Tips for Taking Better Winter Pictures

Winter is coming soon, and with it comes the snow and ice that makes the outdoors look so beautiful. When you’re out skating, sledding, skiing, or snowshoeing, you’ll likely be tempted to take a few photos of the snow covered trees and surroundings. Unfortunately, all that beautiful white can really cause problems with your images. Snow and ice reflect light, which can make your pictures look overexposed. They can also throw off your white balance, as shadows and other darker areas often look blue. It is possible to get good winter photos, however, and you don’t need to have a photography degree to do so.

Get to Know the Best Light

Believe it or not, the best times of day to take photos outdoors in winter is early in the morning or fairly late in the day. This is because the rising and setting sun casts a warm glow above the blue tones of the snow, which not only helps to balance the photo, it provides some truly beautiful shots. If you do take pictures midday, be sure to adjust your exposure to compensate for the brighter light.

Use a Hood

Consider investing in a lens hood for taking winter photos. A hood will help to prevent the hazy, overexposed look that’s so common with snowy pics. At the same time, be sure avoid using a flash, as the light will get amplified even more by the snow, causing everything to get washed out.

Experiment with Shutter Speed

If it’s actually snowing at the time you take the pictures, try playing with your shutter speed a little. Slowing your speed down really far will create some interesting streaking effects with the flakes. Speeding it up with allow you to capture more of the texture of the flakes as they fall. Remember that wind will also play a role; the windier the day, the faster your shutter speed will need to be to capture the flakes as they go whipping by.

Dial up the Exposure

While you don’t want to wash out the highlights in your pictures, all that white snow really needs a higher exposure in order to see the detail in it. Try moving your exposure up to a +1 or +2 before you snap to get more out of your snowy scenes. This is especially important if you have a subject in front of the snow, otherwise your camera may not adjust between the two enough to give you a sharp shot.

Work in RAW

By shooting in RAW format, you give yourself the ability to adjust things better after your back at home. Now you can work on balancing those whites and bringing out the details that might have gotten overlooked outdoors.

Have Some Winter Fun

Taking winter photos is something that a lot of people enjoy. Utilize these tips to get more out of each shot and enjoy some winter fun.