Winter Photography Text And Pictures Copyrighted By Tom Pidgeon

                                                      

     Winter shooting is 80 percent attitude, 10 percent practical and 10 percent technical.  If the photographer thinks "cold and miserable," he or she will be cold and miserable, with little possibility of achieving good photographic results.
    If, however, attitude and practical considerations can be whipped into shape, photographic success can be attained in a niche where few photographers make the effort to try.
    In extremely cold weather, a person's metabolism slows.  Breathing and most actions become sluggish.  Preparations before you go out are most important.
    Be prepared to keep things as simple as possible.  The more actions are automatic, requiring little conscious action and thought, the better.
    Dressing warmly and comfortably will take care of most of the attitude problem.  Let's start with the most important part of the body, your feet:

FEET: Wear two pairs of socks - a pair of Thinsulate undersocks and over them, a heavy pair of wool socks.  The socks should be topped by a good pair of leather boots or Sorrells.  When your feet are toasty warm, all's right with the world.

BODY: On your body, dress in layers.  A good outfit consists of long polypropylene underwear with polyester or wool pants.  Too many of us wear blue jeans.  In very cold weather, if they get wet, they'll be wet all day and you will be miserable all day.  Wet wool will still keep you warm.
Over the pants, I wear a light waterproof, windproof pair of pull-on pants.
    On top, try a turtleneck jersey over the long-john top, a pullover sweater or padded wool shirt, a photo vest and a 3/4 length Gore-Tex windproof jacket and hood.   When it's very cold, say 10 to 20 below, I wear a Patagonia fleece sweater under the photo vest.

HEAD: Because the head is a primary source of heat loss, I wear a wool pull-down hat that covers my ears. When the wind really blows, I pull the parka hood up over the wool hat.  The parka also has a zipper that zips up to my nose.  The only part of me that's visible are my eyes.  A  good pair of sunglasses are a must when you have a combination of bright sun and snow.  Make sure the sunglasses are not polarized if you use polarizing filters on your camera lens.

HANDS: Keeping your hands warm and still being able to manipulate those small, hard-to-get-to camera controls is a challenge.  A lot of photographic advice you read recommends thin silk ski glove liners under mittens or fingerless wool gloves.  Beware:  They are extremely slippery.  There is real danger you will drop a camera or lens in a snowdrift.
    This past winter, for the first time, I experimented with a left and right golf glove.  I wore them under  fingerless mittens and was delighted.  They grip equipment well when you change lenses.  They are windproof, yet light enough to manipulate the camera controls very well.  Bring a spare pair in case the first pair gets wet.

YOUR EQUIPMENT: Keeping yourself warm isn't the only problem.  You must also keep your equipment functioning in the cold, which is especially difficult with today's battery-driven cameras.  However, things have gotten better over the years.   There was a time when you would have to send your cameras away to be "winterized," an expensive lubrication process that had to undone when the weather got warmer.  Technological improvements in lubricants have all but eliminated that problem.  Focusing and zoom functions may become stiff in extreme cold, but camera functions will operate fine in cold temperatures if some simple precautions are followed.

ORGANIZE YOUR GEAR:  The night before you go out, organize your gear.  I wear a photo vest under my parka and every pocket is home for a specific piece of equipment.  I know exactly where everything is.  There is nothing as frustrating in -10 degree cold as fumbling for that filter you can't find.  The same applies to camera bodies and lenses.  Your camera bag should be organized in the same way with everything in the same spot every time.  Film goes in the top pocket of the photo vest, (the next layer under the parka) where it's easy to get to, yet is kept reasonably warm.

CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT: When not in use, keep your camera body in a bag or photo vest pocket.  When shooting, don't rush but work as quickly as is practical so that your equipment is not exposed to the cold for long periods of time.  Battery drain is your biggest problem in temperatures below freezing, so don't expose your equipment for more time than is necessary.
    Another major problem in cold weather is condensation buildup on your lenses from radical changes in temperature when getting in and out of a warm car.  To minimize the risk, when it's not in use, keep your gear in the trunk or in the rear of the vehicle away from the heating vents in front.  If snow lands on your lens don't blow on  it.  Your warm breath will freeze immediately, rendering the lens useless until you can defrost it.
    One more small thing:  When bringing your camera to your eye, don't breath through your nose on the viewfinder (I've done this many times).  You will be cleaning the ice off the viewfinder while you watch that great shot get away.
    When the photography is finished for the day,  seal your camera bodies and lenses in plastic bags before bringing them into a warm room.  Otherwise, condensation will form inside and outside your cameras and lenses which, if it hasn't dried out overnight, will freeze when you go out the next day, causing you all sorts of problems.

FILM: If film gets too cold, it may become brittle and break.  Use low or single shot advance on your automatic cameras  and avoid the high-speed film advance mode to safeguard against static electricity and film breakage.

 SHOOTING SNOW SCENES: A general misconception about film exposure in snow is that you have to follow the 18 percent gray card rule, which recommends that you   overexpose drastically to make the snow white.  There's another misconception that snow is white, and you have to make it white.  Well, it's not always, and you don't.
    The first point is that snow is very seldom white.    It picks up reflections which change its color.  A blue sky casts a blue/gray reflection on snow.   Morning or evening light casts a beautiful warm glow on snow.  You need to be aware of these changing nuances and take advantage of them.  Just as in any other photograph, you need to hold detail and texture in both the shadow and highlight portions of the image.   If you follow the gray card rule, you will lose those beautiful subtleties of tone and color that make great snow pictures great, and end up with very little snow detail.
    As a general rule, when reading off the snow,  I follow a sequence of three exposures per composition.  With the ISO set at the film speed, the first exposure is   +.7.  The second is +1.  The third is +1.3.   Usually,  the +1 exposure is the one I prefer.
    When photographing people or animals in snow, the best way to reduce contrast is to use fill flash.  This also is a great method to put that all-important highlight in the eye that can make or break animal pictures.    Remember to set your flash compensation to -1.3 to -1.7 stops, or the flash effect will show, and the picture will look unnatural.

CONTRAST: Contrast can be a major problem when photographing people or animals in snow scenes.  This is where a spot meter is very useful.    Take a reading directly off the subject and underexpose by .3  stop.  If you don't have a spot meter, take a reading off the snow and open up 1 stop.    A polarizing filter is good for eliminating reflections from snow.   However, you should turn the filter to a medium or low polarizing effect or you will turn the blue sky to a very unnatural looking deep blue.   (If you like it, that's fine).

Winter clearly isn't all "cold and miserable."  A whole new world of photographic opportunities awaits.  So, blast off your comfortable couch, spend some time in careful preparation, and get out there and enjoy it.  See you there!