Winter can provide some excellent new photo opportunities with the arrival of frosty mornings, snow and ice. A once-familiar landscape can take on an entirely different look overnight.
If you’re like me, you’re probably planning to venture out and shoot some photos but before you do, here are a few quick tips to help you make the most of the conditions.
Equipment:
In the UK we don’t generally get it so cold that a camera won’t function, but there are a couple of important considerations:
Firstly, when you head out into the cold you should allow your camera a few minutes to adjust to the colder temperature. If it’s been stored in a typical centrally heated house it’s likely to mist up and that’s not going to lead to nice shots!
You should also be aware that batteries won’t perform as well in the cold either, and it’s likely you’ll find them running out much quicker. What I usually do is to keep a spare in an inside pocket where it will stay warm. If you do find yourself caught out with a flat battery, it’s worth putting it in your pocket for a while as you’ll often find if it’s warmed up a bit you may get a few more shots out of it. Please don’t try and warm it up on a heater or anything though as that could well end up damaging the battery!
Exposure compensation:
When most of the scene is snow you’ll need to adjust your exposure by about 1-2 stops to ensure the snow appears pure white.
The main problem with snow is that its pure white and highly reflective which confuses the camera’s metering system. Modern cameras have highly sophisticated electronic metering systems that deliver excellent results for a scene with a normal range of contrast. They do this by averaging the range of tones in the image and adjusting until the brightness is mid-grey. This works well when the subject has a wide tonal range with everything from black to white being present, but when it is very bright such as snow the camera underexposes so that the white becomes grey.
This is the classic example where you need to override the camera’s metering and adjust the exposure using the exposure compensation control, or by manually adjusting your shutter speed or aperture in manual. You’ll usually find an adjustment of about 1.5 stops will be about right, but if in doubt try a couple of bracketed shots at 0, +1 and +2 stops and check them against your histogram display to get a feel for how your particular camera performs.
Back to it!May 2, 2022 - 12:49
Don’t be ‘that guy’ – Unplugged Weddings
/in Photography, Recommendations, Videopicture lizard
So, you wanna be a photographer – Part 2
/in PhotographyThe pro vs. amateur issue has been covered many times, but recently Fotoseeds came up with an excellent graphic which does a great job of illustrating many of the assumptions and mistakes that aspiring photographers can make in their desire to become a professional.
Image © www.fotoseeds.com – Check out the site, it’s excellent!
So, you wanna be a photographer? – Part 1
/in PhotographyThese days it seems that just about anyone can go and buy an entry-level SLR and suddenly they think they’re a professional photographer. I’ve met loads, and seen many more posting their ‘work’ on Facebook etc, usually emblazoned with an ugly inch-high logo filling ⅓ of the photo with their made-up company name.
Well, there’s actually a bit more to it than simply sticking the camera on auto and adding the watermark later, yet sadly these faux-tographers are doing a lot of harm to the industry by lowering the value that clients put on a photographers work by undercharging for their poor quality photographs.
Credit doesn’t pay the bills..
/in ServicesObviously I’m always pleased when someone likes one of my photographs and wishes to use it on their website etc. For personal sites and non-commercial use all I ask is that someone is polite enough to ask first and to credit me properly with a link to this site. The important thing here though is personal use by a private individual on a non-commercial site.
This week I received another (all too frequent) email from a company who would like to use one of my images for promotional purposes. But they ‘can’t use the low-resolution web image so could they please have a high resolution copy?’. Part of that message said “of course we’ll credit you when we use it”.
Oh really, how very gracious of you!
I guess I’m supposed to be flattered and grateful that someone wishes to use my photo. It was after all a good photo that a large international company thinks is good enough to use for promotional purposes, whilst apparently placing a value of ‘nothing’ on it.
Maybe next time I go for a nice meal they’ll give it to me free if I promise to mention them on my blog, or perhaps I can get my car serviced free if I say how nice the mechanic is on Twitter?
Let’s be very clear: Getting credit for my work isn’t compensation. If I created the image the right to credit is automatic, it is not something that someone does for me as a favour.
Credit doesn’t pay bills. I spent thousands of pounds on my photographic equipment, insurance, training etc. And years learning how to use it. No amount of ‘credit’ will reimburse me for that investment, and it certainly won’t pay my electricity bill or council tax!
The work of an experienced photographer isn’t free. I don’t expect you to do your job for nothing, please don’t expect me to to mine for nothing either.
