Dawn at Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
The exposure compensation scale on your camera is one of the keys to mastering exposures, getting better images, and ending up with professional quality colors. This means taking your camera off of full auto mode and taking control of your own exposures.
It was my happy privilege to do winter portraits of Beth Presler who is a superb violinist. This article has suggestions for photographing any musician on a cold, snowy winter day.
Some of the winter travel items I carry in the trunk of my car. This is the “kitchen” and “furnace”.
I grew up in Colorado where strange weather can strand you in any month of the year. Even though it is rare, I’ve seen blizzards in the Colorado high country in July. So I learned to carry some safety essentials when doing winter photography in remote locations. You never know when you might be stranded for several hours, a whole day, or longer, until the blizzard abates and someone can come find you. This is what I carry in my car when I hit the road in the winter and pretty much any time I am going to be in the High Rockies. I include a few winter travel tips, too.
Bryce Canyon After An Overnight Snowstorm
Cold and snow can cause a lot of damage to your camera gear. Something as simple as shooting outside and taking your camera inside your house or car can cause hidden damage that won’t show up until days or weeks later. The simple steps in this article could save you hundreds of dollars in repair bills.
Last Light on Long’s Peak and the Keyboard of the Winds, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Thinking about a photography trip to one or more U.S. national parks this winter? You can benefit from the work I have done. Some national parks look better in the winter than others. You will want to make them a priority. After you read this article I recommend you also read the companion article: The Best National Parks to Photograph in Winter.
Bryce Canyon
Winter provides some wonderful photo opportunities in our national parks. But some national parks look much better in the winter than others. So if you haven’t gone into hibernation for the winter, here are the best national parks to go photograph this winter, grouped by state from the west to the east. There are a few bonus locations thrown in too. At the end I give you my “best of the best” list.
Selina, Downtown Columbus Ohio. Windchill 4°.
You would think a windchill of 4° Fahrenheit (-16°C) would be too cold for a photo shoot, but not with some models. Selina and I booked this January shoot weeks in advance so we knew it would be cold, but we had no idea how cold until the day arrived. Despite the frigid temperatures, Selina did no want to reschedule for later. When we created the image above the windchill was 4°. By the end of the shoot the windchill was 3°. Incidentally, this image made it into my photography book (page 217). Here’s the story behind this image and how to work with a model (or anybody else) when it is so cold.
Denali Sunrise from Reflection Pond
The Sunny f16 rule is really useful on bright sunny days in the spring, summer, and fall, but you can’t rely on it for accurate exposures on bright, snowy winter days. It will often lead you astray and you will have seriously blown out highlights. There are much more accurate ways to meter in the winter.
Cascade, Barry, and Coxe Glaciers, Prince William Sound, Alaska
The “snow exposure latitude” for every camera is different. You won’t find it in your camera’s manual but it is easy to determine with a do-it-yourself test. Why does it matter? If you don’t know the snow exposure latitude for your camera and how to apply it to your images, the color and quality of your winter photos will suffer.
Lyn Marie, Ohio. Windchill 8°F.
It is difficult enough to create a beautiful nude image under normal circumstances, much less in the cold and snow. You need to bring some significant skills and experience to the task. So does your model.
Twilight, Rocky Mountain National Park. Sirius, Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, the Hyades star cluster, and the Pleiades star cluster are all visible in the fading light. Click for a larger version.
You can photograph the night sky year around, but winter brings an added bonus: SNOW! When you don’t have the benefit of moonlight, most of the year land forms a dark to black silhouetted skyline against the night sky. In winter you have the possibility of including the highly reflective snow. You can see both in this photo. Any place not covered with snow is very dark to black. Having reflective snow is why winter is the favorite time of year for a lot of photographers to go out and photograph the night sky.
Snow Hummocks, Merced River
Just like metering daytime winter scenes, the key to metering evening winter scenes is knowing what to meter and deciding how much exposure compensation to use.
Cougar
Most wildlife are medium to dark in tone, making them a challenge to meter properly in the bright, white tones of winter. If you trust one of your camera’s automatic exposure modes, the odds are good you won’t get the best exposure. If you switch over to manual exposure and make the right decisions, you can get great exposures and better quality photos (more about that later).
Elk in the Snow, Horseshoe Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Metering dark toned wildlife in the snow is a major exposure challenge. It is usually best to avoid large “burned out” areas (washed out, featureless white) in a nature or landscape photograph, but with properly exposed snow, the wildlife can be so dark as to lose all texture. On other hand, metering for the wildlife can burn out the snow. So what do you do? And what about the complications of metering white animals?
The Temple, Independence Missouri
Jewel Box Lighting is a name given to photos taken in the evening when lighted buildings, monuments, bridges, and Christmas lights look so nice against the deepening sky colors. This article will show you how to do it with a digital camera. If you are using a film camera, read this article.
Jewel-Box Lighting.
