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Technique Of The Month - Winter Wonders (Part 1)

6/8/2013 9:11:15 AM

Winter offers much to the dedicated photographer willing to don his woollies and head out into the cold. Read on for our top-ten low-temperature photo tips

From Torquay to Tobermory, winter gives rise to a strange ritual of self-abuse among photographers. You know the kind of thing: set alarm for 6:00am, full of enthusiasm to rise early and capture the fresh snow before it turns to grey mush, wake in a state of mild panic when it goes off, see your frozen breath rising above you, realize it’s much warmer in bed than out, hit snooze and fall back to sleep.

One tip if you’re going to be out shooting in the cold for periods of time is to keep any batteries close to your body when not in use

One tip if you’re going to be out shooting in the cold for periods of time is to keep any batteries close to your body when not in use

Any landscape photographer will be more than familiar with this routine. After a cosy night under the duvet, there’s nothing worse than pulling on cold clothes and stepping out into sub-zero temperatures, for no other reason than to take a few pictures. It’s barmy.

So why bother? Because there’s nothing like it. Until you’ve crunched your way down a country lane in the eerie blue pre-dawn light of an icy morning, or watched the sun rise gently over a frosty, mist-laden landscape, you haven’ lived. Where winter’s concerned, seeing is believing, and the only way to do that is by getting out there with your camera, no matter how cold it is.

Where you go plays a major role. If you live in a part of the country where the winter weather tends to be a bit damp and mushy, head north. Generally, the further north you go, the more severe the weather, so if you want to take some hard core winter landscapes, you could do a lot worse than a few days in the Scottish Highlands. If that’s too far to travel, any upland region is worth a visit, such as Snowdonia National Park or the Lake District.

A great thing about winter is that the days are short, with the sun rising at 8:00am and setting by 4:00pm, so you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night for a dawn shoot and you’ll be home again for dinner. Also, because the sun doesn’t rise very high in the sky during winter, the light is of a high quality all day so you can, in fact, enjoy more hours of photography than during summer!

One tip if you’re going to be out shooting in the cold for periods of time is to keep any batteries close to your body when not in use. Cold conditions rapidly reduce battery life and the last thing you want to happen when you’re out shooting is running out of juice. So wrap up warm, grab a flask of hot drink and head out into the winter wonderland…

1.    Shooting snow scenes

We’ve had some amazing winter snowfalls in recent years, so let’s hope more follows this winter. There’s nothing like freshly fallen snow to transform the landscape into a winter wonderland, and shooting it successfully is easy. Catch it fresh, for a start, when it’s still crisp and white, ideally shoot in sunny weather and keep the sun to the side of the camera so the snow is side-lit and its texture revealed. Use footprints, fences, walls and other features to break up the foreground and watch your exposures – underexposure is common when shooting snow and you may need to add as much as +2 stops of exposure compensation to get it right.

Catch it fresh, for a start, when it’s still crisp and white

Catch it fresh, for a start, when it’s still crisp and white

2.    Using a polarizer

On a sunny winter’s day it’s well worth using your polarizing filter. Not only will it deepen the blues in the sky and cool tones on the ground, but it will also enhance cloud formations, improve clarity and contrast, boost colors and remove glare from ice, frost and snow. Rotate the polarizer as normal until you’re happy with the effect, but pay close attention to the effect it has on the sky – full polarization may turn the winter sky almost black at the edges of the frame as it’s naturally a deep blue already, and the results of this will look unnatural.

On a sunny winter’s day it’s well worth using your polarizing filter

On a sunny winter’s day it’s well worth using your polarizing filter

3.    Ice patterns

After an overnight freeze, ice often forms over still water in lakes, ponds and puddles, and offers great potential for pattern and detail images. Trapped air forms tiny bubbles while the movement of water as the ice forms results in graceful curves and swirls in the ice. One stretch of riverbank or lake shore can be the source of many different images. A macro lens is ideal for this, but a standard zoom or a 50mmprime lens also works well. Just a word of warning people dies every winter when they fall through ice into freezing water, so don’t take unnecessary risks.

After an overnight freeze, ice often forms over still water in lakes, ponds and puddles, and offers great potential for pattern and detail images

After an overnight freeze, ice often forms over still water in lakes, ponds and puddles, and offers great potential for pattern and detail images

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