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Winter Wonderland: Taking Great Snow Pictures

© Wendy Folse

Whether you enjoy landscapes are action shots there is a virtual winter wonderland of picture taking opportunities waiting just outside your door. From snowball fights to sled races, winter time is here and the fun is just beginning. One of the most important things to remember in the winter when shooting outdoors is to keep your equipment dry. Tuck the camera inside your jacket next to your body to prevent it from locking up in cold temperatures and watch for lens fog.

Carry extra batteries. The cold temperatures cause the camera to use much more battery power than normal and your batteries will not last as long. It is better to start out with fresh batteries and carry along and extra set just to be on the safe side. If you aren't using the camera, remove the batteries and place them in a pocket where they will keep warm until you are ready to start shooting.

Nature's Beauty

Early morning frost hanging in the trees creates the most spectacular scenes of all and capturing the beauty is easier than you think. Try to shoot on a clear crisp day when the sun first begins to rise. As the sun shines through the ice it creates dazzling sparkles. Be ready with a fresh roll of ISO 100 speed film and a long lens that lets you get close up. Try taking photos through the ice to create some magical images.

No one likes ice storms, except maybe a photographer. Postcard perfect images of frozen trees abound everywhere after an ice storm. And don't forget about the icicles hanging down everywhere like glimmering prisms reflecting light in beautiful rainbow patterns. Bundle up warm and get out and enjoy the wonders of nature in the winter.

Exposure Guide

It is best to overexpose snow pictures by one or two stops because the camera's meter reads the scene and tries to render it as 18% gray. You want white snow, not gray snow so in order to place the snow on the correct tonal range you would over expose or open up one or two stops, letting in more light.

When taking pictures of people in a snowy snow, realize that you will have to choose which is more important the snow or the person. If you overexpose the scene in order to render the snow accurately, the person's face will be overexposed as well. The trick here is to get very close to the person and take a reading directly on the person's face, set the exposure for that reading. Now no matter where you choose to take the picture from, the expose will be correct for the person's face.

The copyright of the article Winter Wonderland: Taking Great Snow Pictures in Photography is owned by Wendy Folse. Permission to republish Winter Wonderland: Taking Great Snow Pictures in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.