Tips on photogrphing Arctic scenery / landscape in Svalbard/Spisbergen (Norway) areas

[Ranja Niyogi]

We are travelling to Longyearbyen in Svalbaad area of Norway and taking an "Around Spitsbergen" cruise in early July. I would be grateful to receive advices on how to ensure quality photographs of :

1) The Arctic landscapes / scenery , ie, water with ice caps against white snow mountains. I want particular guidance on how to retain the blues of the water without spoiling the whites of the ice / snow.


2) Whitish Polar Bears on white ice caps / floes and against white snow mountains.


3) There will on occasions be arctic flowers on the foreground with with white ice caps on blue waters in the middle and white snow mountains behind. How do I ensure that flowers are captured properly without washing out the ice caps and snow mountains or spoil the pictures of the flowers and the blue waters by getting only the whites of ice caps and snow mountains correct.

I will always be shooting in RAW mode.

Do I need any Poariser Filter or any other filter? I will also be carrying a Tipod.


I have a Canon 5D mark ii body and a Canon 50D body and a 17-85mm IS USM, a 24-105mm IS USM and a 100-400mm IS USM lens.


Shall be grateful to receive kind advices at an early date since I leave the country in the first week of June 2010

Thanx and regards

Ranjan K Niyogi

[fletch]

Check your histogram... a lot.

With all the white it will be very easy to blow the highlights which you don't want, however you need to ensure you don't underexpose as nobody likes grey snow.

[inkista]

Shoot in Manual. The AE system, without biasing, is going to underexpose from all that extra light coming into the metering. +1EV to start with and see where it goes from there. Also, get a Whibal (well, if you like that kind of thing). Shoot RAW. And maybe learn HDR post-processing techniques.

Actually, my biggest concern would be care and feeding of your batteries and LCD screens in a colder climate; battery efficiency is going to drop with the cold, and freezing an LCD pretty much destroys it. And weather-protecting the 50D and 5DMkII--there were a lot of reports of failures with the 5DMkII when it first came out and a bunch of Luminous Landscape boarders went to Antarctica with them and experienced a 25% failure rate. They're not 1-series cameras--they don't have the same level of weathersealing.

[phily]

[QUOTE=Ranja Niyogi;984405]We are travelling to Longyearbyen in Svalbaad area of Norway and taking an "Around Spitsbergen" cruise in early July. I would be grateful to receive advices on how to ensure quality photographs of :

1) The Arctic landscapes / scenery , ie, water with ice caps against white snow mountains. I want particular guidance on how to retain the blues of the water without spoiling the whites of the ice / snow.


I am also doing a cruise around Spitsbergen in July, starting on the 21st. I've previously had awful experience of mountain landscapes where the brightness levels between sky, snow and foreground are extemes. It's called HDR, High Dynamic Range. I discovered the solution, and it is not polarising filters.

Take bracketed exposures with at least 2/3 stop between, or even 1 stop, in quick succession. Use a tripod where possible, or at least hold the camera as still as possible, and ensure that there is minimal movement of people or animals in the view. You then use some software to merge the best parts of each photo. I use Photomatix Pro from hdrsoft.com, and it's pretty easy to use. I believe that the latest Photoshop also will process HDR but haven't tried it.

Enjoy your trip.

Phil Young
Sydney NSW