Snow Photography

[billski]

Anyone have tips for taking snow photos on an overcast day? Camera adjustments, angles, etc. I often have minimal camera adjustments, and sometimes they come out all blue if I adjust the brightness too low, or all washed out if too high. My bigger challenge though is that of washout, where I lose the details of the snow. Are there post-processing adjustments that are particuarly helpful? Might as well learn a little while I'm waiting for the snow to fly...

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

Wish I could help you, but i usually end up only taking pictures on the slopes on sunny days (mostly because of the problems you described).

Here's a link to a pretty good photography forum where I'm certain someone could give you a good answer: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1010

If you get a good response, would you mind sharing it here?

Thanks.

 

[Greg]

Paint Shop Pro

I do all most color correction after the fact. I typically just leave my camera (Canon Powershot A700) on "Auto". I will correct the greyness of cloudy days in an image editor. I've been using Paint Shop Pro for years since around version 5. It does almost everything I need and is not as expensive as Photoshop.

Usually, I'll start with fixing the color balance; most often this involved "warming" the image to get rid of the blue hue. I will then increase the brightness and contrast. Paint Shop Pro has great "auto adjust" filters for doing this where you still can choose the amount of color and brightness correction. I will then resize the image to 1024 pixels wide and hit it with a single sharpen filter.

Here's an example of the results of a snow pic on a mostly cloudy day:

 

[riverc0il]

Another nod to Canon PowerShot's Auto mode, it almost always gets the job done. When skiing with a camera, it is important to be able to whip it out and snap something quick, especially action shots (no one likes standing around waiting) so the first issue with snow photography is buying a quality PNS that has a good auto mode. You can play around with the settings if you have some time and can set something up and want to study up, but I prefer quick shots and lots of them. Always take a few different shots adjusting from a few different angles and zooms if you have the time.

I have a couple of tricks to make pictures come out better. Sunny days are easy, you need to put the sun at your back and not shot into the glare of the sun. You also need to capture stuff that is not just all white. I try to juxtapose the snow with something, whether that be a skier, building, lift, mountain, ridge, tree, etc. Same with cloudy days though, you need the picture to say more than "here is a ski trail" because really... who cares? Everyone has seen that ski trail. What distinguishes your photo of that trail?

Powder conditions are tough to capture. As much as I love skiing untracked, it is hard to capture that feeling of standing before a completely untracked run. A track or two adds depth and lets the viewer see about how deep the snow really is. Action powder shots are cool. Auto rapid fire is the way to go. You want to get the picture with the powder "exploding" into the skier. Usually makes snow depth and powder conditions look epic when it might only be 6-12". The color of the skier's gear and jacket will usually help off set poor light and you can usually get at least one or two crisp shots of the skier.

For landscapes, I love trees. I use framing a lot. Just shooting at some trees when you are skiing glades will generally yield poor results. You need to find a distinctive aspect of the glade run that has something interesting to show.

I am no pro (or amateur even) but can usually score a few nice shots every weekend and one or two wowzer shots every month or two. Take lots of shots, experiment, look for unconventional angles and things to capture, and be ready to whip out that camera and start shotting quick on a moments notice.

 

[billski]

You guys hit the ski on the head. showing the texture of the snow and the trail variation is a real challenge when I'm trying to describe for a TR the conditions. I always revert to words because the pictures just can't describe hardpack, fgr, lgr, etc. Framing for subject is not really what I struggle with, it's showing the gradations and characteristics of the snow.

I've also noticed when I snap photos of a line in deep powder that it's impossible to show just how deep the snow is. The lines just fill back in.

 

[dmc]

Use trees and stuff for contrast.. Get into the trees where some of the different color light will be bouncing around to offset the white...

 

[billski]

I'm like Steve, snap and go. I would rather be skiing than taking pics, I just want a few seconds to capture good memories. There's nothing akin to a "snow" mode (or analogous settings) on a camera is there? It sounds like auto is the way to go.

 

[dmc]

I'm like Steve, snap and go. I would rather be skiing than taking pics, I just want a few seconds to capture good memories. There's nothing akin to a "snow" mode (or analogous settings) on a camera is there? It sounds like auto is the way to go.

It is...
Thinking about composition doesn't take all that long..

 

[SnowRider]

If shooting in manual bump up the exsposure to .3 or .7 depending how dark it is out.

 

[ckofer]

I got a Sony for xmas that has a snow mode!

Also, you may as well play with your settings while you're not skiing. Since digital cameras have become quite good you can take a lot of shots to practice.

I'm like Steve, snap and go. I would rather be skiing than taking pics, I just want a few seconds to capture good memories. There's nothing akin to a "snow" mode (or analogous settings) on a camera is there? It sounds like auto is the way to go.

 

[kbroderick]

First, learn to read the histogram on your camera. If you have a good histogram, you can often massage the details afterwards to maintain snow texture and skier detail. Photoshop's shadow and highlight tool (or Adobe Camera Raw's "Highlight Recovery" and "Fill Light" tools) help with this; I don't know what the equivalent would be in other tools. Luminous Landscape has a good historgram tutorial.

Once you know how to read the histogram, use the exposure compensation on your camera (most have it, and it's usually no more than three button presses to access and set the amount). That way, you can make sure that you're capturing the detail, even if you can't see it until after you post-process.

It also helps to convince skiers that they don't really want to wear black--trying to deal with a skier in black against snow and keeping the texture of the snow is really tough.

 

[crank]

I haven't tried this, but I have been told by a pro that with todday's digital cameras the auto iris will close down because of the brightness of snow. You may need to open the iris up a stop or so to get the detail.

I have an Olympus and I just shoot on auto and correct in photoshop.

 

[Marc]

No one here uses Gimp?

 

[Brettski]

I buy Meathead movies and just ski

 

[riverc0il]

No one here uses Gimp?

I edit using DigiKam with plugins. No real need for the Gimp with the tools available from the photo management app. Though I have Gimp on call when needed for some advanced jobs.

 

[billski]

No one here uses Gimp?

I thought that was what you are called after you crash, burn and are released from the emergency room.:roll:

 

[Euler]

iphoto

I haven't yet done it for snow pix, but I just found this weekend that iphoto has easy adjustments for color saturation, exposure, temperature, ect that can really help after the fact. I shot some photos of my kids inside a gym and the original photo had a sickly yelow cast to it from the lights. By adjusting the temperature and saturation in iphoto I was able to transform them into some pretty decent pictures. While iPhoto is a Mac application, I'd guess most photo software has a similar feature set.

 

[Marc]

I thought that was what you are called after you crash, burn and are released from the emergency room.:roll:

The Gimp.

 

[billski]

The Gimp.

thanks. I'll just stick to the skiing...