Useful tips for winter photography
Clothing
The two most important things to bear in mind for winter photography are comfort and safety. You can’t work well if you are cold or wet. The secret of winter comfort is layering of clothing, and paying attention to the extremities.
Search the photo locations in advance
Snow makes traveling much more difficult. The more snow, the longer it will take you to move from one location to another. If you walk, it will take you twice or three times longer to cover the distance.
Never cover the distances alone
In winter, any obstacle is twice more difficult. A travel partner makes it easier to move ahead, traces are removed in turns, and in case of an accident - even a common one - your partner is the only one who can help you.
Hands
Gloves are essential in cold weather, and you should wear a thin pair that enables you to set all the controls on the camera.
Head
Except in very cold weather, a soft thermal hat pulled down over your ears is enough to keep your head warm, with the hood from the jacket covering the camera in wet or windy conditions. Avoid hats with peaks that can get in the way when taking pictures.
At what time it is best to take photos
In winter, the sun is much lower in the sky. Thus, the light is good all day long especially uphill and in the mountains. However, dawn and dusk are the most spectacular moments of the day. The snow amplifies the warm chromatics of these moments.
Batteries or accumulators
They are quickly emptied because of the low temperatures. Make sure that you have exchangeable batteries on you. There is nothing more unpleasant than running out of batteries in front of white frosted subjects.
Filters
In winter, UV filters are most employed at altitudes higher that 1000 m. But your photo case should also contain the polarizing filter and, eventually, an 81A warm up or skylight filter.
Condensation
It is one of the photography enemies in winter. When you enter a heated room, do not open your photo case immediately. In extremely cold weather, try to avoid breathing out directly on your camera when framing. Otherwise, you may find your camera covered with thin ice. At high temperatures, this turns into moisture and it may damage your camera.
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February 8th, 2008 at 7:02 am
I found your blog via Icerocket blogsearch while searching for Winter photography and your post regarding “Useful tips for winter photography” looks very interesting to me. I have a few Photography websites of my own and I must say that your blog is really good. Keep up the great work on a really high class resource. I Love Winter photography and for most of us, even the thought of capturing on camera, a great shot of an idyllic winter scene is heartwarming and at the same time mind-numbingly depressing. We all know through bitter experience that a winter photography shot we thought of as perfect, might as well in fact be tossed in the garbage can. One really helpful trick that I learned for winter photography is to meter for something other than the snow