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Whether you're willing to admit it or not, and depending on where you live, winter is fast approaching! For those of us in the northern hemisphere, that means frost, icy mornings, and maybe even snow! All of these things have the ability to drastically change the look and feel of our surroundings, transforming the familiar landscapes around us into something magical.
In a minute we'll dive in to some wonderful winter photographs that will hopefully inspire you to get out into the cold and capture something of the essence of winter! First though, we'll look at a few simple tips to help you get the most out of your adventures in the cold…
Be Prepared and Stay Warm
When heading out into the extremes of weather with your camera, it doesn't hurt to be well prepared! Take gloves and hand warmers with you – you'll consistently need to take your hands out of your gloves and it can get progressively more difficult to get them warm again. You could consider picking up a pair of gloves with finger cut-outs. Will you look cool? Probably not. But you'll spend far less time taking gloves off and putting them back on again!
In addition it's worth considering whether you'll need a spare battery, as cold temperatures are liable to play havoc with your battery life. Keep your spare batteries next to something warm in your bag, a (well sealed!) flask of coffee, maybe?
Do You Need to Over-Expose?
One of the bigger problems you can face when shooting snow is the unusual level of brightness, and quantity of white in the scene. Your camera's light meter will struggle to understand the scene, and you'll be left with a dull, grey image. In order to combat this it's worth slightly overexposing your shots (try +1 or +2 stops).
We actually posted a relevant Quick Tip on this topic recently, entitled Quick Tip: Perfect Beach Exposures Every Time. You'd be surprised how much of the content in this article is equally relevant to snow!
No Snow?
You don't need snow for great winter shots! The inherent bleakness of a winter landscape and the inexplicable character of the winter sky can make for stunning photographs, while the incredible quality of light in the mornings combined with a frost can offer unique opportunities to capture your surroundings at their most enchanting.
Photo Inspiration
Lambert
John I. Andresen
Cindy Seigle
Trey Ratcliff
Paulo Brandão
Andrea Costa
Brent Danley
Trey Ratcliff
Juan Rubiano
Andreas Wonisch
Gregory Bastien
Laszlo Ilyes
Denis Collette
Christian Meichtry
James Jordan
Gregory Bastien
Ville Miettinen
8#X
Aaron Hockley
josef.stuefer
Jan Tik
Martin Sojka
Lambert
Fred
Werner Kunz
Stella
Tom Roche
Christina Rose Howker
Dietrich Bojko
Craig Hodgson
Trey Ratcliff
slack12
Aidan McManus
Simon Bray
Scott Duncan
Gregory Bastien
Julie Falk
Eugene La Pia
Tambako The Jaguar
Jamie Caffrey
Trey Ratcliff
Matt Blakemore
Ville Miettinen
Mario Lapid
John McCullough
Micky Zlimen
Yves
Eric
Trey Ratcliff
Bert Kaufmann
Joel Bankhead
Christian Meichtry
Scott Ingram
John Spooner
Lambert
Anders Young
Matthew
Sathish J
Mark Magnusson
Daniel Zedda
Further Reading
Here are a few links to really useful tutorials and articles that will teach you more about this type of photography:
- Cool Tips For Shooting In The Snow
- Fantastic Winter Shots
- Winter Photography, 8 Great Tips
- Winter Photography Tips
Share Your Own Images!
Hopefully these photos have inspired you to put your gloves on and get out into the cold to capture something of the essence of winter. The winter season can look vastly different depending on the landscape around and we'd love for you to bookmark this page and come back with a single shot that encapsulates winter where you live!
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