10 Winter Photo Tips: Cool Things to Try

Winter is one of the most beautiful times of year, providing everything from sunny-clear to blizzards for the phtoographer to capture on film or memory card. Here are 10 ideas for you to try this winter.
1. A Touch of Color

Winter snow can be a beautiful photo subject, but a photo of just snow can be pretty dull. You can add "spice" to a snow shot by including a colorful subject, such as this red car. It was just the touch needed to turn this gray-day image (shot during precipitation) into a winner. Photo by Lynne Eodice


2. Holiday Lights
Colorful holiday lights can make for colorful photos. You'd think the dark of night would be the ideal time to shoot them, but all you'll get is colorful spots against black. By shooting at the "magic hour"—around twilight—you can also record some detail in the buildings for more-interesting photos. A tripod is a must, and bracketing exposures is a good idea. Photo by Lynne Eodice


3. Winter Sunrises
With the long days of summer, the sun rises rather early. Winter's later sunrises mean you don't have to get up so early to capture these beautiful events. You can meter the sky just to the side of the sun (with the sun out of the frame), or just let a multi-segment meter do its thing, as was the case here. Photo by Mike Stensvold


4. Clearing Storms
Winter is a stormy season, but eventually those storms clear. And as they do, some incredibly beautiful lighting occurs. All you need to do to capture it is watch for it. Check the local weather forecast to see when a break is likely, and scout out potential picturesque locations. Photo by Mike Stensvold


5. Shooting in "Bad" Weather
Many photographers stay inside and grumble when the weather is "bad." But they're missing great opportunities, for such weather can yield terrific photos. Don't be one of the "grumblies." Bundle up (dress in layers), keep your gear out of the elements (a large plastic sandwich baggie can protect the camera—use a rubber band to fasten the opening around the lens), and look for ethereal, moody images. Photo by Lynne Eodice

6. Bare Trees
Colorful leaves are a mainstay of fall photographers. But you shouldn't ignore those leafless trees in winter. They make great subjects for studies in lines and textures. You can shoot from right under the tree with a wide-angle lens as was done here, or shoot from afar with a telephoto lens. Either way, the key idea is to isolate an interesting portion of the branchwork pattern. If you're shooting from right under the tree, stop the lens down to increase depth of field, so that everything is sharp throughout the image. Photo by Mary McGrath


7. Icicles
Icicles make fun photo subjects. You can move in tight and isolate a portion of a single icicle, or move back and include some of their environment. Move around and shoot them front lit and backlit. For the close-ups, stop the lens down to increase depth of field. Photo by Lynne Eodice


8. Window Filters
Windows collect interesting water variations in winter, like frost and raindrops. These examples of visible moisture make great photo subjects in their own right, and they also provide you with interesting photo filters. Focus on the water drops or frost, and whatever's outside the window will take on a textured effect. If your camera has a depth-of-field preview, use it to check the effects of different apertures; if not, shoot a frame wide open, another stopped halfway down, and a third with the lens stopped all the way down. Photo by Mary McGrath


9. Snow Exposure
Reflected-light meters (including those built into cameras) are calibrated for medium tones: whatever you take a reading from will be reproduced as a medium tone if you expose according to the meter reading. Snow is generally thought of as white, not a medium tone, so snow pictures generally look best when sunlit snow appears white. The multi-segment meters built into today's AF 35mm SLR cameras do a pretty good job of reproducing snow with no correction, but with older center-weighted meters, it's a good idea to increase exposure 1-11/2 stops from the metered reading. In AE mode, you can do this by setting the camera's exposure-compensation control to +1 or +1.5. For this aerial image, no compensation was used—the dark aqueduct kept the meter from being "fooled" by the white now. It's a good idea to bracket exposures and take notes the first time you take snow pictures with your camera, to see what (if any) compensation is needed to reproduce the snow the way you want it to look in your photos. Photo by Mike Stensvold


10. Winter Activities
As is the case at any time of year, you can get some great shots by recording seasonal activities. In winter, skiing, sledding, ice skating and mountain climbing are some of the seasonal activities that provide lots of photo opportunities. Photograph the action, and the participants, and you can enjoy the activities again and again in the future.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ONLINE MAGAZINE - 10/6/2003

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