Tips For Taking Great Photos in the Snow

Eight essential tips for taking pictures in the snow.

• Allow your camera time to adjust. Condensation is your enemy, so allow time for your camera to adjust to the cold by keeping your camera in the bag for 10-15 minutes before taking it out to shoot. Also avoid rapid temperature changes - don't walk in and out of buildings all the time. When you're finished with your shoot, put your camera in a zip lock bag before you bring it indoors and keep it in your camera bag. Allow it to gently adjust to the indoor temperature (about 2 hours). Another trick is to throw a few desiccant packs into your camera bag. These help to absorb moisture and they are inexpensive.
  

Camera wrapped in plastic bag

Desiccant gel bag.

• Cold temperatures can significantly reduce battery life. Keep an extra set of batteries in an inside pocket of your jacket so that it's close to your body or use a hand warmer next to the battery to keep it warm.
• Protect your lens by keeping the lens cap on and protect your camera by storing it in your bag when not shooting. If the lens gets wet don't blow on the lens but use a microfiber cloth to clean the condensation or snowflakes from the lens. If it's snowing or raining think about protecting your camera and lens by investing in and using a rain cover such as the Optech Rain Sleeve pictured below. These are available from Henrys and other camera stores.
  

• Consider over exposing by 1 to 2 stops to compensate for the camera's desire to turn white snow into grey snow. If you're shooting in aperture priority mode, adjust the compensation dial to increase the exposure by this amount. Also verify that your histogram is spread out and not bunched together at the dark (left) end of the graph (values 0-128).
  

• Use the correct White Balance so that your images look crisp and not muddy.

• Shoot in RAW format if possible. This gives you greater control and flexibility to modify the exposure and white balance after you've taken the shot.
  

• Take advantage of strong design opportunities that snow offers including leveraging contrast, texture, colour and leading lines.

• When it's cold, keeping your hands warm while taking photos can be challenging. Try wearing a very thin pair of gloves underneath your regular pair of winter gloves so that you can still protect your hands while retaining enough dexterity to adjust the camera settings. The pair I use also allows me to control touch screens.
  

Thought For The Day

“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” – Ansel Adams