Jewel Box Lighting can be very effective at Christmas. I was one my way home and spotted this house. The sky was just about perfect for Jewel-box lighting so I stopped in the street (after making sure no cars were coming), rolled down my car window, and grabbed quick photo with my iPhone.
Bruce Munro: Light. Franklin Park Conservatory
Jewel Box Lighting is the art of combining lights, lighted buildings, or lighted objects with a deep blue evening sky. It is a great way to do photography and the exhibit this week at the Franklin Park Observatory is a wonderful opportunity to practice this technique and come away with some unique and memorable images.
Helene Center for the Visual Arts, Graceland University.
“Jewel Box Lighting” is a technique for photographing lighted buildings, city lights, or Christmas lights in late evening light so it looks like night but there is some color left in the sky. For lighted buildings it works best if the exterior of the building is at least partially lit by flood lights. The technical challenge is to balance the lighting on the building with the deep blue of the sky.
Sunset Light on El Capitan
We spent most of the Christmas holiday in the Bay Area visiting family. When we left the Bay Area the morning of December 30, 1990, we decided to make a side trip to Yosemite before making the long drive home.
Kristin
Kristin wanted to know if we could squeeze in a photo shoot while she was home for the holidays. “Of course”, I said. December 29 was the day that worked for both of us. Despite the sunshine, the windchill was 26° during our shoot. We were texting Christmas greetings to each other today and I reminded her how cold it was for this photo shoot. She didn’t realize it was that cold. She was caught up in the shoot.
Welcome to my online buying guide for photographers. With over 80 articles it is one of the most comprehensive photography buyer’s guides on the web.
I get lots of photo questions, especially at this time of year, and many of them begin with “What is the best . . . .” They usually come from photographers or someone who is shopping for a photographer. If you are shopping for yourself, or for a photographer in your life, this series is for you.
My “best of the best” series recommends the best photo gear, accessories, software, books, DVDs, online photo labs, and a whole lot more. Thanks to the information in these articles I get emails from photographers thanking me for saving them time, frustration, and a lot of money.
This article is reposted annually in November with some updates in between. Reposted: November 30, 2024. Most recent update: December 19, 2024.
Jack Ergo, original file (left) and optimized version (right).
For a variety of reasons, cameras do not capture what your eyes are seeing when you click the shutter. One of the reasons is dynamic range. Your eyes see a remarkable range of tones from black to white in a wide variety of lighting conditions. Your camera has a much more limited dynamic range. That is one of the issues with this photo.
Kristina at Christmas
On Christmas eve I found myself doing Christmas portraits for Kristina’s portfolio. She is a friend of mine who is a model and actress in L.A. I had to improvise a bit with the lighting and I needed to get the right mix of flash and ambient light for the look I wanted.
Christmas Lights, Easton Shopping Center, Columbus, OH
‘Tis the season and there are a lot of Christmas lights out there to photograph. It is fun and easy, and with a few tricks up your sleeve there are creative things you can do. Many of these techniques can be used on other lights throughout the year, so this is a good time to practice your skills for photographing lights.
Graceland Concert Choir
Graceland University in Lamoni Iowa did two Christmas concerts. The first was a more formal concert in the Shaw Center auditorium with the Graceland Concert Choir and the Graceland Symphonic Band. Two nights later there was a more casual, laid back concert in the Shaw Center lobby with the Graceland Jazz Ensemble and Graceland Harmonium, a smaller vocal group. Cookies, hot chocolate, coffee, and water were served. The cookie stuffed crowd was invited to sing along with Harmonium on the Christmas carols. Click any of these images to see a larger version.
Living Art Studios Dance Recital
Every year, a highlight of the Christmas season in Lamoni Iowa is the dance recital put on by the students at Living Art Studios. They were again joined this year by the award winning Graceland Gadets. If you want to order prints go to the links below. Click any of these images to see a larger version.
High School Jazz Band.
The Lamoni Schools Christmas Concert featured the High School Jazz Band, the 6th Grade Band, the 7th and 8th Grade Band, and the High School Concert Band. If you want to order prints, go to the links below. Click any of these photos to see a larger version.
Canon SL3 camera body and Canon EFS 10-18mm, 18-55mm, and 55-250mm lenses.
Compared to my regular camera bag, this is my go anywhere, travel light, inexpensive, featherweight kit. The camera gear and the backpack weigh 4.8 pounds. In addition to the camera and three lenses, there is a spare battery, battery charger, and extra memory cards.
Some of my favorite nature photography books.
Want to be a better nature photographer? Read anything by John Shaw, Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe, Freeman Patterson, Tim Fitzharris, George Lepp, Larry West, Arthur Morris, Allen Rokach, John Netherton, Leonard Lee Rue III, Brenda Tharp, Tony Sweet, and the Stackpole (publisher) nature series. Now for some of the “best of the best” books to look for. These are my favorites out of hundreds of photography books in my library.
My two favorite introductions to landscape photography.
How to Photograph Landscapes by Joseph Lange and Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach are my favorite introductions to landscape photography.