some places, a lot of wind, in others a lot of rain, in others, a lot of snow and some places have no winter at all, with their tropical heat all year round.
Since we are in the North Hemisphere and winter is showing up timid, I figured we could use some thoughts about photographing in cold weather.
Snow is tricky. And cold. Did i say cold?? Yeah. Cold. So lets start with some careful preparation in organizing the equipment.
When it is below freezing temperature (Zero degrees Celsius / 32 degrees Fahrenheit), we are subject to condensation when going out to take pictures. Condensation happens when you are outside in the cold and come home to a warmer temperature. Remember when you have the sunglasses in snow and comes inside and it fogs?? That's condensation.
So in order to prevent the camera and lens to "suffer" the cold, and to enjoy winter photography, take some steps:
- Avoid changing lens in the cold weather, the more you expose the camera to the extreme weather, the more you increase your chances of having problems.
- If wind brings dust, snow brings water, which is worse.The problem with condensation is that your camera, or anything with a circuit connected to your camera can get water once the "ice" or "cold" warms up in the camera, and that can "fry" your camera circuit, your battery, your memory card.
- If possible, carry a big zip bag to put the camera on when coming to a warmer place then outside temperature. This way the camera can slowly adapt to the new temperature and the cold will be transferred to the plastic bag.
- Carry silica gel in the zip bag or in the camera bag if you are not using any plastic clear bag. That will help to take the moisture off the camera and store in the silica gel bags.
- When coming from outside, let the camera warm up slowly.
- Give it at least a couple of hours without taking it from the camera bag or from the zip bag. This way the camera will acclimatize gradually.
- Don't try to take the memory card from the camera in this "warming" time (I call it "waking up time").
- Careful with breathing in your camera or in the viewfinder: the viewfinder can fog and the whole camera can be ruined by "freezing" the moisture of your breath inside it.
- Remember to protect the photographer in you too: layers, good ans warming socks, head covered with fleece and more, insulated shoes. You don't want to take a beautiful picture and come back home without feet.(I know that is extreme, but you get the point.)
- Get extra batteries. Cold weather drains them like crazy.
Now about exposure, making it very simple:
The camera meters for 18% grey. If you meter and your meter bar is in the middle of your viewfinder's scale, you have a "correct" exposure, unless you have extreme contrast or more than average tones, such as white or black, or dark brown and dark blues. They will "fool" your in camera meter. So whatever your meter tells you, it is wrong to start with anytime you are photographing too dark tones or too bright tones. It will tell you to make a grey snow, because it is "averaging" for 18% grey, and snow is not grey.
If you want a white snow, you need to compensate your exposure, in other words, meter for your "correct" exposure, and then change the aperture or change the shutter speed to ADD more light to come inside the camera to reach the digital sensor. This means that after you take your meter you will open up the aperture (a smaller number) in order to allow more light come in- OR keep whatever your aperture you want and make a longer shutter speed than the "correct".
In practical terms: let's pretend you meter the snow scene and your meters says you should have 1/125 in your shutter speed and f8 in your aperture. If you use that meter, you will have a grey snow. Now let's say you like f/8 for your aperture, and your scene is in shade(sun is not reaching the snow), you should take the picture with f/8 and shutter speed 1/60 or 1/45 for a shady scene. That should give you a "correct" snow, which means the snow will look bright as it is and not "muddy" dark grey. Usually, exposure for snow is about +1 to 1 1/2 f/stops if in shade. For noon pictures in the snow with sun hitting it try +2 or + 2 1/2 even +3!! In digital times, you can play and see what you did, and learn from it!
What about themes?
You can think feelings or you can think photo impact. What is not there but it is suggested...is there. Frozen flowers. Stones. Empty benches. Paths in the park. Quiet sunrises. Frozen lakes. Water. Dead trees. Shadows, shapes, shallow rivers. Horses. Door knobs. Windows. People!
Get yourself a cup of coffee, bundle up, get your equipment. Get inspired, go out and make pictures! It is winter after all!!
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