If you’re interested in licensing my images for use in any commercial context you will need to obtain a commercial use license. You can find more information about this on my sales and licensing page.
Alternative Bollywood…
/in Photo Shoots, PhotographyAnother little sneaky peak..
This morning I took a trip down to Cardiff to meet the lovely Simmie V. She’d wanted to shoot an ‘alternative Bollywood’ style.
I’ve not edited the set properly yet, but this was just a first teaser that I’ve uploaded to whet the appetite..
Alternative Bollywood – Simmie V
Work Experience Requests
/in News, TrainingRecently I’ve been getting a lot of requests from students asking about work experience with me.
I’m afraid in the majority of cases this really isn’t possible right now.
The key thing that prevents this is simply the fact that whilst I am a semi-professional photographer, that’s is only part of what I do, and therefore I don’t work to regular hours and can’t really predict what I’m going to be doing at any particular time. I don’t run a full time studio, I work from home or rent studios if I need one for a specific shoot (see my Flickr for recent examples). Most of my photographic income actually comes from teaching others which is mostly in the form of specific one-to-one training days and location workshops.
Strobe vs Constant Lighting Event
/in Events, Gear, ImagesHad an interesting day of networking, experimenting and generally nerding around with expensive lighting tech in Bristol yesterday with the multi-talented Dave Kai-Piper and the lovely Ms Chloe-Jasmine Whichello. The even was hosted by our good friend James Madelin of Enlight Photo, inventor of the amazing Orbis Ring Flash.
Dave Kai-Piper demonstrates the Westcott ICE Light
We spent most of the morning discussing the various merits of different types of lighting, from the obvious natural light opportunities, through small speedlights, portable strobes, constant lighting etc. Along the way we touched on some of the more recent innovations such as small daylight balanced video lights and some of the higher end solutions such as the amazing Westcott ICE Light. Here’s Dave demonstrating the Westcott ICE light to add a little daylight-balanced fill –>
Here’s an image I shot of the lovely Ms Whichello:
Chloe-Jasmine Whichello
Keeping it in the family
/in Photography, Testimonials, TrainingHad a cracking day out yesterday with a couple of lovely ladies, mum and daughter, Julia and Kate.
They’d both been given SLRs as presents from their respective hubbies, and thought it was about time they learned how to use them.
Whilst early on in the day we were a little restricted by the foggy weather we managed to cover a lot and by the end of the day both girls were taking some super shots.
Here’s a little quote from a mail I received from Julia earlier..
Thanks Julia!
In the paper this week
/in Events, NewsShooting in a winter wonderland
/in Photography, Tips & Techniques, TrainingWinter can provide some excellent new photo opportunities with the arrival of frosty mornings, snow and ice. A once-familiar landscape can take on an entirely different look overnight.
If you’re like me, you’re probably planning to venture out and shoot some photos but before you do, here are a few quick tips to help you make the most of the conditions.
Equipment:
In the UK we don’t generally get it so cold that a camera won’t function, but there are a couple of important considerations:
Firstly, when you head out into the cold you should allow your camera a few minutes to adjust to the colder temperature. If it’s been stored in a typical centrally heated house it’s likely to mist up and that’s not going to lead to nice shots!
You should also be aware that batteries won’t perform as well in the cold either, and it’s likely you’ll find them running out much quicker. What I usually do is to keep a spare in an inside pocket where it will stay warm. If you do find yourself caught out with a flat battery, it’s worth putting it in your pocket for a while as you’ll often find if it’s warmed up a bit you may get a few more shots out of it. Please don’t try and warm it up on a heater or anything though as that could well end up damaging the battery!
Exposure compensation:
When most of the scene is snow you’ll need to adjust your exposure by about 1-2 stops to ensure the snow appears pure white.
The main problem with snow is that its pure white and highly reflective which confuses the camera’s metering system. Modern cameras have highly sophisticated electronic metering systems that deliver excellent results for a scene with a normal range of contrast. They do this by averaging the range of tones in the image and adjusting until the brightness is mid-grey. This works well when the subject has a wide tonal range with everything from black to white being present, but when it is very bright such as snow the camera underexposes so that the white becomes grey.
This is the classic example where you need to override the camera’s metering and adjust the exposure using the exposure compensation control, or by manually adjusting your shutter speed or aperture in manual. You’ll usually find an adjustment of about 1.5 stops will be about right, but if in doubt try a couple of bracketed shots at 0, +1 and +2 stops and check them against your histogram display to get a feel for how your particular camera performs.