Photography in Snow conditions

[kjeal]

Hi Guys

I'm out snowboarding in a couple of weeks and with my Sony V1, I would like any recommendations on what appropriate settings I should be using.

As this is my first venture in photography in snow conditions, I am eager to get some good photos.

Am I on the right lines as below??:-
--Compensate for overexposure
--Use a polorising filter to eliminate reflection/glare
--Low ISO

However, what if i want to take some action shots? I'd like to take some really sharp and clear photographs of others doing snowboard stunts.

Any other help in do's-and-don'ts would be appreciated.

Kj

[VTphotog]

If it is sunny, you should have no problems, as shutter speed will be high, and aperture small. If it's cloudy and the light isn't good, use shutter priority and set to 1/250 or 1/500. You may then need to use a higher ISO, though.

brian

[E.T]

kjeal wrote:

However, what if i want to take some action shots? I'd like to take some really sharp and clear photographs of others doing snowboard stunts.

Where do live?
If you're living farther south then you should have any problems in getting fast enough shutter times.
Snow on the ground boosts light level very much.
Even in cloudier day if just sun is really above horizon.
(here sun barely rises above horizon and cloudy day is almost just long twilight)


I'm not sure about digicam batteries but cellphone Li-Ions almost die completely at subzero temperatures if battery gets cold.
Also NiMH AA's take much hit at lower temperatures. (although in cellphones NiMHs work much better in lower temperatures than Li-Ions)

[kjeal]

I'm off snowboarding in Andorra so it won't be as cold as Finland I think!

The high shutter speed is sometimes i need to play with when i'm out in the snow.

Will a UV filter or a polorising filter get a better clarity in a photo? or should i just just not use one?

[eric s]

You are right to worry about over exposure. The light will be reflecting off the snow so much it could throw off the exposure. Do some test pictures and look at the image on camera to make sure you're getting it right.

The polarizing filter could help but I don't have much experience there.

You probably won't need more shutter speed, which is one of the benefits of increasing ISO. So Ya, you'll probably want a low ISO.

Eric

[VTphotog]

Digital sensors are not very sensitive to UV, but a polarizer would be a good idea. Your problem with exposure will more likely be underexposed subjects due to the camera metering on the bright snow. Try taking some test shots and adjust expoxure compensation based on the results.

brian

[slipe]

For anything but spot metering on a person I would start with EV+1 – you might need more according to how much snow is in the shot. Experiment as has been suggested.

A polarizer will cut your shutter speeds to half or less. It does nothing in flat lighting and doesn't do much for snow even in the sun unless there is ice. It will improve your skies on a clear day.

The camera has a UV filter built in, but it might be good to use a UV to protect the lens. If it snows you will be constantly wiping the lens and I would rather do that to a filter in the field.

[E.T]

"Little" frozen tree.

1, 2, 3

So generally results should be quite good without any filters if you just don't take sun into photo and there isn't much shadow areas in it...
But it's just that photographer itself might need "filters" called sunglasses when sun is above horizon.


I haven't had polarizer previously but now I have it so I could try it... maybe couple months from now.
Currently it's mostly cloudy and if not... sun is just barely above horizon.


I think that camera propablyt uses way too strong contrast enhancement as default so turn it down... there's already big enough contrast/dynamic range in reality.

[mnosbor]

The problem I noticed is the images being blueish when I look pics on auto white balance on my fuji. I dont know how your camera will perform but most small camerasIve noticed will be blue. I was able to fix it with software but Ive tried to fix other peoplespics with software and it wouldnt touch it.

So its best to make sure to set it manually I dont understand why it makes it blue so if you dont have a specific choice for snow I dont know what you can set it to. Maybe someone knows what it would be. I dont think a UV filter would help the blue at least when I tried one on my fuji it didnt touch it at all.

[E.T]

I just checked polarizer and biggest difference was darker blue sky, it didn't have much effect to snow.
Maybe sun being low has some effect to that... put your hand to fist and keep arm straight, fist's angular diameter is how "high" sun is.
Also I think polarizer works well only for more even surfaces like glass or water.
And remember that polarizer gives biggest effect only at 90 degrees away from sun. Effect gets smaller the farther you move from that angle.


http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...larizers.shtml

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography...olarizers.html

http://www.photographic.com/phototechniques/404faculty/
Also, it's easy to overpolarize and get black skies that look unnatural, which can occur at higher altitudes.

http://www.weather-photography.com/t...l&page=filters

mnosbor wrote:

The problem I noticed is the images being blueish when I look pics on auto white balance on my fuji.

Actually cloudy snow shots often look little bluish/greyish... it looks little greyish even in reality.
Finetuning of white balance is good for correcting this.

I guess that's because snow on the ground changes how light is reflected from the ground compared to non-snow environment.